Martinsville High School is tackling teenage pregnancy head on this school year following the city's long history of high teenage pregnancy rates.
This fall, the school district partnered with the Virginia Department of Health to make sure if high schoolers aren't going to practice abstinence, that they get more than just a text book lesson.
It's a story almost any teen mother will tell you.
"My baby wasn't planned. I won't lie about it, " says Sanie Bela, a student at Martinsville High School.
But at just 18-years-old, Bela is five months pregnant.
"Most teenagers these days just don't want to be an old parent," says Bela.
It's a story all too familiar in Martinsville where teen pregnancy rates have caused a stir. Last year four percent of the girls at Martinsville High School were pregnant.
"You cannot pretend that it's not happening," says Beth Holyfield, a nurse who runs the teen clinic five days a week during the school year.
"You have to be there to support these students and offer them the help they need," Holyfield adds.
Recently, the help they need has come in the form of an in-school clinic designed to reach out to sexually active students.
Holyfield views the clinic part of the solution. At the clinic the focus is on trying to keep teenage girls from becoming teenage mothers. She hands out condoms and birth control; however, girls who are already pregnant are able to get regular checkups many otherwise don't have insurance to afford.
In a school with roughly 390 female students, last year 16 girls were pregnant. This year so far the number is nine. (The student population at Martinsville High School is about 785). Of those students, Holyfield has logged about 12 hundred visits from students since the start of the school year.
"I believe it's working. Just the response," says Holyfield.
And, Bela who will soon be a mom believes it's working too. Had the clinic been around last school year, the 18-year-old student would like to think she wouldn't be pregnant now.
"(I'd wait until) probably after I have a house, a good job, (I'm) out of school, (have) a lot of money, a car. Then I'd want this again," says Bela.
The clinic is in an isolated part of Martinsville High School where anonymity is a key for students coming to get contraceptives. Right now Holyfield says about 39 students that she's worked with are on contraceptives.
When asked what the high teen pregnancy rate can be attributed to, many in the Martinsville community point to the sluggish economy and boredom.
