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The Pregnancy Pact.
June 20th, 2008
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.
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
I am a conservative, Christian, Republican, and I STILL say “HOLY CRAP, GIVE THESE GIRLS SOME CONDOMS!” A Pact to get Pregnant? Will the pact be to get AIDS next? It is past time to be teaching these girls self-esteem as well as how not to get pregnant. By all means teach abstinence, just be aware that only 30 percent of high school girls are virgins when they graduate, according to the CDC. The Question for today is, Is it the School’s responsibility to teach this? What do you think?
I think no, it is their parent’s job, but since they are obviously not, someone should step in. This is what is causing the ever rising feminization of poverty. Something tells me that homeless guy will not be stepping up with child support.
In other news, Jamie Lynn Spears has her baby.
Filed under Soap box |5 Responses to “The Pregnancy Pact.”
WOW!!!!
And I thought teen pregnancy was bad when I was in high school. At least the teen pregnancies when I was in school were very much unwanted and regretted occasions….but these people actually wanted to get pregnant so bad that they all went to the same homeless guy? I mean, it wouldn’t seem (it would still be bad) as bad if they had at least talked their boyfriends into doing the deed, so to speak. But to walk up to a complete stranger who happens to be homeless and say, “will you get me and my friends pregnant?” That shows severe determination and seems to underline the fact that something in this community is BROKEN.
What can be done about this? Who knows, simply throwing birth control at it won’t help because these girls KNOWINGLY got themselves pregnant. They wouldn’t take birth control if it were handed to them, their sole purpose in having sex was to become pregnant.
I just don’t get it.
Yeah, I heard about this on the radio this morning. I believe that it is the parents’ responsibility to teach these girls social responsibility. I think that teaching sex ed and providing birth control and childcare are the best way that the school can deal with this situation. I do not, however, think that this whole pact is the school’s fault. Where are the parents in all this??
I’m a Christian. I’m half-and-half when it comes to Democrat vs. Republican. I’m mildly conservative, though lean more to the liberal side on social issues. I’m still Christian.
But…
I was a youth minister for three years in a suburban-ish town. Junior high students were taught “Abstinence by Choice” in eighth and ninth grade, but beyond that they got no sex education.
I was asked to lead one of the small groups in this week-long program two years in a row and did so hesitantly out of obligation more than anything else. I am a virgin…that’s right a 27-year-old virgin. I plan to stay that way until marriage, but I also know things happen when you meet the right guy. I haven’t met him yet, but when I do…who knows. They thought I was the perfect candidate to teach kids how “NOT” to have sex. However, I couldn’t even begin to answer many of the questions the girls had. I simply didn’t know the answers. And, I had to tell them that. So, the kids I had wound up thinking I was some kind of prude. I’m really not. I’ve just never had a relationship that led to anything more than making out.
All that said, I think it is highly ridiculous to teach abstinence ONLY in school programs. It’s archaic at best. As a small group leader, I wasn’t even allowed to say the word “condom.” I jokingly asked one of the leaders if they thought “condom” was like the “f-word,” and was told that condoms condoned the “f-word.” Okay. I can almost buy that, except that if we know that only 30% of high school girls haven’t…well, “f-ed,” then why would we be naive enough to think that they didn’t need some form of protection and education on how to use it?
Aside from the fact that they don’t allow the word “condom” to be mentioned in this “Abstinence by Choice” program, it is also led by all Christians. It is led by pastors and youth ministers from the area, along with a big-name nationally known youth ministry expert. They ask youth group volunteers and straight-laced parents to help lead. They bring in high school kids who are leaders in their youth groups to do skits and such. I know for a fact that two of the boys in the high school “leader” group had “relations” as they told them to me in detail while asking what I thought they should do. And, one of the girls who was a high school “leader” wound up pregnant later that year. Now, perhaps it was a second immaculate conception. But, I would bet that she also had “relations.”
Do they even realize how hypocritical this program is? Above that, do they realize that they have very little credibility among teens who aren’t sure about their faith. Who wants to listen to a bunch of “hypocritical” teens who are supposedly leaders in their churches…and who are also having sex…tell you how not to have sex? How would they know how to avoid the pressure, if they themselves succumbed to such pressures?
Now, all those soccer moms at my church thought the program was great. They basically forced those poor eighth and ninth graders to sign committment cards saying they wouldn’t have sex until marriage. They gave them contracts that their parents would also sign. They gave them workbooks. They played games. They did skits. They scared them with those pictures (you know the ones…the ones that look like cauliflowwer). They talked. They even prayed (in a school, no less). BUT…they left so many questions unanswered.
I’m all for teaching abstinence, but you also have to be realistic and teach safe sex practices as well.
Parents obviously aren’t doing that, because they think Susie and Billy aren’t having “relations.” Here’s a fun fact for all you moms out there. Susie and Billy aren’t just having “relations,” they’re having SEX! Susie and Billy may have started having blow jobs in second grade (as was the case in this suburban town of my ministry…seriously…in the movie theaters…back row…no longer just kissing…and no longer teens…now CHILDREN). So, why not let the schools teach the kids what parents are too embarrassed to?
Sorry. I’ll get off my soap box now. What is wrong with me? Who cares? I’m not having sex, why should I care if anyone else does?
All that was to say that I believe in separation of church and state and that I think abstinence-only programs in school (while a nice happy thought) pander to the religious right.
It would be like trying to solve the AIDS epidemic in Africa by telling them not to have sex (oh wait, we tried that too!). They are going to have sex. It would be better to show them how to do it safely (well, kinda).
Things have changed a lot since I was in school. In our ninth grade health class, we had condom races. We had to put condoms on bananas and cucumbers. I only remember one or two girls getting pregnant the whole time we were in school (partly because I probably ignored a lot of what went on with people I didn’t hang with). But, condoms were always avaialable in our nurse’s office.
I’m a believer in “it takes a village”. Social responsibility should be practiced at all levels.
Though I had some form of sex education at home and in school. My best education came from a class that was taught at my church to all jr. high students. In fact, I still have my book to this day.
Naturally a community with broken family structures is at blame here. Not only are they not being taught at home, they are probably not being loved at home either. These girls are not getting what they need at home and have the mistaken idea that having a baby will somehow fix things and give them someone to love and to love them back.
What is being overlooked in their naivety is how all the responsibilities of child rearing will be addressed. One of the best programs I’ve ever heard of is the parenting classes that are taught in high schools with the mechanical babies the students must bring home and nurture for a weekend. A good, stiff jolt of reality of what it is like to care for the baby is called for here.
Also, though I admire what the school district is attempting to do with the day care program for teen parents, I believe this should be removed from the school so these girls can not see these babies and romanticize the ideal of having one of their own.
I agree with the husband that birth control will not fix this situation because they wouldn’t take the pills or use the condoms. This is just another example of the brokeness of our society as our morals continue to erode and we become more accepting of aberrations of the traditional family.