`BABY THINK IT OVER': DOLL MAKES STUDENTS THINK ABOUT SEXUAL ABSTINENCE

Opal Aden, a ninth-grade family and consumer sciences teacher at Hawkins Junior High School, presented Lisa Picou, 14, with a newborn baby that operates on four AA batteries. Picou cared for the baby for 24 hours to understand the duties of parenthood.

The educational aid "Baby Think it Over" is a tool teachers use to give students another reason to practice abstinence.

The doll is a wonderful dose of reality of what it is like to have children.

Dr. Khonda Andrews purchased a doll for Opal Aden's class at Jackson Junior High School.

The doll can be programmed to be cranky or calm. The challenge for students who take home the doll is to see how well they take care of the doll.

The doll has a computer that tracks how it was treated. The computer is locked inside the doll so that no tampering is possible.

The simulated baby cries and weighs about the same as a 2- to 3-month-old baby.

When the doll cries the student has to feed it with a special tool that fits in the doll's mouth. This simulates feeding and will usually calm the doll.

One of Aden's students, Lisa Picou, took the doll home for one night last week.

Aden set the doll on cranky. And Picou set out to take care of the doll overnight.

She took the doll with her everywhere she went. To Blockbuster and to the grocery, Picou went with her mother, Gail Zweigart.

All the while, Picou received strange looks from people as she held the fake baby.

Picou gave the baby to her mother to babysit for 20 minutes at the tanning salon because the tanning bed was no safe place for a baby.

When they got home, Picou said she watched TV with the doll and everything was fine.

During the night, however, the baby got cranky. Picou recorded the times the doll cried and the times she got up to feed the doll.

The doll first cried at 11:30 p.m., then again at 1 a.m. and again at 3 a.m. It cried again at 4 a.m. and one last time at 5:30 a.m.

Her whole family was disturbed by the doll's loud wails throughout the night. Picou didn't get any sleep. She said that every time the doll cried it took 30 minutes to calm it down.

"I don't want to take this home again," she said.

Her stepfather, Gary Zweigart, didn't like the doll. Picou's little brother, Adam Zweigart, thought the doll was cute.

"I learned how hard it is to take care of a baby. I learned I don't want to have any," Picou added

Aden said that Picou did a pretty good job taking care of the baby. The computer readout showed that the baby only cried a total of 10 minutes and there was no abuse or neglect recorded.

"She was very willing to give it up," Aden said.

The doll has lights inside a computer and battery pack in the back of the doll that tell the teacher of any abuse or neglect.

They also show if it was fed on time and how many times the doll cried.

Aden programs the doll differently for students. The three settings are easy, normal and cranky.

Aden said that the doll has given some of her students and their families rough times, but the lesson learned by taking the doll home for an evening is a valuable one.

The doll, besides being a good simulation of the responsibilities that go along with having a baby, is also a reminder to the teen-agers of what could happen should they decide to become sexually active.

Aden said the doll is also a good way to start discussion between teens and adults about the responsibilities of parenthood.