Mayor: No Evidence Of Teen Pregnancy Pact
Gloucester, Mass. Mayor Says Principal's Claim Of Baby Pact Not Backed Up By Parents, Counselors, Teachers
-
-
Photo
Carolyn Kirk, mayor of Gloucester, Mass., right, speaks to members of the media following a meeting with city leaders to discuss issues surrounding a report relating to a pregnancy pact, Monday, June 23, 2008 at city hall in Gloucester. Christopher Farmer, superintendent of schools listens at left. (AP PHOTO)
-
Photo
Carolyn Kirk, mayor of Gloucester, Mass., right, sits with city leaders, from background left, student assistance program director Amy Kamm, Board of Health director Jack Vondras, and chief administrative officer for the mayor's office James Duggan, to discuss issues surrounding a report relating to a pregnancy pact, June 23, 2008 at city hall in Gloucester, Mass. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)
-
Photo
Residents of Gloucester, Mass., talk as they stand near the sea along the waterfront at a community park in Gloucester, Friday, June 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
-
Photo
Gloucester High School in Massachusetts. (CBS)
-
Photo
(CBS/iStockphoto)
-
-
Play CBS Video
Video
Pregnancy Pact In Question
Mayor Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester, Mass. claims that there is no evidence which supports a high school principal's claim that 17 teenagers created a pact to get pregnant. WBZ's Sera Congi reports.
-
Video
Teen Girls' Pregnancy Pact
Officials in the economically depressed village of Gloucester, Mass. believe a group of girls, all under the age of 16, made a secret pact to get pregnant at the same time. Michelle Miller reports.
-
Video
Teen Mom Talks Pregnancy
Amanda Ireland, a Gloucester, Mass. teen mother urges her peers against pregnancy; and psychologist Lisa Boesky tells Julie Chen about the social problems associated with teen pregnancy.
-
News Tools
Teen Trends: Risks Measured
Here's an illustration of how teens feel about their online experience vs. some facts about crime.
"Any planned blood-oath bond to become pregnant - there is absolutely no evidence of," Mayor Carolyn Kirk said Monday after a closed-door meeting with city, school and health leaders.
Conspicuously absent from that meeting was Gloucester High School Principal Joseph Sullivan, who has not responded to repeated requests for comment after he was quoted last week in a Time magazine story saying the girls planned to get pregnant together.
The mayor, who also sits on the school committee, said she was not comfortable having Sullivan at the meeting.
Kirk cited privacy concerns in refusing to answer many questions about the 17 girls who became pregnant this school year - more than quadruple the number who generally become pregnant as the school.
Kirk said she and Superintendent Christopher Farmer have been in touch with Sullivan, and that he was "foggy in his memory" about how he came to believe there was a pact.
"When pressed, his memory failed," Kirk said.
Authorities have talked to school and health officials who work most closely with the children and, Kirk said, "The people that worked with the children on a daily basis have said there has been no mention whatsoever of a pact."
But Time posted a story on its Web site Monday that included new quotes from its earlier interview with Sullivan in which the principal said a lack of access to birth control did not play a part in the surge of pregnancies.
"That bump was because of seven or eight sophomore girls. They made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together," Time quoted Sullivan as saying.
Calls to Sullivan's office and home have not been returned. So far, Sullivan is the only school or city official who has used the term "pact."
Time also reported Monday that Pathways for Children chief executive Sue Todd, whose organization runs the high school's onsite daycare center, told the magazine on June 13 that its social worker had heard of the girls' plan to get pregnant as early as last fall. Todd has not returned calls from The Associated Press.
"We're facing a new area in teen pregnancy," CBS Early Show psychologist Linda Boesky, author of "When to Worry: How to Tell If Your Teen Needs Help-And What to Do About It," said on Friday.
"What we've always known (is) teens who are surprised and shocked (at getting pregnant). Now, instead of unplanned teen pregnancies, what we're seeing in this town is actually planned teen pregnancies," Boesky told co-anchor Julie Chen.
Boesky suggested part of the influence on teen girls in America comes from the pervasive celebrity culture. "If you look at all the celebrity magazines, celebrity TV shows, you can't turn a page without seeing more and more celebrities getting pregnant," she said.
The mayor said the spike in pregnancies is in keeping with similar spikes in other cities.
Farmer said there was a "distinct possibility" that the girls who found themselves in similar, challenging situations later decided to "come together for mutual support."
He said the Time magazine piece did not distinguish between "a pact to become pregnant or a pact because we are pregnant."
Farmer also said it was clear some of the girls were not trying very hard not to become pregnant. The principal had said some girls gave high-fives and planned baby showers while others were sullen if their pregnancy tests at the high school clinic came back negative.
Farmer defended Sullivan saying, "I don't believe anyone has acted in particularly bad faith here."
Gloucester resident Annette Dion, a 45-year-old private music teacher, said school and city officials should have done more to find out whether the girls truly made a pact to become pregnant. She said denying such a pact existed is "pretty naive."
"I don't think we heard the truth today," Dion said, adding that pop culture has glamorized teen pregnancy and that movies and celebrity pregnancies do not give girls an accurate picture of parenthood.
