Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

[Whirlygurl]

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.


http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...815845,00.html

[dillybar]

OMG how sad. So very sad. I had no idea that schools had pregnancy testing going on. Times have certainly changed.

When I was in school ('81 grad) if a girl was pregnant she could attend school, but could not participate in any school events or clubs. It was definitely a taboo. Also, if she was married she could not participate in school events or clubs.

I wish them all the best. I hope if they can't provide a good home they will consider adopting their child to a good home. Babies are always and forever blessings. Sometimes life makes it so very hard to see that.