17 teens knocked up in an alleged pact

[Garm]

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Fishing-town--faces-another.4209376.jp


SCANDAL has engulfed a small coastal town in the New England state of Massachusetts after news broke of a "baby pact" by students of a high school where 17 have become pregnant.

Authorities are bewildered by the pact in which the girls, none older than 16, agreed to get pregnant and support each other in raising the children.
Teachers at the high school in the impoverished fishing port of Gloucester first noticed something amiss when girls began overwhelming the school's small clinic with requests for repeated pregnancy tests.

More surprising still was their reaction to the test results. The principal, Joseph Sullivan, told Time magazine that the girls "seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were".

Positive results were greeted with whoops of joy and "high fives", said Mr Sullivan.

Investigations later found that many of the girls became pregnant by the same man, a 24-year-old homeless man.

[WickedBttrfly]

whatthefudge.... :eyebrow: I don't even know where to begin on that one. :lol:

[mephistopheles]

Saw this on the news last night. Was a serious "WTF" moment...

[hitsuzen]

:wtf:

:twitch:


...homeless man...??

[Garm]

WTF must have been the most common reflex thought that greeted this story

Like... uhh boy this ...is just

duh loss for words

Upon reflection I am now thinking about "Shadow over Innsmouth" by HP Lovecraft

This is so weird I can help but wonder if this isn't some how connected with the missing feet

[PrincessKLS]

Ohmigod, why waste your energy on a perverted homeless guy who screws all the chicks? Has pregnancy become too popular? I know sounds silly to ask but for the past 2-3 years there seems to have been a huge boom of pregnancy of teens and women in both our lives and all the pregnant stars we've seen in the media.

[WynterWynd]

:wtf:

:twitch:

and I repeat :wtf:

I heard about this last night on a news blurb, my neighbor and I both said ...watch, the father will be the same guy!

Eeeewwwww:twitch:

[Childof_theMorrigan]

wow.

just...


wow.

I am SO never breeding. I don't understand this world we live in anymore.

A pregnancy pact?

uh...

yeah.

[Djiril]

Wait a minute...



With none of the children or their parents coming forward to talk publicly about the issue, this remains speculation, as does any link to the big film success of the year, Juno, in which a teenaged girl decides to have a baby after accidentally getting pregnant.Then why mention it at all? :wtf:

...and then at the end:



JUNO tells the story of a girl of 16, played by rising star Ellen Page, who finds love and contentment after being made pregnant by a fellow pupil.

Like last year's equally successful Knocked Up, some critics charge that Juno may be painting a rosy picture of teen pregnancy.

"In the real world we all know that unplanned pregnancies are rarely played out in such an alarmingly over-simplified manner," wrote Anita Quigley, an American film critic.

"While I am not suggesting these films will lead to a spike in teenage births and single moms, the way in which they glamorise the situation is nonetheless irresponsible."Someone really didn't like Juno, or at least the poster, since I don't think anyone who actually saw the movie would have any reason to think that it would inspire teenage girls to get pregnant!
Also, the woman who got pregnant in Knocked Up was an adult woman with a career, not a teenager.

Come to think of it, I think the writer is just trying to find a way condemn movies where unmarried women get pregnant without being "punished" for it.

[Clair de la Lune]

Back in my day, girls in my school were encouraged to give them up for (open) adoption...this school has a daycare center where strollers criss-cross the halls along with ROTC and people on their way to class--no wonder they got the WRONG IDEA about teen pregnancy!! It doesn't help that "Sex Ed" stops for them in the 9th Grade--Major "DUH"!!! And that contraception is not endorsed or available (not that they gave it out in my school either, but the nearest clinic in a news report is 200 MILES AWAY, UM HELLO PEOPLE! BUT THERE ARE CONDOMS IN GAS STATIONS...I ASSUME, IF THEY REALLY MUST HAVE SEX...).

