Teen Pregnancy Pact Resulted in 17 Girls Pregnant at Gloucester High School
Friday June 20, 2008
What is going on at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts with the teenage pregnancy pact? And why is this more serious than just teens wanting to become mothers?
How do statutory rape and Romeo and Juliet laws factor into this? And what about the idea of schools providing (or refusing to provide) contraception - did this play a part?
The ramifications of this situation extend far beyond the seventeen girls who are currently pregnant. And the fact that none of them are older than 16 is of tremendous significance. A town is reeling, but there's a larger message for all of us.
Read the full story:
Teenage Pregnancy Pact - Teens Choose to Become Pregnant
Comments
One would hope that the authorities would think before acting and leveling statutory charges in any of these cases… If the facts of the story bear out, and the conception of this pact originated with the girls (especially in the in light of a homeless guy – did she get extra points for ingenuity ala Death Race 2000)… then logic should prevail somewhere before labeling the girls as victims and their partners as perps.
God bless the right to choose. Unfortunately, no one seems to be teaching responsibility along with freedom like speech and self-determination.
This is a really sad situation that I think is about more than the school not providing contraceptives (that wouldn’t have helped the girls who were actively trying to get pregnant).
It’s about the economic troubles in working-class towns where jobs have dried up (Gloucester used to be all about fishing but there are many fewer jobs than there used to be) and kids just don’t know what to do.
And given that the school supports teen pregnancy by providing free day care for students’ children probably gave these girls the impression that having a baby wouldn’t change much about their current lives; they’d still be able to go to school and (they probably assumed) their parents would help them take care of the child the rest of the time.
And I so hate to blame pop culture for things, but Juno sure did look cute pregnant, didn’t she?
I lived in Gloucester until relatively recently. I have seen a few comments on this story that the cause is related to economic woes in Gloucester.
I am trying to make that connection?? I might as well have a baby and raise it in poverty because I have no job.
On the other hand, Gloucester is a 35 minute ride to downtown Boston. The train is reasonably priced and goes all the time. I know because I used to commute.
No easy answers with this one I fear.
I am quite surprised to find out about the “pact”, but not about teens becoming pregnant. I see the animosity about possibly providing birth control in schools. I see a great deal of finger pointing at music, movies, young pregant celebs, welfare and the like. When is society going to pull its head out of the sand and realize that teen are having sex. Teens are in school 8 hours a day, 9 months of the year (ironic). This is an opportune time to allow sex education in school. Many parents are too afraid to approach the subject for fear of what they may find. Providing education does not mean that more teens will have sex,( they already are) it means they will be informed, and have the knowledge to protect themselves.
I’ve seen on a couple sites there is a new show called Baby Borrowers, with the tag of “it’s not television, it’s birth control.” do you think a show like this can have a positive message? I’m dubious, but when seeing stories like this…
Everything old is new again…I graduated from a rural high school in 1977. Seriously, our graduating class wanted to make “She’s Having My Baby” the class song. I knew several girls who were already pining away for pregnancy and giving birth. Most of them saw early marriage as just a way to start having babies, they wanted the babies more than the husband, and didn’t seem particularly choosy about the guy.
Now that there is no stigma for unwed pregnancy, it’s easy to see that biologic imperative at work. Society needs to admit that teen girls often WANT to have a baby. It’s not unnatural, it’s what our bodies are programmed to do.
In my own family, a nephew and his girlfriend had a baby at about age 20. My niece, age 18 was right behind him, jealous of his having a baby, finding a husband and having her own baby by age 19.
I could never understand it, but I was the odd woman out, I’m still married happily without children 31 years later. But I am definitely thwarting what nature intended!
June 27, 2008
If you tell women enough times that they have
a Constitutional right to choose, no wonder they are choosing to have babies.
Way back in the 1950’s I had two teenage friends become pregnant. They both got married to the fathers.
In the 1980’s a neighbor’s teenager—14—had a baby.
This is NOT news and I don’t know why the media thinks it is!!!