Gloucester Considers Considers Giving High School Kids Condoms

Good lord, what are they thinking in Gloucester?

The School Committee in Gloucester, where a report of a high school pregnancy pact made headlines worldwide earlier this year, is planning to vote tonight on whether to allow contraceptives to be distributed at the high school.

The three proposals expected to be discussed when the board meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall include providing contraceptives to students, providing contraceptives to students only with parental consent, or continuing the current policy under which no contraceptives are provided.

Gloucester was thrust into the spotlight in June after Time magazine reported that several teenage girls had entered into a pact to have babies and raise them together.

While the city’s mayor denied the existence of a pact later that month, the School Committee has since debated the merits of offering contraceptives at the school’s health clinic, which is run by Northeast Health System.

So, a bunch of teenage girls have a pregnancy pact, and now the answer is having taxpayers pay for condoms for kids?

Beverly Farms Parade Offends Gloucester Mayor

A few teenagers in Beverly Farms decided to poke a little fun at the Gloucester teenagers who allegedly took part in a pregnancy pact in quite a public way–on parade.

The Horribles Parade in an affluent area north of Boston is supposed to poke fun and feature all things politically incorrect. But a float that spoofed the spike in teen pregnancies in a nearby city was too much for three parade judges.

The annual Fourth of July Horribles parade in Beverly Farms included a float with dancing girls with pillows stuffed under their shirts.

That offended Carolyn Kirk, mayor of Gloucester, a working class city 30 miles north of Boston that made headlines last month when a high school principal told Time magazine that some of the 17 students who became pregnant this school year had made a pact to do so.

Kirk and other school officials have denied the existence of a pact.

Kirk told the Boston Herald she won’t waste her time seeking an apology from Beverly Farms, but added: “It basically triggers a class war between this well-to-do enclave and a working-class city.”

I thought politicians were supposed to have a thick skin? The display also offended the delicate eyes of three parade judges.

“I get it, it’s a Horribles Parade, but it was overkill with the Gloucester pregnancies,” said judge Gail Townsend, who said she won’t be a judge again after being involved with the parade for about 40 years.

Beverly Mayor William Scanlon Jr. refused to get involved because the parade in the Beverly Farms part of town was not a city-sponsored event. “It’s a horrible story,” he said.

I give the Beverly Farms girls who mocked the Gloucester teenagers a lot of credit. Clearly, these girls  realize that what the Gloucester teens did was irresponsible and, let’s face it, stupid. They should be applauded. It’s actually a relief that there are some girls that age that can look at what the Gloucester teens did and see it for what it really was.

Just because Beverly Farms is an “affluent area” north of Boston, and Gloucester is a “working-class city” doesn’t excuse a pregnancy pact.  Where you live doesn’t change the definition of stupid. Working-class parents still have a responsbility to steer their children in the right direction, impart good morals and decision making.

While their method was unorthodox, the girls in Beverly Farms should be commended for their denunication of the pregnancy pact. I hope the pregnant teens in Gloucester feel ashamed of what they did, and I hope other teens around the Commonwealth think about what these girls did when they have huge life choices in front of them. Let’s also hope that parents start having some talks with their hormone crazed children–from the working-class to affluent.

Pregnant Gloucester Teen: No Pact

Pact or no, some people are getting their 15 minutes of fame.

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.

“There was definitely no pact,” Oliver told “Good Morning America.”"There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together. I think it was just a coincidence.”

Oliver, 17, said she became pregnant by accident and that she and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Andrew Psalidas, a community college student, were using birth control.

That still doesn’t explain the spike in teen pregnancy.

Coalition for Marriage and Family Says Media Missed Mark In Gloucester

From my inbox:

Mainstream Media Misses the Mark in Gloucester

Dear Friends,

Troubling local and national news stories are emerging from the city of Gloucester. It was recently revealed that several Gloucester teenage girls had made a pact to get pregnant and raise their father-less children together. Details are available in the news stories linked to below.

The alarm must be sounded about the public policy issues resulting from the recent news. “Family Planning Advocates” are using these incidents to further push contraceptives on troubled school children without parental consent. We need to raise our voices to counteract this dangerous plan which harms young teens and tramples parents’ rights.

Would condoms and birth control have done anything to prevent this situation? No! The children wanted to become pregnant for lack of knowledge of healthier choices.

What the mainstream media has missed in making this a story about birth control is the deeper need for adults to instill in youngsters the many reasons why it’s important to delay sexual activity until marriage.

What could have persuaded these girls to choose another path? Abstinence education — the kind that was offered free of charge to Massachusetts from the federal government and Governor Patrick refused to accept! The Gloucester girls were never taught to have a positive vision of their future, never encouraged to abstain from sexual activity until marriage, never motivated to consider the importance of raising their child with the loving support of a husband—all taught in abstinence-also education programs that are being pushed out of Massachusetts schools under Deval Patrick.

Click here to help take action!

Gloucester Mayor Sheds Doubt on High School Pregnancy Pact

The Associated Press has the story.

School counselors, teachers and families of students the principal said made a pact to get pregnant and have babies together have no information to back the claim, the mayor of Gloucester said Sunday.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk plans to meet Monday with school, health and other local officials after Gloucester High School Principal Joseph Sullivan was quoted by Time magazine saying the girls made such a pact.

The meeting will discuss the alarming rate of teen pregnancy. Seventeen girls in the high school became pregnant this year — four times the usual number. The girls are all 16 or younger, and nearly all of them sophomores.

Kirk told The Associated Press that Sullivan has told officials in this hard-luck New England fishing town that he can’t remember his source of information.

“The high school principal is the one who initially said it, and no one else has said it,” Kirk said. “None of the counselors at the school, none of the teachers who know these children and none of the families have spoken about it.

“So, my position is that it has not been confirmed,” she said.

So then, what’s the explanation?