VIDALIA, La. – For more than a decade, students in Sharon Patrick’s parenting classes at Vidalia High have each been assigned &uot;babies&uot; to care for — first eggs, then sacks of flour and, for the last seven years, lifelike baby dolls.

Amazingly lifelike. When Patrick asked student Nigel Guillot to tip his &uot;baby’s&uot; head back so visitors can hear how loudly it cries, the doll wailed. His fellow students instantly cringed, because most already had endured a weekend taking care of just such a doll.

&uot;Finally, I cried,&uot; said junior Jana Dees, 16, shaking her head while describing a night when, for 20 minutes nothing she did — feeding the baby, changing its diaper, rocking it — would stop it from crying. &uot;I just didn’t think it would cry that much.&uot;

The point is to teach students the skills involving in caring for an infant and, perhaps more important, to bring home the consequences having a child too early could have on their lives. The last lesson is especially important, Patrick said, because the parish’s teen birth rate is traditionally high. In 1995, the latest year for which figures are available, Concordia Parish had the state’s highest rate — 104 births per 1,000 teenage girls.

&uot;It teaches them what it’s like to be responsible for the 24-hour care of something other than themselves,&uot;&160;Patrick said.

&uot;About three or four days of that, and they’re worn out. Good thing they only have them for a few days,&uot; said Principal Rick Brown, referring to the &uot;Baby, Think It Over&uot; program.

But whether students choose to care for the doll alone or with a &uot;spouse,&uot;&160;sharing a grade with a fellow student, much responsibility is packed into those few days.

When a doll cries — including several times in the middle of the night — one of several things can get it to stop and, as in the case of a real baby, it is up to the &uot;parent&uot; to figure out what it needs. The dolls must be &uot;fed&uot; and their diapers must be changed regularly. A doll not held for long periods of time or mishandled will wail.

And sometimes, the only thing that will do the trick is rocking the doll until it stops wailing.

&uot;One time, I&160;had to rock it so hard it looked that I&160;was abusing it or something,&uot; said sophomore Amanda Heathcoat, 17. &uot;I baby-sit kids all the time. But this is worse than real.&uot;

Perhaps the teens’ hardest lesson of all was that, with &uot;babies&uot; in tow, they could not do all things they wanted to during the weekend.

After all, they are only allowed to get Patrick to babysit during their other classes or, in the case of football players, during football games, or find another babysitter if they have to work.

&uot;I can babysit for them during school, but if they’re late getting them from me, they have to ‘pay’ extra by doing extra reports for class,&uot;&160;Patrick said.

Even after he found a fellow student to babysit his doll, junior Tony Bass, 16, was 30 minutes late for his part-time job. &uot;I couldn’t go to the balloon race, either,&uot;&160;he said.

&uot;I couldn’t go the Battle of the Bands,&uot;&160;said sophomore Shikerra Green, 15. &uot;You can’t do anything.&uot;

Heathcoat did manage to care for her &uot;baby&uot; and her real-life infant cousin while attending Swampstock, an annual country music concert in Rayville, with family. &uot;That … was too much,&uot;&160;she now admits.

And they can’t give the dolls over to their parents, either.

Early in the fall semester at a meeting called &uot;Grandparents’ Night,&uot;&160;parents of the 127 parenting, family and consumer science, and adult responsibility class students are told never to help their children care for the dolls.

&uot;It’s totally the students’ responsibility,&uot;&160;Patrick said.

Even when the students have to go out on errands, the &uot;babies&uot; must go along with them, strapped into car seats their parents borrow from another source.

&uot;Then I&160;had to go to Wal-Mart, and I&160;put her in one of the baskets that has the seat built into it,&uot; said sophomore Carly Helmes, 15. She added that she had to soon change her doll’s diaper — with nowhere else to do it but in the grass next to the store.

But the responsibility does not stop there. The students also have to borrow clothes for the dolls and type up &uot;birth certificates.&uot;

And Patrick gives each &uot;baby&uot;&160;a common medical condition, such as an ear infection, that students research using parenting magazines, books and the Internet.

Equipped with lifelike sounds and movement, and including all the worksheets and other accessories that come with them, each &uot;baby&uot; costs about $500, which is covered by grants.

That is money well spent, according to school officials. &uot;It gives them the idea that they don’t want to have a real baby any time soon,&uot; Brown said.

&uot;I definitely want to have kids,&uot; Helmes said enthusiastically. &uot;Just not now.&uot;