BUT A PACT...HOW DESPARATE IS SOMEONE TO GET ATTENTION, REALLY??!!?!

THEY JUST "WANTED SOMEONE TO GIVE THEM LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY" GIMME A BREAK!! (It's the other way around for a L-O-N-G TIME!) LIKE SOMETHING WHINING AND CRYING KNOWS WHAT THAT IS AS A NEEDY NEWBORN.

I don't have kids and I won't until I KNOW I'm READY! (MARRIED, FINANCIALLY STABLE, SO EVERYONE ELSE DOESN'T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, ETC.)

WHAT IDIOTS, they just shot their future--and their baby's future in the butt--except now they can live the American Dream on food stamps and welfare, and on WIC. WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR PARENTS?? WHY DIDN'T THEY SHAPE THEIR VALUES AND TEACH THEM ABOUT WHAT REAL LOVE IS??? (Hasn't anyone heard that real love is waiting to create life for when you can support it in a nurturing environment yourself with an equally loving partner and not be a burden on someone or society?)

Now here's our tax dollars at work...

[Djiril]

Back in my day, girls in my school were encouraged to give them up for (open) adoption...this school has a daycare center where strollers criss-cross the halls along with ROTC and people on their way to class--no wonder they got the WRONG IDEA about teen pregnancy!!
That it sometimes results in babies who need to be looked after if the primary caregiver is to finish school?

[Lylian]

Such a very sad story.

[PrincessKLS]

Back in my day, girls in my school were encouraged to give them up for (open) adoption...this school has a daycare center where strollers criss-cross the halls along with ROTC and people on their way to class--no wonder they got the WRONG IDEA about teen pregnancy!! It doesn't help that "Sex Ed" stops for them in the 9th Grade--Major "DUH"!!! And that contraception is not endorsed or available (not that they gave it out in my school either, but the nearest clinic in a news report is 200 MILES AWAY, UM HELLO PEOPLE! BUT THERE ARE CONDOMS IN GAS STATIONS...I ASSUME, IF THEY REALLY MUST HAVE SEX...).

BUT A PACT...HOW DESPARATE IS SOMEONE TO GET ATTENTION, REALLY??!!?!

THEY JUST "WANTED SOMEONE TO GIVE THEM LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY" GIMME A BREAK!! (It's the other way around for a L-O-N-G TIME!) LIKE SOMETHING WHINING AND CRYING KNOWS WHAT THAT IS AS A NEEDY NEWBORN.

I don't have kids and I won't until I KNOW I'm READY! (MARRIED, FINANCIALLY STABLE, SO EVERYONE ELSE DOESN'T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, ETC.)

WHAT IDIOTS, they just shot their future--and their baby's future in the butt--except now they can live the American Dream on food stamps and welfare, and on WIC. WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR PARENTS?? WHY DIDN'T THEY SHAPE THEIR VALUES AND TEACH THEM ABOUT WHAT REAL LOVE IS??? (Hasn't anyone heard that real love is waiting to create life for when you can support it in a nurturing environment yourself with an equally loving partner and not be a burden on someone or society?)

Now here's our tax dollars at work...

Perhaps some of the parents did teach them not to get too involved like that or take a teen pregnancy casually. But when it comes to sex many teens do not follow their parents' advice if any is given. And usually parental advice comes in a form of "don't do it, wait til marriage" and not much else.

[Glowy]

It is a very sad story indeed. I don't believe any of those particular girls are mature enough and ought to be raising a baby.

[PrincessKLS]

Stupidity like this is one of the reasons it's so hard on a young adult female when she decides to have a baby to love and cherish.

[Chibi-Fallon]

Stupidity like this is one of the reasons it's so hard on a young adult female when she decides to have a baby to love and cherish.


They're morons not monsters. They're just poor and stupid, they're not incapable of human emotion. I'm sure they will love their children.

That being said I saw elsewhere someone making the argument that these girls really aren't 'ruining their lives' as their not exactly top of their class in the middle of po-dunk nowhere.

