While seventeen teenage girls in the same Massachusetts high school are awaiting the birth of their babies, everyone wants to know whether or not they made a "pregnancy pact" to conceive within the same year. There were allegations indicating that the girls planned on having, and raising their children together. Even the Mayor of Gloucester got involved with the investigation to put an end to the rumors.
During a press conference today, Mayor Carolyn Kirk stated she is "not able to confirm the existence of the pact." She continues to say, " Any planned oath to become pregnant - there is no evidence."
Who cares whether or not there was a pact? That is the most unimportant element of the story. Those girls are all under 16 years of age, and are already expecting children. There is a significant issue here that has received very little attention.
Gloucester High School reportedly had to cut back on health education spending to meet federally mandated standards such as No Child Left Behind. With little emphasis on sex education, and no contraceptives readily available, it's no surprise that the school, located in a conservative fishing town, has had trouble controlling teen pregnancies for years.
In addition, the nature of the high school simply caters to the needs of pregnant teens. For instance, there is a childcare center provided in Gloucester High for young mothers who wish to complete their high school education. This can be seen as good or bad depending on ones perspective. On one side, it's great that young mothers are given the opportunity to finish school. On the other side, it sends out a message that conceiving a child while in high school is acceptable, and will be supported by the school itself.
It would be foolish to completely blame the high school for the teen pregnancies, although Gloucester High still has some fault. Hollywood definitely could have played a role in this case. For instance, actress Jamie Lynn Spears mentioned she was pregnant at the age of 16, and just delivered her daughter Maddie Brian. News of Spears' pregnancy led to a little criticism, but mostly a lot of positive attention.
"Juno" was entertaining and well written movie about a teenage girl who got pregnant by a first-time sexual encounter. In fact, I will be the first to admit it was my favorite movie of the year. However, I hate to say that it did send out a bad message to young girls who are easily influenced by the media. While some people are able to differentiate reality from a fictional movie, some young people simply are not. It's a sad fact that movies like Juno have to receive flack because of those who can't think straight. But that's just the world we live in.
Hollywood romanticizes pregnancy. Ashley Simpson is back in the media after she announced that she's pregnant, and Paris Hilton keeps talking about how she can't wait to have babies with her boyfriend Benji Madden. But if schools have actual programs to sit young girls down and tell them the truth about how difficult it is to raise children, and how easy it is to prevent unexpected pregnancies, I think it can counter Hollywood pregnancy romanticism. Education is power in every single aspect of life. These girls just need to be aware and educated, and Gloucester High somehow missed the memo.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Yes, education is key in letting teens know that it is "not cool" to be teens having babies. I guess it would be nice to know if it was a pact simply because if it was, the likelihood of it happening again is not great. On the other hand if it just an epidemic of pregancies then that is another issue altogether. In the end, though, it is 17 babies coming into this world with teens as Moms, and most likely very few dads in the picture. Sad. When I was 16 all I was worried about is when is the next school dance, what time is the basketball game on Friday night or what fast food restaurant should we hang out at next.
linda at 7:26PM on Jun 23rd 2008
2. This is only the tip of the iceberg for crazy headlines coming out of our schools. Check out all the wildest education stories at http://detentionslip.org!
sweetchuckd at 7:40PM on Jun 23rd 2008
3. Ana,
It seems that teen pregnancy is a much more prevalent problem in Big Government Drop Out Factories than it is in Private Schools. And get this: Private Schools have little to no 'sex ed' budgets.
Increasing the budgets of Government Schools is not the answer. The Voucher System is.
Paul Sparcello at 8:03PM on Jun 23rd 2008
4. more welfare mommies. what else is new. our educational system isnt worth crap. we cater to the lowest level. achievers are laughed at. without jews, indians from india and orientals we would be out of business.
duane brown at 8:33PM on Jun 23rd 2008
5. Quit blaming the federal government for this and that,or they dropped the funding for this because of that. The main problem is that there is no parental supervision or personal responsibility. My two children, male and female, ages 31 and 27 grew up just fine and so did their friends. Why, because we the parents were involved in their lives. Sure they screwed up once or twice but neither they nor their friends got pregnant. We coached baseball, football drove them to and from after school activities etc instead of letting them run free. We ask the government and school systems to babysit for the children instead of taking responsibility for how are kids are raised.
dave at 8:51PM on Jun 23rd 2008
6. Jamie Lynn received "a little criticism"? What planet are you living on? She's now regarded as a white-trash whore who's "just as bad" as her sister; read some comments on TMZ once in awhile. And you'll recall that Juno, um, GAVE HER BABY UP FOR ADOPTION!! How is that supposed to inspire young girls to become moms? (Not to mention the fact that she was very unhappy when she found out she was pregnant, and the movie portrays her physical and emotional struggles.) Pregnancy did not "put Ashlee Simpson back in the media;" her engagement, wedding, and new album got plenty of coverage on their own terms. Not to mention that women like Ashlee and Paris are in their twenties, a time when it should be celebrated for a woman to be pregnant. This is some seriously retarded crap. Grow a brain!
Cecilia at 11:27PM on Jun 23rd 2008
7. Latest news is that there was no 'pact'. No doubt it was just a bunch of teenagers thinking a baby would 'love' them. Where are the fathers? They should be made to go though school while Mom and Dad pay the bills except for the homeless guy who can get a home for 5 years for rape, at hard labor doing those jobs Americans won't do.
This is a lack of parental supervision, lack of morality that should have been instilled in them from day one through every year of their lives. It's also the responsibility of the school wh should have notified the parents after the third inquiry. You say its not the school's responsibility, had the girls violated a zero tolerance rule, mom and dad would have been at school, lectured and then the girls expelled or suspended.
