Mississippi’s high teen pregnancy rates are no surprise to local leaders. Part of the Jones County Economic Development Authority’s network of committees in setting the future path of the community, a group of people are working to help lower teen pregnancy rates in Jones County.

Beat 5 Supervisor Jerome Wyatt is a member of that committee. He said the group is working to gather statistics on local teen pregnancy rates, how often they occur, and why they occur. Wyatt also said the group is working on methods of educating the public about the problem of teen pregnancy. He said the mentality of helping a teen mother instead of helping her avoid becoming pregnant can be compared to jailing criminals instead of offering them an education.

“We raise Hell about the cost (of fighting teen pregnancy),” Wyatt said. “We build jails instead of building schools. We’ve got to convince people it is a good thing to invest on the front end.”

Wyatt said the committee has learned that many teen pregnancies are repeat events, creating more of a problem.

“Now this teen mother has two young children,” he said. “Should we invest more on the front in? It costs more to fix it than prevent it.”

Wyatt said the committee meets in February.