Fallen girls? Plumpton High and the ‘problem’ of teenage pregnancy

Abstract

In 1994, an education program for pregnant teenagers and mothers was introduced at Plumpton High School in Sydney's western suburbs, an area associated with various social problems, including teenage pregnancy, youth unemployment and low secondary education retention rates. The initiative prompted widespread media coverage, with a particular focus on the role of the Plumpton High's Principal Glenn Sargeant as the ‘Patriarch’ of the school and in particular of the teenage mothers. In 2003, the screening of an ABC documentary series on Plumpton High, Plumpton High Babies, renewed and amplified interest in the program and the ‘problem’ of teenage pregnancy more generally. In this article, I use the example of Plumpton High to trace the construction and representation of teenage pregnancy as a social problem in Australia from the 1970s. I also suggest that while the media emphasis on Principal Sargeant reinforced the ‘fallen girls’ archetype, the experiences captured by the documentary also offered alternative perspectives on the lives of ‘Girl-Mothers’.