And FYI I'm trying desperately to be able to wrap my head around any intelligent 'young adult female' who would want to take care of a child. Anyone smart enough to have one knows they shouldn't. Also if you're having a baby to 'love and cherish' I'd look into getting a puppy. Puppies don't need college funds.

Although I am thankful I'll be dead before Idiocracy becomes reality.

That's the one reason I would consider having children, so that there could maybe be one more generation before we all start watering with Brawndo.

[WynterWynd]

Stupidity like this is one of the reasons it's so hard on a young adult female when she decides to have a baby to love and cherish.

No, stupidity like this is the reason that so many parents, now grandparents end up raising another child. Its not hard on the young child....15 and 16 is hardly an adult...granted, she is the one that has to go thru the pregnancy...but at that age, most girls have a hard enough time sticking with a hair color/clothes style/boyfriend...let alone comprehending the situation they have allowed themselves to get into.

With that town being so small and poor, I hope this village can step up and all help with the burden these girls have caused.

....my $0.02 ..and I'm off my soapbox.....

[PrincessKLS]

Sorry to get on my soapbox but I've seen with my own eyes and heard about teens, young adults having children for whatever reason (usually unexpected) and not caring them. I've even have a neighbor who has a 20-30 year old daughter with 3 children who coudn't stay off drugs so she's been taking care of two of them for the past year or two.

But no, when I an almost 25-year-old want a child my sister chimes in saying she thinks I'm too immature. And no I wouldn't treat a baby as a toy or a dog. It would get treated 10x better.

[WynterWynd]

Sorry to get on my soapbox but I've seen with my own eyes and heard about teens, young adults having children for whatever reason (usually unexpected) and not caring them. I've even have a neighbor who has a 20-30 year old daughter with 3 children who coudn't stay off drugs so she's been taking care of two of them for the past year or two.

But no, when I an almost 25-year-old want a child my sister chimes in saying she thinks I'm too immature. And no I wouldn't treat a baby as a toy or a dog. It would get treated 10x better.

um....:eyebrow: thats the point i was making.

as for a screwed up 20-30 year old....some people are never meant to be parents. Its just not in them to be self sacrificing for the life and up-bringing of a child.

[Brónach Druid]

Whether it was truly a pact or just circumstance, I find the whole situation very sad.
As far as whether any movies contributed to this....maybe I am the odd one on this, but I just saw Juno last night, while it did have some humor to it but in general I didn't like it. I thought the main character, Juno, was pathetic. I certainly hope the her character doesn't represent American youth. In any case, I didn't come away with the impression that it was advocating or glamorizing teen pregnancy. If anything, to me, it was more of a mockery.

[la tortuga]

I agree that this situation is a rather stupid one to get into, and as other posters have stated, some people are simply not meant for parenthood...

but I don't agree that teenage pregnancy is the worst thing in the world. I work with two women who had their children at 15 and 16, and their kids grew up very well. They weren't a "burden on society" and, now that they are older, these men (now in their late twenties) have a very profound respect for their mothers and a very deep connection to them. Many of these young mothers strive to create an environment suitable for their children to live in.

My mother had my sister and I in her early twenties, both at times on which my parents were on welfare and food stamps (both incidents involving one or both of my parents recently being fired from a job at exactly the wrong time). My parents struggled a great deal when we were young to keep us fed and clothed and I feel a great connection to them, a respect for the strength it took to do what it took to care for me. Now that my parents make a great deal more as far as money, I see the relationship they have with my young brother (he will be 5 in September) is completely different from the one I had. They can afford to give him anything he wants. He doesn't eat macaroni and cheese out of the box every day because that's all my parents can afford, he has actual toys, he has been to a restaurant, etc, etc.

I'm not saying that I support the concept of a teenage pregnancy, but even with a young married couple, sometimes caring for a child is very difficult. Either way, if the persons involved are strong enough to work as hard as they can to put food on the table and only want for the child's best interest, all the power to them, then.

