School officials in this hard-luck New England fishing town say an alarming 17 girls — four times the usual number — became pregnant this year. The story exploded after Joseph Sullivan, the principal of Gloucester High School, was quoted by Time magazine this week as saying the girls confessed to making such a pact. None of the girls or their families have come forward to confirm any type of pact, and school and health officials have not identified any of the youngsters. City and school officials in this town of about 30,000 people 30 miles north of Boston have been struggling for months to explain and deal with the pregnancies, where on average only four girls a year at the 1,200-student high school become pregnant. Just last month, two officials at the high school health center resigned to protest the local hospital’s refusal to support a proposal to distribute contraceptives to youngsters at the school without parental consent. read more

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Seventeen teenage girls in one Massachusetts high school are pregnant at the same time, apparently the result of making a "pregnancy pact" and wanting to raise their babies together. The situation has prompted speculation about whether it’s an effect of Jamie Lynn Spears’ teen pregnancy, or the result of the town’s economic problems or simply a symptom of a society too lax about sexual responsibility. Spears, the sister of troubled pop star Britney Spears and star of Nickelodeon’s "Zoey 101," revealed in December that she was pregnant. According to a Massachusetts state report, the town of Gloucester reported 19 teens birth in all of 2006. In December, the Richmond health department launched a prevention initiative targeting teens and their parents. Girls who get pregnant as teens don’t often understand the broader consequences, said Bob Ruthazer, a family life educator with First Things First of Greater Richmond, a group promoting healthy families. read more

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