According to Superintended Trevor Greene, there are a number of ways to describe 17 year-old Gabby Rodriguez, and her "fake it" social experiment. With the approval of both the superintendent and school principal, and the support of her mother, Gabby posed as an expecting mother for six straight months. She pretended to be pregnant to experience "what it would be like", and how she would be treated. The results were not at all pleasant. Like many pregnant teens, she dealt with the alienation that came with being young and pregnant; surfacing rumors, gossip and mal-judgments about both her identity and character.
But Gabby wanted to understand stereotypes and how they affect young women of her generation. It was pure research. After six months of carrying a fake belly, it was time to fill in the entire student body. At a school assembly, she confronted everything and everyone, revealing that "for months some students left her feeling alone and ashamed".
According to Gaby, everybody was shocked. Speechless-to say the least. They cried. They reflected.
I ,for one, cannot imagine how a 17 year old would come up with such a bold idea for an experiment. Not to mention the "cajones" she had to withstand 6 months of feeling alone and misjudged. Have you ever had the "cajones" to deal with something similar to Gabby? Or are you honest enough to admit that you were part of the lynching mob that alienated Gaby for her "indiscretion"? And what is it about teenage pregnancy that pushes people to point fingers instead of lending a hand?
When working with any at-risk populations, similar questions arise. Outside our 9-5 world, there are people with real problems who need real options and solutions. Without them, all they know is how to get by.
Thanks so much for sharing this with us, Mr. Jones. I wonder if you could tell us your original source of information for this article? Also, would you mind sharing with us what kinds of questions you were thinking about that parallel between Gabby Rodriguez's experience and the work Forward Step does with real people from at-risk backgrounds that need real options to help them move forward instead of just getting by (and potentially getting stuck in a downward spiral), instead of moving up and out of risk?
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