ClumsyMonkey.net

that was the nicest way to say what i wanted to but it doesnt really carry the same meaning per se

here is the video story
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4197591n


this is the story from Time

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High
By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008

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.

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 fishing 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. Sex-ed classes 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 reporting by Kimberley McLeod/New York

Ugh. So that's like a recurring problem there. That's so stupid. All under 16... my god.

I worry that these girls seem to believe that the only way to be loved "unconditionally" is to have a child of their own. some of them are probably hoping that once the children are old enough it will be a "best friend" mother-daughter relationship - something like on gilmour girls.

these kids need education, but also some kind of psychological support; their reality seems very different from most.

I know a girl who got pregnant in order to keep a guy with her.

beautiful liar wrote:I worry that these girls seem to believe that the only way to be loved "unconditionally" is to have a child of their own. some of them are probably hoping that once the children are old enough it will be a "best friend" mother-daughter relationship - something like on gilmour girls.

Man, as I was reading your sentence I was thinking "Like on Gilmore Girls!!"
Apparently you thought that too

But man, I live in a fishing community that no longer has abundant employment, and we're not all getting pregnant. That's insufficient reasoning!

Ahhh, but with no abundant employment, girls can't necessarily count on their parents to pay for these babies (although I guess I'm making a big assumption - I have no idea what kind of financial situation these people & their families were in).

I don't know. I really don't want kids ever, so it's hard for me to understand girls who are like "we're in high school! let's get pregnant, endure pain, and be tethered to an offspring for the next 20 years!"

I heard about that a while ago. The whole thing to me seems so crazy. You're sixteen, you're supposed to be getting stoked about getting your driver's licence and being able to go to parties more often.

Or at least that's how it is around here.

"Sixteen years old" and "wanting to get pregnant" are not two phrases that regularly go together.

I don't think the thing should be entirely up to the school, either. The parents should step in and try to do as much as they can, not the school.

Definitely.

How many of our parents were pregnant in their late teens? or our grandparents?
I don't mean to come here and advocate teen pregnancy, but there has become this bizarre notion in north america that babies = death. Yeah it kind of sucks that these girls are being irrational, but they can make their own decisions. it's not like anyone living in the U.S. is going to be unaware of the consequences of getting pregnant. There is a shrinking fertility rate, so why not have some kids? In Canada they actually pay us to do so! yay baby bonus!

My aunt was pregnant when she was in her late teens/young twenties. Actually, it's a twisted story, but her baby was my mom, and then my "aunt's" mom/the woman I've called Grandma for all of my life adopted my mom. So technically, my aunt's other kids are my mom's half brothers.

I hear that sort of thing happens a lot though. A woman gets pregnant and their mother adopts the baby,

It happened to Jack Nicholson! He never found out that his sister was his mom until a celebrity reporter investigated it!

Random Name wrote:How many of our parents were pregnant in their late teens? or our grandparents?
I don't mean to come here and advocate teen pregnancy, but there has become this bizarre notion in north america that babies = death. Yeah it kind of sucks that these girls are being irrational, but they can make their own decisions. it's not like anyone living in the U.S. is going to be unaware of the consequences of getting pregnant. There is a shrinking fertility rate, so why not have some kids? In Canada they actually pay us to do so! yay baby bonus!

I totally agree that babies are frowned upon WAY too much in our society... but when girls this young decide to have them without giving it much thought, with presumably no job of their own, and expect to be able to raise the kid without negatively impacting their own parents, it's just incredibly sad and irresponsible.

I wish babies were more frowned upon. Too many people I know have had "accidents" in the last few years.

babies aren't accidents they are the result of certain behaviour. I am sure their children, if they chose to have them, don't grow up thinking they were an accident. sad just sad

crustine wrote:babies aren't accidents they are the result of certain behaviour. I am sure their children, if they chose to have them, don't grow up thinking they were an accident. sad just sad

i know people who think they were accidents.


because they were!

I was a pleasant surprise.

At least that's what my mommy told me when I was depressed

I may be the only child in history who was actually planned.

I think I was.

Sweet, we're the only two in history, then! ^5