Where was the show High School moms filmed?

Teen pregnancy rates may be at a historic low, but don’t tell the TV producers churning out reality shows for cable.

There’s a world of raw emotion, messy family interactions and financial straits to chronicle in the lives of teenage mothers.

The naive girls belatedly learning about birth control and confessing the difficulties of mommyhood directly to the camera do make for compelling television, even if the underlying theme is voyeuristic titillation.

“16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Moms” on MTV have been money-makers for years. Now TLC wants a piece of the action.

And Denver’s Florence Crittenton High School — which enrolls only teen mothers and mothers-to-be — co-stars in a new series beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. on TLC. “High School Moms” launches with personal stories of unintended pregnancies, the challenges facing uneducated young mothers, and the occasional heart-warming success story.

Considering this is the network that specializes in creepy oddities — “Hoarding: Buried Alive,” “19 Kids and Counting,” “My 600 lb. Life” and too many more — “High School Moms” is relatively straightforward. The tales are involving without being sensational.

“The school is almost a character itself,” according to Wendy Douglas, senior director in production at TLC and an executive producer of “High School Moms.” She hopes this show offers a broader perspective on the girls’ lives than the competition.

It’s a step up from the usual TLC freak show programming.

“I do think (‘High School Moms’) is definitely within the TLC brand.” She calls it “real reality.”

Douglas, who tends to speak of the young women in the series as “characters,” noted that all are age 14-18 and ongoing across the six episodes. She doesn’t think the chance to be on TV glamorizes the situation.

“Their stories are so compelling. Sure, they are on TV, but they tell you being pregnant and being on TV is not an easy thing. They are dealing with hormones, problems with boyfriends, school, a lot of them have challenges at home. They do show it’s beautiful having a baby, but they show it is not glamorous. One character shows her stretch marks.”

The best evidence that Florence Crittenton knows its business comes from the school nurse, who explains on camera that she loves talking about her job. When judgmental snobs tsk-tsk about teen moms, she tells them that she, too, is a Crittenton graduate.

Singleton enrolled at “Flo Crit” in the fall of 1993 and graduated in spring 1996. Her daughter Jade is now 18, a May graduate of Denver’s East High School who will be attending Fort Hays State University in Kansas this fall. Jade is majoring in nursing.

Talk about a role model.

But the difficulties sometimes seem insurmountable, and that’s when the cameras zoom in for action.

“Being a mom and kinda sorta not having my mom is difficult because I can’t ask her for advice or get any help,” says Londisha, a tiny problem child herself, smiling through braces.

She was so scared and nervous, she says, “I did 14 pregnancy tests before I told anybody. Even at six months pregnant, I did a test. I didn’t want to be pregnant.”

In some cases, the baby’s dad is in jail or otherwise unreliable.

Meanwhile, former principal Ricardo Leblanc-Esparza is shown exercising saintly patience. As principal at the time of filming, Leblanc-Esparza oversaw 120 girls, 40 of them pregnant, the rest already moms. He is almost fatherly, even as he threatens expulsion.

But it’s the girls who are most moving. Londisha, 16, says, “I never expected to be pregnant at 14, having a baby at 15.” She was kicked out of her mother’s house. “Mom dropped me off with a suitcase and a baby.”

The school offers day care services on a sliding scale. Teachers understand the challenges; one laughs off the idea that girls fall asleep in class because babies keep them up all night.

Last spring’s prom at Flo Crit offered a chance for the girls to enjoy some “normalcy” in their otherwise exceptional lives; the race for prom queen provides a rich reality-TV moment for the cameras. How much did the idea have to do with the cameras’ presence? Is it exploitation? Is it just reality? Questions linger after the hour is over.

Florence Crittenton is worthy of national notice. The school offers the usual courses required to meet the city’s public high school graduation requirements, plus electives like labor and delivery classes, infant care and more. The goal is to break the cycles of teen motherhood and high school dropouts.

“High School Moms” deserves to be seen as a cautionary tale, also as a story of how some young mothers do manage to overcome a mistake. The question is, will the abundance of TV shows about teen moms ultimately serve to raise or lower the teen pregnancy rate?

Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, or twitter.com/ostrowdp

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