Mayor: No Evidence Of Teen Pregnancy Pact
Gloucester, Mass. Mayor Says Principal's Claim Of Baby Pact Not Backed Up By Parents, Counselors, Teachers
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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)
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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)
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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)
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Gloucester High School in Massachusetts. (CBS)
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(CBS/iStockphoto)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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See all 88 CommentsI think what bothers me the most is the fact that there was a call in show on CNN the other night and two teen moms called. The first one said that she didn''t have her kid until she was 17, unlike her friends who had their kids at 14. Wow. Another girl called and said she had her kid at 14 and that made her grow up. I guess since I''ve never had a kid, graduated high school, went to college, and have a job, and got married, I guess I never grew up. Oh if I had only know that having a child would help me grow up. BTW, I''m 38 -- soon to be 39. And as for the kid thing, I come from a big family and I can borrow a child whenever I feel like it.
I feel that this mayor is in ''Denial'' and so are these pregnant teens.
Oh, that makes it okay then.
"It definitely sounds like something that would happen at Gloucester High School," he said. "It doesn''t sound too far fetched at all."
This came from ONE OF THE STUDENTS - who knows most, if not all of the girls, involved in this "anomoly". Doesn''t that resonate with that mayor, who is so anxious to make the situation just "go away"? What about the school nurse, who was on CNN the other day saying that some of the girls seemed upset when their tests were negative, and that she saw some of them "high-fiving" and sharing the excitement when tests were positive? Is she just making it up too, or is her memory being called into question?
The big "What if" - what if there were more parents in Glouster PAYING ATTENTION TO THEIR CHILDREN and ACTUALLY SUPERVISING their free time? These days, it seems so many parents abdicate their supervisory responsibility to the schools, sports coaches or anyone else they can find, rather than doing the job themselves. THAT''S where the real problem lies, and where the real responsibility for this spike in teens ruining their lives begins - WITH THE PARENTS.
Funny how CBS keeps referring to this story as it changes as being reported by "Time Magazine." Well, CBS, you''re reporting it too...
Yes...I am SURE they would have discussed this with their school nurse, psychologist, teachers, or parents! I agree with the earlier comment made, that the principal probably found out through a student he didn''t want to throw under the bus. Shame on the mayor for trying to get out of this by making the principal a scapegoat.
Do the townspeople have the fortitude to
recall this reetard mayor?
He is making your little town look like
the *** capital of the U.S.A. with the
whole townspeople looking like a village
of idiots.
Please do something with the reetard mayor.
What a joke of a mayor ! !
"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. "
''And that''s an order!'' as far as I''m concerned.
After all, it''s not like it was something memorable he heard, like a mass pregnancy pact amongst minors. It was just some casual low-priority conversation with a rapidly swelling young teenager.
Does this mayor take us to be as stupid as one of these students??!
What an idiot. People, please vote that sad-a$$ excuse of a mayor out of office, please and thank you.
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See all 88 Comments