However... I abslutely do not support what these girls have done. They have made a serious mistake in underestimating the amount of work it takes to care for a child and to make a pact with other girls to care for those kids together? No. That won't happen. I'm sorry, but I've personally SEEN men who actually FATHERED children just get up and walk out on their family. A stressed teenage girl with her own child to care for would have even less of a problem doing the exact same thing, so I expect we'll probably see these girls struggling far more than they had ever imagined going into this. My cousin, when 16, wanted so much to have a baby that she went to her drug dealer and got pregnant. Her son is 9 now and probably one of the most emotionally neglected people I have ever met. He does things for attention, he seems shocked when people ask him how school is. It's pathetic what happened to that child. Pregnancy and the bringing of another human being is not a game, and I'm sickened that these young women haven't learned that.


This is why I think my parents did something amazing when I was young. They had my brother when I was 14, and I learned very quickly that I wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with a baby until I had a degree because I went shopping with them to buy baby clothes, food, diapers, the works... and I stayed up with my baby brother when he was crying or ill. I know first hand what it's like to care for a baby and still have to go to school the next day and it's rough. Maybe they should have a program like that instituted everywhere, like those annoying ass baby dolls they have in home economics that are programmed to cry until their needs are met.

[Agaliha]

I hope all those girls get STD tests...just saying, I mean a man having sex with many girls/women, obviously unprotected. I surely hope they don't get anything! That would make this whole situation so much worse, especially if it was something serious.

[Autumn]

How do you get 200 miles from anything in Gloucester? It's 50 miles (if that)from Boston? The no clinic thing sounds stupid. Gloucester's been on the economic ropes for a generation at least. It was a lobstering town in the old days. Now it's a gritty town that time forgot. If you have education and drive you can dig out but I can't imagine being a teen mom facing those kind of challenges.

There's a common theme I hear a lot from too young (Teen) moms which is "Someone who'll love me" a belonging need same as what pushes some kids into gangs.

[WokeUpDead]

It's stupid things like this that make me wonder if abortion really should be mandatory in some cases.

[bellamandu]

Back in my day, girls in my school were encouraged to give them up for (open) adoption...this school has a daycare center where strollers criss-cross the halls along with ROTC and people on their way to class--no wonder they got the WRONG IDEA about teen pregnancy!! It doesn't help that "Sex Ed" stops for them in the 9th Grade--Major "DUH"!!! And that contraception is not endorsed or available (not that they gave it out in my school either, but the nearest clinic in a news report is 200 MILES AWAY, UM HELLO PEOPLE! BUT THERE ARE CONDOMS IN GAS STATIONS...I ASSUME, IF THEY REALLY MUST HAVE SEX...).

BUT A PACT...HOW DESPARATE IS SOMEONE TO GET ATTENTION, REALLY??!!?!

THEY JUST "WANTED SOMEONE TO GIVE THEM LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY" GIMME A BREAK!! (It's the other way around for a L-O-N-G TIME!) LIKE SOMETHING WHINING AND CRYING KNOWS WHAT THAT IS AS A NEEDY NEWBORN.

I don't have kids and I won't until I KNOW I'm READY! (MARRIED, FINANCIALLY STABLE, SO EVERYONE ELSE DOESN'T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, ETC.)

WHAT IDIOTS, they just shot their future--and their baby's future in the butt--except now they can live the American Dream on food stamps and welfare, and on WIC. WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR PARENTS?? WHY DIDN'T THEY SHAPE THEIR VALUES AND TEACH THEM ABOUT WHAT REAL LOVE IS??? (Hasn't anyone heard that real love is waiting to create life for when you can support it in a nurturing environment yourself with an equally loving partner and not be a burden on someone or society?)

