The first big city to aggressively promote the use of Norplant was Baltimore. Baltimore targeted teenagers because the birthrate was three times higher than other states. In Baltimore, about ten percent of girls between ages 15 and 17 gave birth during 1990. Young mothers would often drop out of school and struggle to raise the child in poverty. The mayor at the time, Kurt Schmoke, pushed for laws that would give teen girls more access to Norplant. Norplant was eventually given to teen girls at schools without parental consent. Programs were designed for, and performed in, predominantly black schools. Laurence G. Paquin Middle School became the first school to provide Norplant to their students. Paquin Middle School had 355 female students but only 5 of them were not black. Their program started off as a pilot program and soon other urban high schools like San Fernando High School in Los Angeles and Crane High School in Chicago's West Side adopted the program of providing Norplant to their students. Because of a focus on predominantly black schools, questions of racism arose among black community leaders.