Teen Pregnancy Pact

Currently Craving: Cool water

Seems like everywhere i looked yesterday i was hearing about this story out of Gloucester Mass. The school nurse at Gloucester High found that right at the beginning of the year and continuing through the school year she was administering WAY more pregnancy tests than usual. and then when girls found out they were pregnant they weren't sad or upset.... one of them said "sweet!" and another gave high fives. by the end of this year 17 of the high school girls were pregnant.

when the principle there did some investigating he found several of the girls admitted to creating a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together (!!!)

of course, blame is being circulated around. some people want to blame the movie Juno, others are pointing to poor or absent parenting and others are saying the town is in a slump and these girls are lonely.

but no matter who or what is to blame, how nuts is that???? i'm thirty and being pregnant is no picnic and i know that raising a baby isn't going to be one either. i'm glad i'm pregnant, i enjoy it but it's a little harder than i thought it might be and i still haven't gotten to the being 'a planet' part yet. and i know babies are WORK. but maybe it's because i'm thirty that i can look ahead with trepidation and excitement whereas if i was 15 i'd only be excited and think this would be someone to love me more than ever. who knows.

mainly i guess i just feel bad for these girls. they don't really know what's coming and if they're already in a town with depressed economy and in family lives that are not particularly supportive how much of a chance do they have raising children? so really i should feel bad for the children the most. hopefully everyone in this situation can get the support they need but i know that isn't always the case.

i think in this country we need more of us who are normal stable people to step up and do some mentoring. maybe if these girls had more positive impacts in their lives this wouldn't happen. then again, maybe it would... but at least i'd like to try to help solve the problem if i can. (and that doesn't mean just supporting my own child)

Anyways, the article first came out in Time and you can Read More Here

you can also listen to a story about it from NPR's All Things Considered by linking HERE