Strollerderby : Gloucester

Principal Resigns Over Pregnancy Pact Controversy

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

The so-called teen pregnancy pact may have fallen off the radar screen of mainstream news, but the saga continues for the city of Gloucester.

In case you living under a rock during the last two weeks of June, here's the background: Principal Joseph Sullivan drew worldwide attention when he told Time that he believed the spike in teen pregnancy at his high school was an intentional choice by girls who had entered a pact to get knocked up before graduating. The mayor responded with a press conference in which she forcefully denied Sullivan’s claims. Sullivan stood by his version of events and complained that he had been slandered.

Apparently, neither party was able to let bygones be bygones. After 10 years at Gloucester High, Sullivan abruptly resigned this week. He said that without the support of the mayor and the school superintendent, it was impossible for him to do his job.

While many Gloucester residents expressed regret at Sullivan’s departure and faulted the mayor for keeping the controversy under wraps, others maintain that Sullivan was wrong to publicize such a sensational account of teen pregnancy in his school. Which side do you fall on?

Photo: daylife.com

You Mean Mocking Pregnant Teens Isn't Smart Satire?

Madeline Holler — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:32:00 GMT

Where to start? Apparently there is some annual "Horribles" parade in Beverly Farms, Mass., a tony township near the young and fertile hamlet of Gloucester. (You remember Gloucester, right? Scads of pregnant teens in one year ... high school principal claims the girls got pregnant on purpose ... town mayor calls bullshit on the principal ... media frenzy and lots of soul-searching ensues.)

Now, aforementioned annual Beverly Horribles Parade encourages participants to create floats that comment on or satirize current events. Soooooo (and I think you know where this is going) ... not one, not two, but THREE floats featured girl-teens with basketballs shoved up their tiny dresses. These Gloucester teen stunt doubles danced provocatively -- lots of pelvic thrusts -- and did their best to ... what, satirize? Comment on? ... the teen pregnancy crisis in their sister city.

Needless to say many are offended. A couple of people recruited to judge the floats in this parade walked out. Interestingly, one of these teen-mom floats won 2nd place and a $400 prize. Huh. Funny stuff, those 15-year-old moms.

You can see one of the floats in this video, but apparently the prize-winning entry was too icky to show on TV.

Photo: lonestartimes.com

Teen Pregnancies on the Decline

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:44:00 GMT

With reports of a teen pregnancy pact in a Gloucester high school dominating the news, you may be surprised to learn that the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. is the lowest it’s been in 30 years. The number of pregnancies among women aged 15-19 dropped to 72 per 1,000 teens in 2004, down from a high of 117 per 1,000 teens in 1990. The abortion rate has also declined in the last three decades.

But this positive trend may be reversing. In 2006, the number of live births among teen girls rose 3 percent—a sharp change from the downhill trend of previous years. It remains to be seen whether 2006 was just a particularly, uh, fertile year, or whether this is the sign of a larger problem. Some blame pop culture icons—such as Jamie Lyn Spears and Juno—for adding a “coolness” factor to teen pregnancy.

Despite the comparatively low teen pregnancy rate in the early part of the century, the U.S. still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of developed nations. And one thing is clear: abstinence-only sex education is not the solution. Several studies have found that those enrolled in abstinence-only programs are no more likely than those enrolled in comprehensive sex ed. to delay sex or use contraception. Hmm, any other ideas?

Photo: America's Promise

Now They Say No: Teens Deny 'Pregnancy Pact'

Amy Kuras — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:03:00 GMT

Apparently, you folks are interested in the "pregnancy pact" story based on the amout of discussion it’s generated here. It's based on a report in Time Magazine that 17 girls from a Gloucester, Mass. High school decided to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

My last post on the matter drew huge comments, and I've seen other headlines about the story everywhere (including at the grocery store today, on a supermarket tabloid "We wanted to be like Jamie Lynn"—Pregnancy Pact Girls. Sure.)

And now some of the girls who got pregnant this school year are coming forward and saying there was no pact, that it was just chance.

I think something is rotten here, although I'm not sure what. The school generally sees 3 or 4 pregnancies a year, not 17, so something was up. However, the teacher who spoke to Time about the story has since refused to comment publicly.

And the larger question, of course, is why so many girls got pregnant, pact or no. Lack of access to birth control and information about sex ed and pregnancy prevention is one reason. The town is also dependent on the fishing industry –life there is pretty hardscrabble, it seems, and these girls had little sense of hope for their future. And many of them came from teen parents themselves.

Equally as important as why these girls got pregnant is why they so much as glancing at, much less having sex with, winners like one girl's babydaddy, who was quoted in the Guardian with this trenchant observation as to how the spike in pregnancies happened:

"They were horny, it was a cold winter. It's boring around this town. Nothing to do."

Oy.

Teens Make Pregnancy Pact -- Wha???

Amy Kuras — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:33:00 GMT

I know teen girls are not always the most rational of people, but, WTF?

Apparently a group of 17 girls at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts decided they would make a pregnancy pact with each other. A pregnancy pact. Not, you might think, a "let's not get pregnant and graduate and maybe even go to college" pact, no, this pact was to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

None of these girls were older than 16.

According to one of the school officials, they noticed something was amiss when there was a huge spike in girls coming in to the nurses' office for pregnancy tests. Many came in multiple times and several seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were.

One of the fathers is allegedly a 24-year-old homeless man.

This brain trust was looking for unconditional love, said community members and classmates (none of them would be interviewed for the Time story). Because little babies are such givers, really, always concerned with what their mom needs and wants, happy to sleep a little more or stop crying already because it's all about YOUR needs. Right?

Oh, but there is more than enough stupid to go around here. Community members got up in arms, not over what these girls did, but over the school nurse and principal suggesting that providing birth control without parental consent might help stem this tide. Both ended up quitting in protest.

Better yet? Some blame Juno. Yeaaahhh.