"My personal feeling, my impression, is they probably talked and discussed and thought it would be cool to get pregnant together," she said.
Brendan Henry, a 17-year-old going into his senior year at Gloucester, said the attention surrounding the alleged pact has taken the focus off bigger issues facing young people, including school underfunding. Still, he did not doubt that a pact could have existed.
"It definitely sounds like something that would happen at Gloucester High School," he said. "It doesn't sound too far fetched at all."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



- 1
- 2
- next
See all 88 CommentsSeeing as how getting pregnant is not only part of the human condition, but also one of the strongest natural instincts, I find it difficult to understand why some people think it strange. I also find that the "celebrities" getting pregnant are usually legal adults, so what is the problem?
Only recently has it been a notion that getting pregnant at 16 is somehow deviant, the ability to get pregnant starts at roughly twelve, and for thousands of generations, people have done so.
It seems to me to be idiotic to expect nature to conform to a person''s mindset, rather than conforming a person''s mindset to accept nature. Intelligent discussion about the pitfalls of early motherhood should replace fear mongering, as it only becomes a mark of the normal generational rebellion, when teens challenge BS.
Either this is a run-on sentense and the news editor needs to find a new job or the mayor is Mexico
Kudos to dobbershome for coining that word... :)
These girls are morons and should be fixed like the dogs they are.
I am getting sick and tired of people looking for ways to create havoc. Beat the parents not the children in this case.
Bunch of idiots. My vote is if it is proven that it was planned...deny them any form of government aid. No WIC, no Food Stamps, No Medicaide, no FREE daycare...NOTHING. Stupidity should NOT be rewarded.
I am sorry for the babies that are going to be born into that but if their mothers figured they could AFFORD them then they do NOT need any BENEFITS coming out of MY tax dollars to take care of them. If they cannot handle it then they can give them up.
Yeah, right. Just like Phillip Morris saying there is no evidence that smoking causes cancer.
Or a "Bob Barker" pact..."Have your kids spayed and neutered".
Well then, let''s sterilize celebrities! Problem solved!
Stupid High School Girls, Kids having Kids, I hope all these supid girls end up in a trailer park with a 1977 Yellow Chevy Camero, all White Trash and end up flippin burgers at McDonalds or Burger King or What a Burger.
What kind of parents do thise Girls have ? Apparently their Parents are White Trash with no morals or Parental Guidance.
And just because you wanted somebody to say it, its the Bushies Fault and its some kind of hidden Liberal Agenda.
I just had to say that because you wanted somebody to say its a liberal agenda and all the fault of the Bushies.
Posted by acolton1 at 01:28 PM : Jun 23, 2008
___________________________________
NO!! Don''t wish them a classic Chevy Camero! That is just too fine a car to waste!
IF YOU WANT THEM IMPEACHED-GET THIS STORY TO MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND PUBLIC.
AN IRAN-CONTRA OPERATION, IS OPERATING FROM THE SAME BASES OLLIE NORTH SET UP WITH THE SAME PLAYERS. WE HAVE TROOPS (FIGHTING TROOPS) and A SECRET CIA AIRFORCE in GUATEMALA, NICARAGURA, HONDURAS, EL SALVADOR, ECUADOR, COLUMBIA and BELIZE! THE CIA IS SMUGGLING DRUGS AND WEAPONS YET AGAIN AND IS SUPPORTED BY SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND ON BASES SET UP BY OLLIE NORTH!
THE %u201CSECRET%u201D AIR FORCE OF THE CIA ARE MOSTLY CILILIAN PLANES PURCHCHED WITH DRUG PROFITS WHOSE OWNERSHIP CANNOT BE TRACED AND ARE HIDDEN FROM ANY BUDGET.
Look it up yourself Please. This has some good info: http://www.madcowprod.com/index.html
Ever hear of people called "parents?" They''re responsible for steering their kids in the right direction from the get-go. Monitor what their watching on TV, music their listening to, people they talk to, things they read, etc. Enough with putting kids in the hands of our government.
you have a pregnancy rate that''s four times normal ... two resignations ... and a principal w/ a fuzzy memory ... but there''s no reason to think anything unusual is up.
Posted by komoncents
Amen. And liberals, most teachers and principals are liberals, want us to think they''ve got morals. Yeah, right!
Posted by mmstar20
And that negates the utter lack of morals in liberal principals and teachers, uh, how?
You want teachers to teach morals or school subjects?
If this happens to your kid, it was from years of your parental influence. Or lack of it...
Unless all of them turn out to become JK Rawlings (a single mom who ultimately made it on her own), society will pay in the upkeep and then multifold in the subsequent generations as the cycle repeats with their offspring.
Re: "Mayor: No Evidence Of Teen Pregnancy Pact"
Well then, *** em''!
Just because the kids don''t trumpet or sign sworn statements of their shameful pact is no excuse for this mayor to stick his head in the sand.
Or maybe he thinks it''s normal behavior for sophomores to give high-fives when the pregnancy tests are positive, and to look disappointed if they are negative?
His denial is ridiculous, not credible, shameful, and does nothing to prevent similar pacts in the future.
Why should he extend energy and effort to solve a problem he could more easily deny? Fool.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 88 Comments