queah this eh?

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High
Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008
By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY


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.
(that's right people, these girls will spread it for anyone, bareback!)

The question of what to do next has divided this fiercely Catholic enclave. Even with national data showing a 3% rise in teen pregnancies in 2006—the first increase in 15 years—Gloucester isn't sure it wants to provide easier access to birth control. In any case, many residents worry that the problem goes much deeper. The past decade has been difficult for this mostly white, mostly blue-collar city (pop. 30,000). In Gloucester, perched on scenic Cape Ann, the economy has always depended on a strong fishing industry. But in recent years, such jobs have all but disappeared overseas, and with them much of the community's wherewithal. "Families are broken," says school superintendent Christopher Farmer. "Many of our young people are growing up directionless."

The girls who made the pregnancy pact—some of whom, according to Sullivan, reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for baby showers—declined to be interviewed. So did their parents. But Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby. "They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland says. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."

The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center. Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and junior ROTC. "We're proud to help the mothers stay in school," says Sue Todd, CEO of Pathways for Children, which runs the day-care center.

But by May, after nurse practitioner Kim Daly had administered some 150 pregnancy tests at Gloucester High's student clinic, she and the clinic's medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts. Currently Gloucester teens must travel about 20 miles (30 km) to reach the nearest women's health clinic; younger girls have to get a ride or take the train and walk. But the notion of a school handing out birth control pills has met with hostility. Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide this for our children." The pair resigned in protest on May 30.

Gloucester's elected school committee plans to vote later this summer on whether to provide contraceptives. But that won't do much to solve the issue of teens wanting to get pregnant. Says rising junior Kacia Lowe, who is a classmate of the pactmakers': "No one's offered them a better option." And better options may be a tall order in a city so uncertain of its future. —with reporting by Kimberley McLeod/New York

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html?cnn=yes

I saw this and thought WTF??

In the story there is a call for more education and use of contraceptives ... Not sure how that helps people who want to be pregnant.

exactly. It's an emotional thing, not a sex thing.

i wish i had something better to say, but i'll settle for this:

something is seriously wrong with these girls.


also, i wish i was a 24 year old homeless guy. they have all the luck

I don't see how contraceptives will help make girls not want to become pregnant.

Nothing like this ever happens here.

I bet they'll make great mommies.

Go Sawx!!!

It's not just about the contraceptives not helping girls that want to get pregnant. It's about proper education ALL around. Avoiding, talking only about abstainence, refusing to provide contraception to the sexually active students not looking to be baby mamas - clearly this ISN'T working.

They need to be educated further than "no sex is the safest sex". They need to be educated on STDs, on parenting, pregnancy, the difficulties of child-rearing. . . etc etc etc.

It's only through ignorance and lack of education that these girls get the wrong idea of what it means to be a parent. There will ALWAYS be some girls that just want to be mommies. There will ALWAYS be girls who choose to wait. But they should all be given the most information possible, IMHO

I do not trust schools to teach kids what it means to be a parent. It will just be another highly politicized piece of propaganda force fed to kids.

k, but what are your thoughts on these "pregnancy pacts" these girls are taking simply to have someone that will love them?

That may be true, but in THIS case, it's not about the girls not knowing how to have safe sex. They wanted to get pregnant, so whether or not they have the proper contraception at their disposal is moot.

Gloucester Massacheusette.

Gloucester Massacheusetts.

Gloucester Massacheusetts.

Guess what they do in Gloucester Massacheusetts. They have comprehensive sex education programs. They don't talk about abstainence only. All of 9th grade is sex ed and health for them. It did a lot of good.

Sexually active students that are not looking to be momma's shouldn't be having sex. And it's not the responsibility of tax payers to subsidize that shit. I don't know what Gloucester does in regards to this though...don't think it would have helped their situation any...



Should they be given the nurses room to have a safe, secure place to fuck in too?

Let me sum up the inevitable eight pages of onanistic debate (no pun intended) that will ensue with the following: LittleWing is wrong.

Sexually active students that are not looking to be momma's shouldn't be having sex.

Seems to me the greater problem is that some of these kids have such screwed-up families and social situations, they feel that having kids will fix that. They need to be taught that kids do NOT solve problems--they create more if they are not brought into a healthy environment. I'm all for comprehensive sex ed, but this is definitely a different issue that needs to be addressed--these girls have emotional issues that need to be dealt with.

If someone is sexually active, it means they're having sex.

So LW, you're never had sex when you weren't trying to conceive a child?

Well I don't know about you, but I think it's just wonderful that all these girls under the age of 16 ended up getting knocked up. And I think the right attitude to have is to just, ya know, let them fuck. But not punish them with a bay-bah.

I'm not really understanding why what I did ten years ago has any relevance to my personal opinions today.

while yes, you are "punishing" the girls by them having a baby...you aren't exactly helping the children coming into this world. some of them were fathered by a HOMELESS MAN. guess what, i guarentee that these babies grow up in semi broken homes and end up somewhat repeating what their mothers have done.

Well, it would kind of make you a hypocrite. You want to hold people to a standard that I'm guessing you yourself didn't live by. I'm guessing the sex you had was responsible and ok, even though nobody else's is?