Pregnancy Pact?

[ShoppingCartDiva]

This is a surreal story...

A Massachusetts high school is facing a pregnancy boom with 17 girls entering summer vacation expecting babies in what some have called a pregnancy pact.

Officials at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Mass., are investigating whether half of the teens made a pact to get pregnant during the school year, Time.com reported.


Officials said that beginning last fall a large group of girls started asking the school clinic for pregnancy tests, the site said.


"Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," principal Joseph Sullivan told Time.com.


The pregnancy rate at the 1,200-student school is four times higher than the previous year, and officials were shocked to learn that men in their 20s had fathered some of the babies, Time.com said.


"We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan told Time.com.


The Gloucester baby boom is forcing this city of 30,000 to grapple with the question of providing easier access to birth control, something this largely Catholic enclave is slow to embrace, the site said.


Nurse practitioner Kim Daly administered 150 pregnancy tests to students by May, prompting her and the clinic's medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, to lobby for the prescription of contraceptives regardless of parental consent.
That move drew the ire of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, whose public outcry against the pair led to their resignations last month.


"It is very clear that the board [at Northeast Health System of Beverly, which manages the clinic] is not in favor and will not support contraception in the school," Orr told the Boston Globe. "There is an epidemic of teen pregnancy at the school."


Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and FOX News contributor, called the school's epidemic "shocking."


"But the other thing we should realize is that we are hot on the heels of [17-year-old] Jamie Lynn Spears deciding to start a family and of mass media embracing the notion and waiting with bated breath for her baby," he said. Jamie Lynn gave birth to a baby girl on Thursday.


According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s teen birth rate rose in 2006 for the first time in 14 years.


Ablow said the example in Massachusetts should be heeded as a warning.
"In a world that is so technologically based, there will be predictable push-back from young people," he said. "They want to remind themselves that they are alive and human. One of the ways people do this is that they reproduce."

[ShoppingCartDiva]

My thoughts are, despite the story's talk about birth control, this has NOTHING TO DO WITH BIRTH CONTROL.

I want to know where the parents were. I also happen to think that practical sex education classes (including responsibility/parenting) should be taught in every school. I grew up in a very religious town, but we had a very down-to-earth, practical sex education class in 8th grade. They also took great care to involve the parents (outside of the students involvement).

When we entered the class, we were told we could write down one question, any question, on a piece of paper (completely anonymous), and the teacher would answer the questions. In a separate meeting, parents were told about the questions so that they could hear about the kinds of questions their children really wanted to ask.

The class also talked about STDs and birth control. We had "Health" Class later in High School, which covered a lot of things, also reiterating birth control and STDs. My school had a very, very low pregnancy rate. In the 4 years I was in HS, I remember only 1 pregnancy.

[lifeskills13]

I heard this story and i wanted to faint! im 21 married with two youngs kids..i would have been 40 by the time i thought i could take care of a kid..but having to take care of my nephew and niece since they were newborn to 2years old (my bro was alcoholic and the mother was gone for months at a time). I learned a lot, childservices took themthough because i was only 16/17

My answer is having every girl babysit if they even THINK about having kids at a young age..that way they know they can't run off and be with their friends because they have a kid to take care off. My childhood friends all got pregnant young and i just sat there watched each and everyone be taken care of by their grandparents and the girls goin and parting everyday and say they are adults because they had a kid..well where is your kid now? *Sigh*
and im not a person to degrade young girls having kids just those immature ones. My SIL had hers at 16 and she is married8years w/ the dad and has another kid w/ him. One of my sister's friend had her kid at age 12 (parents kicked her out and had to live w/ her boyfriend) but she found babysitters when she went to school and even went to collage! while taking care of her. those people i applaud ...just makes me sick though to think a girl is creating a human being just to FIT IN and show people she is an adult :(

[faeryedark]

My thoughts are, despite the story's talk about birth control, this has NOTHING TO DO WITH BIRTH CONTROL.

I want to know where the parents were. I also happen to think that practical sex education classes (including responsibility/parenting) should be taught in every school. I grew up in a very religious town, but we had a very down-to-earth, practical sex education class in 8th grade. They also took great care to involve the parents (outside of the students involvement).

When we entered the class, we were told we could write down one question, any question, on a piece of paper (completely anonymous), and the teacher would answer the questions. In a separate meeting, parents were told about the questions so that they could hear about the kinds of questions their children really wanted to ask.

The class also talked about STDs and birth control. We had "Health" Class later in High School, which covered a lot of things, also reiterating birth control and STDs. My school had a very, very low pregnancy rate. In the 4 years I was in HS, I remember only 1 pregnancy.

