VANCOUVER - Birth and education records from Bountiful, B.C., show the polygamous commune has high teen pregnancy rates and few high school grads.
A landmark case examining Canada's anti-polygamy law has heard contradictory accounts from academics, former residents and plural wives about life in the community, but a series of provincial government statistics have also been filed with the court.
An affidavit filed by the province's Vital Statistics Agency show more than 10 per cent of births since 1986 were to teenage mothers, compared with just under three per cent for the entire province, and about half of Bountiful's mothers were born outside of Canada.
Another affidavit examines high school graduation rates, and indicates very few students in Bountiful attain an official high school diploma -- primarily because the community's school isn't certified to offer them.
Bountiful Elementary Secondary School, one of two schools in the community, applied for diploma-granted status in 2007 but was denied.
Since 1991, just 13 students who have attended the school have ever obtained an official high school diploma, and since 2003, only 11 have ever been enrolled in the Bountiful school's unofficial Grade 12 program.
