1. A Young Mother Defies Negative Perceptions
High schooler Jontrice Williams has been called an inspiration for
teen moms
The first thing you notice about seventeen-year-old Jontrice Williams is her smile. Pretty,
petite and soft-spoken, the Gibbs High School junior is one of those students that teachers
call “a joy to work with,” a dedicated and positive influence in the classroom. Recently,
Williams was invited to join the National Honor Society, a fact that quickly brings that
smile to her face when mentioned. Beyond this, to know Williams is to know an
exception. Besides wearing the roles of daughter and student, Williams is also a mother.
Williams days are filled with school and work, concerns about daycare and parenting
classes and diaper changes – she doesn’t have a car and relies on the support of her
family and friends to do what she needs to. The football games and school clubs and
other extracurricular activities are no longer a priority for her – with no regrets. For
Williams, her baby is the center of her life.
Jaiylan Sir Anthony Wyan was born at 10:45 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2003 in Bayfront Hospital,
after only three hours of labor. Jaiylan looks like his father, everyone says, but he has
Williams’ nose and smile. Mother and baby nuzzle together, with Jaiylan lighting up with
his own giggly smile. Williams’ mother, Teresa Robinson, a single-parent, looks on as
they sit in their south St. Petersburg home. Despite the circumstances, this is a family that
loves each other with a remarkable and enviable strength.
Williams was able to maintain her grades throughout her pregnancy, missing only one
day of school throughout her term, as well as working 30 hours a week at a local Kash N’
Karry. To see Williams is to see a young mother who defies the oft-negative teen mother
stereotype.
Williams, a St. Petersburg native, has always been an A/B student. She professes that
math is her favorite subject; she sees herself becoming a doctor later on in life, possibly a
pediatrician. She hopes to attend Florida State University in Tallahassee, she says.
To this, her mother replies: “I want her to really experience a little traveling, visit other
places…not to get stuck in St. Pete.” Like any mother, she wants the best for her
daughter.
Williams can now truly understand that type of bond. For her, having an abortion was
never an option. She says that when she realized her situation, she felt “fifty percent
scared and fifty percent happy.” She recalls mainly being afraid of her mother’s reaction
to the news.
For a while, she was able to hide her pregnancy from her family. She was six-months
along before she told her mother, who works as a receptionist at The Weekly Challenger.

2. “I was mad,” Robinson remembers. A mother of four, she had her first child around the
same age as well. It was through the support of friends, family, and prayer that her
perception about her daughter’s pregnancy changed. Robinson soon began to encourage
her daughter to stay positive, making sure that school and her job were her priorities.
During the pregnancy, Williams enrolled in Gibbs High’s teen parent program. The
program is sponsored by the Pinellas County School system, designed to help young
mothers develop parenting skills, serving as a peer support group as well. The program is
available, through parent permission, both before and after pregnancy. It’s a class that
both Williams and her mother feel has been beneficial over the last few months,
especially because of the daycare service referrals that the program provides.
The class’s instructor, Margie Senior, has been with the County’s teen parent program for
over 18 years. She has nothing but compliments to give about Williams, remarking:
“Jontrice carries a very pleasant attitude and she is very respectful. She is just a joy to
have in class…such an inspiration for other teen parents.”
“She’s an outstanding student,” a really wonderful example of someone who has it
together,” agrees Jennifer Carter, William’s social worker for the teen parent program.
Carter has found the young mother to be a positive role model for the other young women
in the class as well. She credits William’s own mother for this, saying that her family
support is key.
Baby Jaiylan’s father, Sir Anthony Wyan, is also a teenager, a student at Lakewood High
School.
No matter the circumstances, Williams is determined to do what she needs to in order to
provide for Jaiylan. Tonight’s National Honor Society ceremony at Gibbs will be a
reminder for her of what she can achieve. In becoming a mother, she’s realized newfound
strengths, she says. For her, at the center of it all is baby Jaiylan.