I remember sex- ed class. Our teacher did the anonymous question thing too. I remember also that almost everyone got a C in that class because if you failed you were made fun of and if you got an A well, then you just "knew" too much and must be a slut....yes, the delightful teenage years LOL!

[faeryedark]

I heard this story and i wanted to faint! im 21 married with two youngs kids..i would have been 40 by the time i thought i could take care of a kid..but having to take care of my nephew and niece since they were newborn to 2years old (my bro was alcoholic and the mother was gone for months at a time). I learned a lot, childservices took themthough because i was only 16/17

My answer is having every girl babysit if they even THINK about having kids at a young age..that way they know they can't run off and be with their friends because they have a kid to take care off. My childhood friends all got pregnant young and i just sat there watched each and everyone be taken care of by their grandparents and the girls goin and parting everyday and say they are adults because they had a kid..well where is your kid now? *Sigh*
and im not a person to degrade young girls having kids just those immature ones. My SIL had hers at 16 and she is married8Byears w/ the dad and has another kid w/ him. One of my sister's friend had her kid at age 12 (parents kicked her out and had to live w/ her boyfriend) but she found babysitters when she went to school and even went to collage! while taking care of her. those people i applaud ...just makes me sick though to think a girl is creating a human being just to FIT IN and show people she is an adult :(

Boys should have to babysit too, I think. Of course, I would have totally rankled at this at that age. I hated little kids. I was amega tomboy. I babysat once when I was 14 (this 8 yr. old brat) I wanted to slaughter him. He destroyed half my room. My mom came home with her friend (who was his mom) and I looked at them both and said, "don't ever, ever ask me to do that again, or I WILL take him out and lose him". I don't think his mom was pleased with either of us. LOL!
I guess ya gotta know your kids. Mine 2older ones love kids and to babysit but wouldn't want their own. I don't know if my youngest will ANYthnig to do with kids until much older.

[lovelace]

this is not about the parents its not about sex education ,and it is not about birth control,it is about 17 young teenagers that made a mistake that we said it is.THose 17 babies might be the next 17 people that be a teacher or doctor or what every god have plan for them.Because he has a plan for them and a wake up call to the rest of the world about want our kids are feeling and doing.So we can not blame no one i do not blame my parents for the mistake i made,or sex education for my my ds who i love and turn ou to be a very lovely lady.So lets us stop the blame game and want are we are going to do to help our young ladies in our community and in our town and in our cites.

[billythekid]

my thoughts are someone needs to slap these kids outside of the face with the cold hard truth about what could happen to them. The child could be hurt sick, they could have complications with the pregnancy, they could find themselves struggling everyday to find money to support this child, whos going to help watch and raise them? I know there are people out their with these experiences, but are they the ones these kids see? Probably not

Chances are if these kids had gotten proper care love and guidance, or even a good church setting- this might not have happened.

P.S. I think a lot of this has to do with the parents too.
grrrr. rant over.

[mama22qts]

Interesting to see the poll results which say we're all mostly outraged by this. We are probably a decent cross section of America, yet this has still happened.

So sad. I hope there's family somewhere to love the babies cause the kids have NO idea how to do it. Mature folks, even teenagers who are READY, don't do crazy stuff like this.

[bigsweetie]

I feel sick to my stomach (and no, it's not m/s LOL!)! I have two little girls and this kind of stuff terrifies me! I do blame the parents to an extent, however as a previous poster mentioned, the media has a HUGE influence on kids, especially teens. I, of course, plan on talking extensively to my girls as they get older (they're 3 and 5mo.), I just hope that it's enough. That, in combination with our Christian beliefs and lifestyle, I hope will guide them through these tough years.

I'm hoping that that new show "The Baby Borrowers" will shed some light on the realities of parenting... although i'm sure it'll exaggerate it and hence teens won't take it seriously. :shrug7:

I've even heard stories of 4th and 5th graders getting in trouble for giving BJ's on the schoolbus!!!!

Teen pregnancy isn't a new phenomenon, but the stigma seems to have gone away amongst the peers. Many years ago, if a girl got pg, she was frowned upon even by her own classmates! Now she's looked upon as "cool".

Ugh! I'm feeling sick again....

[derketchup]

I am all for making contraceptives available to anyone dumb enough to have sex before they are ready to make babies.

However, I don't think having contraceptives available to girls TRYING TO GET PREGNANT would have made a difference at all.

I agree with more practical sex education classes. I think babies were seen by these girls as "overly glamorized"... we'll see how they feel about babies when they can't sleep at night!