Where was the ride to the abotionist? Oops, they 'wanted' to get pregnant, right? Sorry, but the same law that makes it illegal for them to give consent to having sex also applies to having children out of wedlock. Find every father and make him work, go to school while the girls keep the kids, marry the father and stay married until that child reaches 18.
When their peers see that sex isn't an X-box experience, the parents, not the govt, support both of them, you may see some responsibility start showing up in school. I doubt it, but you don't know until you try it.
Dedmanrisn at 12:04AM on Jun 24th 2008
8. Sex education would not have prevented anything. These girls wanted to get pregnant. They chose not to abstain or use contraception. Fear of disease didn't faze them. What WOULD have helped is "Life Education." I really believe that high schools should require a year-long course in adult life--start by choosing a career, apartment, etc. and simulate income vs. expenses when you want to buy a car, take a trip, have a child, etc. These girls are in la-la land--they think a baby is like a pet. As someone who sat through three years of lectures on gonorrhea and condom use with a year of drivers' ed sandwiched in between, I can assure you that a course on managing money would be a WELCOME departure and a much more valuable use of class time and taxpayer money.
Denise at 10:22AM on Jun 24th 2008
9. Sex education would not have prevented anything. These girls wanted to get pregnant. They chose not to abstain or use contraception. Fear of disease didn't faze them. What WOULD have helped is "Life Education." I really believe that high schools should require a year-long course in adult life--start by choosing a career, apartment, etc. and simulate income vs. expenses when you want to buy a car, take a trip, have a child, etc. These girls are in la-la land--they think a baby is like a pet. As someone who sat through three years of lectures on gonorrhea and condom use with a year of drivers' ed sandwiched in between, I can assure you that a course on managing money would be a WELCOME departure and a much more valuable use of class time and taxpayer money.
Denise at 10:25AM on Jun 24th 2008
10. I agree it is that parent's responsibity to teach children what's good and bad, what's real and make believe. I am sorry but I hate the excuse that the media is causing everything. When I was little, I asked my mom if Simba was real...she explained the difference between the media and real life. I didn't say, "Well, now that I have seen the Lion King, I will now go walk up the lion in the zoo and get him to sing "hakuna matata"." My mom helped showed me the down side to early motherhood with babysitting overnight. 2am wake-ups wasn't fun. Plus she started early teaching me about sex and let me ask questions. I learned not only about waiting, but about contraceptives. These girls are young, selfish, and obviously ignorant for planning to bring a new life in to this world without being stable. I actually went to a school with the young mother program like that school has..it was nothing cool about having girls walking down the hall pregnant. on one hand, it keep some in school to at least finish their high school education, but on the other there were some who abuse it. There was some with 2 or 3 children (I have no idea what they were thinking). My only conclusion is the parents...please do your job. Parenting is a full time job. At 16, my life revolved aroung the O.C and One Tree Hill.
Jessie at 10:48AM on Jun 24th 2008
11. People like to play the victim. Whether it is a subconscious thought or a feeling at the front of the girls minds they know becoming pregnant will bring them a huge amount of attention. They know when they go to school, or the mall and meet other kids or parents that everyone will be interested in their lives if they are having a baby at age 16. Low self esteem causes people to partake in activities that will get them noticed. I'm sure a lot of these girls felt as though no one cared about them or thought their lives were unimportant and by becoming pregnant you inherit the most important job any person can do and that is birthing and raising a child. Instead of handing young girls bibles and telling them to read up and somehow blindly expecting that some passages can fight millions of years of evolution and natural instinct to be sexual, we as a society should sit down with them and just listen. If just one person would of gave an open ear to any of these girls maybe that would of boosted their self esteem and the girl wouldn't have to get pregnant to feel accepted.
eric gargantuen oldag at 10:59AM on Jun 24th 2008
12. The true social problem is well depicted in this article. As always, the criticism is directed at those naughty slutty girls, and the the naughty slutty Hollywood females who set a bad example.
If I remember sex ed correctly, boys/men are involved in creating the pregnancy too -- and if IO remember high school, they are usually the driving force that motivates girls to engage in sex.
In fact, in Gloucester many of the daddies-to-be are older than their teenybopper girlfriends and should, therefore, take a proportionately higher share of the blame.
If parents and society held boys to any standard of sexual morality instead of focusing all criticism and blame on females, spent a little more effort teaching our sons about sex, kids and consequences (instead of high-fiving them and/or giving them a free "boys will be boys" pass for their sexual exploits), demanded that they be full-time daddies instead of shameless abandoners of their unwanted children, and castigated them for their deeds instead of yelling "wh*re!" at their underage girlfriends, perhaps Gloucester's schoolkids would be buying college-prep textbooks instead of diapers.
But we've been letting boys off the hook and yelling "wh*re!" at girls for so long, and it's worked SO well thus far -- why would we ever think about a different approach
cat at 12:41PM on Jun 26th 2008
13. You're editorial makes no sense really. It doesn't matter if there's a pact, this was caused by lack of funding for sex-ed and birth control. If it was a "pact" because these girls WANTED to get pregnant, they wouldn't have used birth control anyway, even if it was available. It would not have mattered that some old teacher had told them having a baby is too hard for a teenager, they thought they were plenty mature enough. And you may want to read up on "No Child Left Behind". It's a bonus program for federal funding. If the schools comply to get MORE money. Schools are predominately locally funded.
Mel at 8:02PM on Jun 26th 2008