Now here's our tax dollars at work...

first of all, while i agree with some of the things you said, i am actually rather offended by your later comments. i became pregnant with my daughter at the age of 16, and decided to keep her. i took full responsibility. i am not a welfare mom, and i certainly am not a burden on society.

i just hope you dont honestly think all single/teen mothers are simply a statistic. the majority of the mothers out there (at least in the state i live in) who are on welfare could very easily change their situation. all they have to do is get a job, maybe two. dont get me wrong, it is EXTREMELY tough but if you work hard enough, if you want it bad enough, and if you make the decision not to sit on your ass all day and live off the governent because you cant take responsibility for what you did, then hey... amazing. that means you've made the decision not to be another statistic.

sorry for the rant. i just hate the fact that just because i was a teen mother the majority of people assume that im white trash and that i live off of welfare and child support.

i know you werent attacking me personally, but in this case it was just one of those scenarios that really irked me.:hehehehe:

[Djiril]

It's stupid things like this that make me wonder if abortion really should be mandatory in some cases.
Didn't we try something like that already? (http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/)

[PrincessKLS]

um....:eyebrow: thats the point i was making.

as for a screwed up 20-30 year old....some people are never meant to be parents. Its just not in them to be self sacrificing for the life and up-bringing of a child.


Yeah okay sorry, I didn't mean to miss the point. Yeah I have sister who's 35/36 and decided she's not stable enough for a child after about 7 years of marriage and is looking into getting her tubes tied but oddly enough she has trouble finding a doctor to do it for a couple of reasons, one she's on medicare due to being on disability and two, some of the doctors she talked to won't do it until she has a child.

I mean by the time you are 35 you know if you want kids or not and usually if you don't have a child by then it means you didn't want one or couldn't concieve one.

WTF are these doctors thinking?

[PrincessKLS]

Didn't we try something like that already? (http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/)


Yes very interesting and I know this is off topic for the thread but I was thinking, these days they don't require sterilization of the severely mentally and phsyically disabled but even decades to centuries ago they required that everyone who was institutionalized or deemed "mentally retarded" had to be sterilized. But I wonder why don't they still sterilize some of them?

I don't mean to sound insensitive but the sad truth is there's a lot of fertile, moderately to severely disabled people who are asked to either abstain from sex forever and/or put on birth control permanently? How is a medical sterilization different from forcing celibacy and birth control on them?

I remember 2-3 years ago when there was a couple who wanted to medically sterilize and remove the breast buds of their very severely disabled 9-year-old daughter who was said to have a mentality of a 3-week old infant.

I remember being on the fence about the issue but the more I get to know the more moderately and severely mentally disabled people at work, I understand where those parents were coming from and the age old practice of sterilization.

[Malcolm]

Thats the funniest thing I've heard in days.


F'n idiots...8O

[WynterWynd]

Yeah okay sorry, I didn't mean to miss the point. Yeah I have sister who's 35/36 and decided she's not stable enough for a child after about 7 years of marriage and is looking into getting her tubes tied but oddly enough she has trouble finding a doctor to do it for a couple of reasons, one she's on medicare due to being on disability and two, some of the doctors she talked to won't do it until she has a child.

I mean by the time you are 35 you know if you want kids or not and usually if you don't have a child by then it means you didn't want one or couldn't concieve one.

WTF are these doctors thinking?

Wow, thats completely fricken .....odd!:eyebrow: I would think a doctor AND a state run medical insurance would be more than happy to preform a tubal ligation on a woman who doesn't want children...especially at her age. Its not like its a 16 year olds whim.

[PrincessKLS]

Yeah like my sister says, she figures the doctors have old fashioned beleifs that every woman must have a child :lol:

I'm sure sooner or later she'll do it.

[WynterWynd]

Yeah okay sorry, I didn't mean to miss the point. Yeah I have sister who's 35/36 and decided she's not stable enough for a child after about 7 years of marriage and is looking into getting her tubes tied but oddly enough she has trouble finding a doctor to do it for a couple of reasons, one she's on medicare due to being on disability and two, some of the doctors she talked to won't do it until she has a child.

