Pregnancy pact quadruples teen pregnancies at MA high school
I’m not even sure what to say about this other than it is so incredibly bizarre, pathetic and sad on many levels… A high school in Massachusetts has seen high school pregnancies rise to quadruple last year’s rate. At the heart of it, a pregnancy pact. It seems as though many teens at Gloucester High thought kids were so great they made a pact to all get pregnant and raise their kids together. And no, I’m not making this up.
There are currently 17 expectant students at the high school of 1,200. If you assume that roughly 1/2 the those students are female, and of those 17 are pregnant, then almost 3% of female population is pregnant. I’m highlighting the female population because not all of the fathers were students; reportedly one of the father’s was a 24 year old homeless man. And no, I’m not making that up either. They just really wanted to get pregnant.
As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there’s been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town. School officials started looking into the matter as early as October after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant. By May, several students had returned multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and on hearing the results, “some girls seemed more upset when they weren’t pregnant than when they were,” Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. “We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” the principal says, shaking his head.
I really have trouble even wrapping my mind around this. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad.
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6 opinions for Pregnancy pact quadruples teen pregnancies at MA high school
Wyatt
Jun 20, 2008 at 7:48 pm
The worst part about it is that most of these kids will now grow up without fathers. Sad.
In reading about this, I came across a new show called Baby Borrowers. It seems to have a good message about teen pregnancy, but I’m always skeptical about entertainment used as a teaching tool, but maybe it will help.
Gary Grant
Jun 21, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Yeah, I’ve seen a bit of baby borrowers. i mean, people should watch it to see what happens when teens are given the responsibility they think they deserve. they tend to be blown away and surprised.
Jebus
Jun 21, 2008 at 4:10 pm
this is pretty crazy. i’ll definitely check out this new show, Wyatt. Seems interesting.
simone
Jun 21, 2008 at 6:46 pm
oh yahhhhhh…i saw commercials for that show…baby borrowers…it looks like an interesting idea…i will have my young sisters watch it…
Pregnancy pact making news all over the world
Jun 22, 2008 at 1:32 pm
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b5media Talks about Pregnancy Pact
Jun 22, 2008 at 1:49 pm
[…] even men are blogging about this, take a peek at what Bill over at Insidefatherhood.com has to say about this. I agree Bill this is very sad that they would go this far to have a child of […]
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