pregnancy pact … 061908

when you think it just couldn’t get worse. read on …

Report: Gloucester Teens Had Pact To Get Pregnant

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (WBZ) — There’s a stunning twist to the sudden rise in teen pregnancies at Gloucester High School. Seventeen students there are expecting and many of them became that way on purpose. Time Magazine first reported that nearly half of the girls confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. None of them is older than 16.

Schools Superintendent Christopher Farmer told WBZ’s Bill Shields Thursday the girls had “an agreement to get pregnant.” Farmer said these are generally “girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their life.”

Principal Joseph Sullivan has not returned calls from WBZ for comment. Sullivan told the magazine that the pact wasn’t the only shocking incident. “We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” he told Time.

A recent graduate who had a baby during her freshman year told Time she knows why the girls wanted to get pregnant.
“They’re so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally,” Amanda Ireland, 18, said. “I try to explain it’s hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m.”

this article continues my thought in previous blogs of “what were they thinking?” what’s going through their mind? not only the pregnancy but the possibility of STDs. obviously there is no protection being used if the intent is to become pregnant. no thought of the future and what this could all mean for them.

is this a case of love deficiency? would a need for love from the most important people in their lives – parents, be so lacking that these girls would resort to such extreme behavior? what drives this extreme behavior? is this behavior a private matter of a public one? do you have any ideas? i’m aghast! should i be? are you? who is to blame? would education help? what do you think would help?

my thoughts:

where is that one teen who would take the risk and share this plan with parents or other authorities? are we so afraid of being labeled a snitch that we would no longer have the moral courage to do what is right? do we just sit by idle and do nothing? how true is the statement, “evil triumphs when good men or women or teens do nothing”.