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
fi****ng
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.
The question of what to do next has divided this fiercely Catholic
enclave.
Even with national data showing a 3% rise in teen pregnancies in 2006-the
first increase in 15 years-Gloucester isn't sure it wants to provide
easier
access to birth control. In any case, many residents worry that the
problem
goes much deeper. The past decade has been difficult for this mostly
white,
mostly blue-collar city (pop. 30,000). In Gloucester, perched on scenic
Cape
Ann, the economy has always depended on a strong fi****ng industry. But in
recent years, such jobs have all but disappeared overseas, and with them
much of the community's wherewithal. "Families are broken," says school
superintendent Christopher Farmer. "Many of our young people are growing
up
directionless."
The girls who made the pregnancy pact-some of whom, according to Sullivan,
reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for
baby showers-declined to be interviewed. So did their parents. But Amanda
Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows
why
these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman
year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached
her
in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby. "They're so
excited
to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland says. "I
try
to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed
at
3 a.m."
The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young
mothers.
***-ed cl***** end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are
encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center.
Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and
junior
ROTC. "We're proud to help the mothers stay in school," says Sue Todd, CEO
of Pathways for Children, which runs the day-care center.
But by May, after nurse practitioner Kim Daly had administered some 150
pregnancy tests at Gloucester High's student clinic, she and the clinic's
medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate
prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at
about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts. Currently Gloucester teens
must travel about 20 miles (30 km) to reach the nearest women's health
clinic; younger girls have to get a ride or take the train and walk. But
the
notion of a school handing out birth control pills has met with hostility.
Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide
this
for our children." The pair resigned in protest on May 30.
Gloucester's elected school committee plans to vote later this summer on
whether to provide contraceptives. But that won't do much to solve the
issue
of teens wanting to get pregnant. Says rising junior Kacia Lowe, who is a
classmate of the pactmakers': "No one's offered them a better option." And
better options may be a tall order in a city so uncertain of its
future. -with re****ting by Kimberley McLeod/New York
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