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Reports: Teen girls made pact to get pregnant
Published Friday, June 20, 2008
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A pact made by a group of teens to get pregnant and raise their babies together is at least partly behind a sudden spike in pregnancies at Gloucester High School, school officials said.
Principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday that the girls confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating a rise in pregnancies that has left 17 girls at the school carrying a child. Normally, there are about four pregnancies a year at the school.
Sullivan told Time that nearly half of the expecting students, none over 16, were involved. Sullivan said students were coming to the school clinic multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and "seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were."
Some of the girls reacted to the news they were pregnant with high fives and plans for baby showers, Sullivan said. One of the fathers "is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan told the magazine.
Superintendent Christopher Farmer confirmed the deal to WBZ-TV, saying the girls had "an agreement to get pregnant."
He said the girls are generally "girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their life."
Mayor Carolyn Kirk told The Associated Press on Friday that many factors are involved in the surge in pregnancies in her community, a hardscrabble fishing village which has fallen on tough economic times and cut teachers and services, including some health classes.
"I don't think there was a pact in the order of a dozen girls conspiring to get pregnant. That would really surprise me, and I have seen no evidence of it," she said.
Christen Callahan, a former Gloucester High School student who had a child when she was 15, said on NBC's "Today" show that some of the girls would ask her about her own pregnancy.
"They would say stuff like, oh, I think my parents would be fine with it and they would help me, stuff like that," Callahan said.
But she said she had no firsthand knowledge of a pact between the girls to get pregnant.
"They were just kind of like curious about it, they never actually came out and said it," Callahan said.
The first reports of the students' apparent plan to get pregnant were in the Gloucester Daily Times in March, when Sullivan said students were reporting that the girls were getting pregnant on purpose.
The rash of pregnancies has shaken the seaside city about 30 miles north of Boston. Last month, two officials at the high school health center resigned to protest the resistance from the local hospital to the confidential distribution of contraceptives. The hospital administers the state money that funds the clinic.
Comments
Posted by Perro (anonymous) on June 20, 2008 at 9:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
WHere are the @#$% parents?! I know many parents who know they teenage daughters and children are having sex and openly approve of thier unwed lovers commiting their act right at the house. Then they wonder why at 35 they are grandparents struggling with a bunch of rug rats while the inmature parents are out partying.
Posted by NtzMom55 (anonymous) on June 21, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow, around here they don't even have to make a pact to get pregnant. They 'Just Do It'. Then the tax payers get to foot the bills to birth and raise.
Posted by oldschool (anonymous) on June 21, 2008 at 8:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
AMEN NtzMom!!!! Most girls think that is their ticket to FREE MONEY! Child support, Food stamps, Gov Housing, it never ends. WE need to CRACK down on this.. HEL_ they make more money than I do and I work 2 jobs. And they still have their freedom to PARTY, SEX all day, ride the roads, have all anme brand clothes, drive new cars, ETC. When is this cycle going to end, When is GOVERNMENT going to say ENOUGH? I feel as if the people that are doing the right thing never get ahead and and are always paying bills, Never have the time to enjoy their life and the freedom. By the time we retire I feel there is nothing going to be left and those who did not work will still have have better insurance with MEDICAID and Medicare cause you know they still get a check then. When will the CYCLE END???
Posted by itsjustme (anonymous) on June 21, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is so sad. These girls just don't know what they are getting themselves into. Of course now days the parents end up raising them and the girls just keep doing the same thing, like having more babies. If girls would have to spend a couple of week-ends tending to a newborn baby (under strict supervision) maybe this would make them see this is not so easy or fun.
Posted by Teach4Peace (anonymous) on June 21, 2008 at 9:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Although these girls were in school, probably NOT on crack, they still have made a very foolish and off-hand decision, pact or no pact. They have just increased their chances to be recipients of the wel-fare system. I even heard on FoxNews one is pregnant by a homeless guy! Where were/are their parents? I really wish kids understood the long term consequences to some of these very foolish decisions they are making, quoting they wanted something to love them unconditionally, how sad. They have not one time thought of the diapers, the milf, food, clothes, meds, etc. It's okay, I am sure their state will be taking care of them. So sad.
Posted by kpage (anonymous) on June 22, 2008 at 10:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is so sad. They just wanted to get attention and have someone love them unconditionally. Isn't that what their parents are supposed to be doing? Tsk, tsk. What's this world coming to?
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