Teen Pregnancy Pact Remains Unconfirmed

By Pamela Mortimer

The town of Gloucester, Massachusetts is divided over the issue of supposed the high school pact that encouraged 17 girls to become pregnant. In last week’s Time magazine, Gloucester High School Principal Joseph Sullivan stated that some of 17 pregnant girls in his school had made a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together. To date, no proof of the pact has been uncovered.

On Monday, Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk attended a closed meeting at City Hall with other school, health and city officials to discuss the pregnancy situation. Afterward, Kirk held a press conference to address the issue.

"Any planned blood-oath bond to become pregnant — there is absolutely no evidence of," said Mayor Kirk.

"We have not been able to confirm the existence of a pact," Kirk said. "We are seeking to understand whether it is based in rumor or in fact."

Kirk admitted she was "uncomfortable" at the idea of Sullivan appearing at the press conference because officials had been unable to confirm the pact's existence.

"He [Sullivan] was foggy in his memory of how he heard about the information," Kirk said. "When we pressed him for specifics — about who told him, when was he told — his memory failed."

Christopher Farmer, Superintendent for the Gloucester Public School system, considered the "distinct possibility" that the girls had pledged to stick together and help one another through the pregnancy process.

"'Was there any evidence of a pact that a group of girls were collectively intending to become pregnant?' is a different question from 'Were there a group of pregnant girls who by virtue of their common circumstance came together to talk about supporting one another as they bring up their babies?' Those are two different questions," Farmer said. "The Time journalist tells me that she did not distinguish between those two situations in her discussions."

Kirk said that budget cuts over the last six years have significantly decreased student services, including health education. Currently, the school district does not provide contraceptives for students.

Last month, two members of the staff at the high school’s health center resigned in protest of a local hospital’s refusal to support a proposal to distribute contraceptives to school students without parental consent.

"We need to do something. Period," said Greg Verga, Chairman of the district's School Committee, adding "we're going to discuss it as a committee with the public and some professionals to give us some recommendations and we'll see what we can do to avoid this down the road."

There have been reports stating some of the girls may have been impregnated by young men in their 20s, including a 24 year old homeless man. During a press conference on Friday, Mayor Kirk and other officials refused to answer direct questions about the involvement of particular students, citing privacy issues.

"Gloucester is not alone in wrestling with this issue," Kirk said. "Other cities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have experienced sudden spikes in teen pregnancy rates in the last year."

Annette Dion, a 45-year-old private music teacher, said officials should have done more to uncover the truth about the rumored pregnancy pact. Dion stated that denying the pact’s existence is "pretty naive."

"I don't think we heard the truth today," Dion said. Dion also stated that pop culture has done a great deal in glamorizing teen pregnancy and does 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.