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By Kaz on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 4:23pm
Beantown Bloggery picked up on a Time magazine article in which 17 teenage girls, 4 times the number as the previous year, at Gloucester High School were found to have made a pregnancy pact and to want to raise their children together. The article explains:
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," said principal Joseph Sullivan.
Some girls described the desire to give birth to something that unconditionally loves them. Other observers wonder if the in-school daycare and strollers mingling with students in the hallways might be presenting the wrong impression of teen pregnancy.
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Comments
Oy Vey!
"Some girls described the desire to give birth to
something that unconditionally loves them."
Question for pre-16 year old girls...do you at this
particular moment love your mother unconditionally?
Beyond depressing.
Dog bites man story - old
Dog bites man story - old news. A large proportion of teenage mothers get pregnant deliberately, often for the stated reason. I heard a similar story on NPR about 15 years ago.
Yep. My college girlfriend
Yep. My college girlfriend had deliberately gotten pregnant at 13, just after her dad died, for that very reason. Luckily, she had a large and supportive family and she and her son both came out okay.
It may be news that so many did it, but the underlying reason? Oldest story in the world.
15 years ago
Did they also do it in pacts/packs of 17 and high-five each other when they got pregnant from a bum and plan out their totally awesome Sweet 16 Baby Showers?
Sure, 15 years ago there were girls who got pregnant because they wanted a baby to love them (usually as a result of daddy leaving them). They were also usually outcast and alone in that decision. It's different in this case than your "old story", this is the glam du jour for these girls.
Nope. The story came from a
Nope. The story came from a journalist who went into an urban neighborhood - Chicago or Detroit - and hung out with teens for a year. At first, the girls told him the standard story - slip-ups, failed birth control, etc. Later, when they got to know him, they said they had become pregnant deliberately, to have someone to love them, to keep a boyfriend, etc. The story out of Gloucester is the same - the girls think that a baby is a puppy, and they see girls in the neighborhood getting housing vouchers, support in school, etc, so why not? It's not like they expect to become partners in a law firm some day.
a puppy will also love you
a puppy will also love you unconditionally
And when you get tired of
And when you get tired of taking care of a puppy, it's a lot easier to take it to a shelter than it is to give away a toddler.
I'm kinda of the opinion that prospective parents of all ages should have to raise a puppy for a year first.
Baby Daddy
sorry couldn't resist.
Gang Pregnancy
I stand by my assertion that all homeless men should
be neutered. This must stop.
Hardly fair
I'm quite sure that not only do some homeless men already have children, but that some of them are good fathers. Many people become homeless through bad luck rather than extreme misbehaviour. And many people who are homeless this year will not be homeless next year. Neutering is a very permanent solution for something that I'm not sure is such a big problem.
On the other hand, offering a small sum, say $300.00, to any male who has a vasectomy might save taxpayers money in the long run.
It could be worse
At least it wasn't a suicide pact. I do think it's a bit unusual, and not optimal, but I don't find it horrifying that these girls want to have babies and raise them together. I'm sure having a peer group will help them through their pregnancies. And I think the high school offering free day care is wonderful. People might say it encourages girls to get pregnant, but I think of it as gender parity. Teen fathers can stay in school without day care. It takes day care to allow teen mothers the same access.
I think this pregnancy pact is a testimony to how easy it is to have one's horizons close in. Gloucester is kind of a depressed town, but it's not exactly the end of the universe. It has commuter rail to Boston, and Salem State is close by, not to mention Gordon, Endicott, and Bay State, so it's geographically privileged compared to most of the rest of the country. It's not like you can't get a good education a decent job and live in Gloucester. You just can't necessarily do what your parents and grandparents did.
I hope these girls get the support they need, and come to realize that it was a mistake but not a fatal one. In order to get a good job outside Gloucester, they will need further education, and their children will be an impediment to that, though not an insurmountable one. Children are the opposite of a get out of responsibility free card. So I wish them all uncomplicated pregnancies, lots of support, and an awakening to what they need to do next.
Manifest Destiny
Word, Gareth, Word!
Being a child of finer trailer courts, I knew a lot of young women growing up who took this path, but not so very intentionally.
What exactly were the expectations for these girls? From their families? From their school systems? I suspect that they were written off by the schools because they weren't the academic top of the line, turned loose by academically unsupportive parents challenged by the idea of education for themselves, let alone for their daughters ... perhaps they were simply fulfilling what they saw to be their ultimatate destiny, but on their own terms.
Sad to think that this is the only way they could see to take some proactive control over their lives ... I'd like to know what their families and counselors *predicted* for each of them a year ago.
Unfortunately, however..
All too often, many adolescent girls who do end up pregnant for whatever reason do end up being permanently sidetracked. They often don't finish school--they're not interested and don't care, and their chances for furthur education, learning any type of skill(s), or meaningful employment when they reach adulthood are badly crippled as a result.
Thanks, Miki!
n/m
You called it, Cynical
She's even bolding words in sentences to give inflection, to boot!
You ain't welcome, babe!
n/m
Hey Miki?
Why are you posting anonyoynmynmnyously? Why no name attached?
Just for the heck of it.
:=)
Well, welcome back!
How've you been? What are you smithing these days?
:o)
I'm okay, eeka. How're you doing?
I've been working on 3 projects; a small sterling silver bowl with a lid, which will eventually have a handle on top, a box with a piece of walrus bone set into the top, and a hexagon-shaped (6-sided) box with a marriage-of-metals decoration on top.
Good, thanks!
Ooh, sounds nice!
(Are metals being allowed to marry part of that slippery slope people keep talking about?)