Breakfast Club Replaced by Pregnancy Club in Gloucester

Photo tagged Bostonist by Flickr user hmmlargeart

You know something's serious when Time takes notice. Apparently the lack of jobs, hope, and birth control in Gloucester has driven some teens at Gloucester High School to create pregnancy pacts in which they all agree to become pregnant and raise their babies together. The school seems to be embracing the trend by providing free day care for students and forcing the resignation of health center staff who provided students with birth control.

Seventeen students (out of 1200) at Gloucester High are pregnant; that's more than four times the number of pregnancies reported last year. The health center administered a staggering 150 pregnancy tests over the past school year. Assuming half the students in the school are girls, that figure represents a quarter of the school's female population.

While access to birth control should be available for students who want it, pills won't solve the bigger problem. Time quotes Gloucester school superintendent Christopher Farmer as saying, "Many of our young people are growing up directionless." That's the real source of these pregnancy pacts. Young women without any other way to feel good about themselves are counting on babies for the love and attention they need. A Gloucester graduate who became pregnant her freshman year says, of her peers who have babies, "They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally."

Perhaps if these girls had a more supportive community, they wouldn't seek solace in infants. Gloucester High School should step up the availability not only of birth control and sexual education, but also of after-school programs, counseling services, mentoring opportunities, and other resources for teens who feel lost.