This article is part of a series of profiles of 2024 graduating seniors in Salem high schools.
As she lay unconscious in a hospital bed, Janetzy Velasco saw her dead father holding out his hand to her.
Velasco, then 17, knew she wasn’t ready to go with him.
“I was like, ‘Uh-uh,’” the high school senior recalled. She wanted to meet her daughter.
Velasco had a seizure during labor after developing eclampsia, a life-threatening pregnancy complication. It was the culmination of a difficult pregnancy that made it hard for her to attend school.
But Velasco, 18, is graduating from Roberts High School this week, completing her diploma in four years despite being behind on credits when she got pregnant. It’s a rarity among students in the Salem-Keizer School District’s Teen Parent Program, who often take an extra year to graduate because of the time needed to raise a baby while navigating school.
It’s one reason she’s earned the moniker “Captain Kick-Ass” from Carrie Litchfield, one of the teachers in the program.
“She steps up and the other moms are better off with her,” said English teacher Ranada Young.
Velasco began high school at McKay during Covid and said she rarely attended class. Her mother had trouble finding regular childcare, so she was often responsible for her younger siblings.
She found out she was pregnant the spring of her sophomore year and transferred to the teen parent program, housed with the district’s other alternative high school programs on the Chemeketa Community College campus.
She had just three or four credits — half what she should have earned during her freshman year.
Velasco credits her boyfriend’s family, who she calls her in-laws, with helping her graduate. She moved in with them during her pregnancy and said they encouraged her to attend school, and later helped with her daughter so she could focus on classes.
His father became her father figure, Velasco said. She lost her dad when she was 6.
She developed preeclampsia about halfway through pregnancy, with feet so swollen she couldn’t wear Birkenstocks.
Litchfield was concerned and pushed medical providers to see Velasco as her condition grew more serious.
“Litch was really scared for me,” Velasco said. She tried to attend classes but often had to rest. Her teachers sometimes sent her home to lay down.
“The bigger I got the less I would come,” she said.
She was induced at 36 weeks pregnant, just after her 17th birthday. Her mom and her boyfriend were in the delivery room with her, but barely understood what was happening. Her mother speaks Spanish, and her boyfriend struggled to translate because he was so distraught worrying about her, she said.
Velasco woke up about six hours after her seizure and immediately asked to see her baby.
“I just started crying,” she said. She wasn’t allowed to hold the girl, who she named Korayma, and couldn’t eat or drink.
Despite the difficult delivery, Velasco went back to attending classes online when Korayma was three months old. She returned to the school building three months after that, leaving class as needed to breastfeed.
At 19 months, Korayma is now a favorite among the staff at the teen parent program. She loves to carry around dolls and has an expressive face that often conveys attitude to the adults around her.
“Her dancing is the best,” Velasco said.
“She’s got so much personality. You know everything that kid is thinking,” Litchfield said.
Velasco plans to study to become a pharmacy technician at Chemeketa, and possibly study phlebotomy in the future.
“I’m so happy. I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Velasco said.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