I mean by the time you are 35 you know if you want kids or not and usually if you don't have a child by then it means you didn't want one or couldn't concieve one.

WTF are these doctors thinking?

Tubal ligation and vasectomies are covered as family planning services in all state Medicaid programs

From here (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYD/is_1_40/ai_n8968488)

and

Sterilizations, not to include hysterectomies

From Virginia Medicaid Memo (http://www.dmas.virginia.gov/downloads/pdfs/mm-FamPlanning_Srvcs_pgm_12_11_06.pdf)

Sorry to bring that up again, I just couldn't believe that Medcaid could get away with refusing a tubal ligation.
Your sister needs to find a dr that accepts Medicaid and tell him that this is what she wants and to stick his own opinions up his ass:bastard: fricken arrogant md's

[Garm]

Yeah I have sister who's 35/36 and decided she's not stable enough for a child after about 7 years of marriage and is looking into getting her tubes tied but oddly enough she has trouble finding a doctor to do it for a couple of reasons, one she's on medicare due to being on disability and two, some of the doctors she talked to won't do it until she has a child.

I mean by the time you are 35 you know if you want kids or not and usually if you don't have a child by then it means you didn't want one or couldn't concieve one.

WTF are these doctors thinking?

Tell her to make up a good story

I went to get my vasectomy when I was 21. The medical people were at first a little reluctant but when I mentioned that I was up on charges of attempted murder they became very accommodating.

Wasn't a complete lie, but the charge had already been plea bargained down to assault causing bodily harm for which I got probation. It's a long story but it suffices to say that kicking me in the head is not a good idea.

[Philosophia]

Update:


Pregnant Mass. teen says there was no pact

GLOUCESTER, Mass. - One of the girls who became pregnant at Gloucester High School this year denied Tuesday there was any pact among them to have children, saying instead they decided to help each other make the best of their situations.

Lindsey Oliver rebutted the principal's claim that a sharp increase in teen pregnancies — 17 compared to a typical four — was in part because several girls planned to get pregnant so they could raise their babies together.

From here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_on_re_us/pregnancy_pact).

[thought_on_a_wind]

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Fishing-town--faces-another.4209376.jp
.... Well, I just love to see just how functional all those required sex-ed, sex-health, anti-peer pressure classes are...

Maybe we can close these programs now, and go back to spending tax-payer money on more effective things... like how cow shit and flatulence effects the ozone and leads to green house gasses...

[aluokaloo]

I'm sorry I know I'll get flamed for being so harsh, but these girls are just plain ol stupid!


No I'm not condemning all teenage parents, but what these girls did were stupid beyond belief!

[Stormbeard]

That 24 year old homeless man must have thought his luck was in.

[aluokaloo]

must have. he was like oooh hoo yeah! this is my lucky day! with a big lecherous grin on his face!

[BlackLili]

I dunno...girls being stupid and getting knocked up in groups is nothing new.

It used to be something that was considered shameful and hidden - often times the reason being that one pregnant girl getting so much attention might want other girls to gain that same "fame" and attention, and get pregnant to do so.

Even if that's not what happened here, could we please use this as evidence that abstinence-only programs don't work? (I noticed that it was an abstinence-only school sex-ed program.)

[PrincessKLS]

That 24 year old homeless man must have thought his luck was in.


Ewww, I wouldn't want to touch that loser with a 10-foot pole.

[Djiril]

That 24 year old homeless man must have thought his luck was in.
Maybe he would have... if he was real.

[aussiepunkchick]

I cant believe that people would be stupid enough to do something like this i have nothing against teenage mothers who actually take resposiblity for their kids. But making a pact to have babies together at 16 years of age is just stupid. I live in a small town and i have seen half the girls in my grade fall pregnant in their last year of school and miss out on a education and a chance to get out of our town. This just makes me sad.