Gloucester Perpetuates Own Problem

We hate to keep ragging on Gloucester, but they just make it so damn easy. In the wake of media coverage of its teen pregnancy crisis, Gloucester has decided that secret meetings with no media are the best way to continue not dealing with teen pregnancy. That's the spirit, Gloucester--make kids feel like sex, contraception, and pregnancy are such taboo topics that they need to be discussed in private! Pile on even more shame! What a way to open up dialogue.

Gloucester is couching its decision to go media-free as a way to encourage open discussion that media presence might inhibit. However, if it were really interested in discussing issues openly, the city would've started such talks long ago--e.g., before teens started getting pregnant. Instead, Gloucester school authorities alienated their students so much that the pregnant teens turned to each other--not family or school resources--to make pacts providing support during pregnancy and childrearing. There is a definite need for safe spaces where teens feel comfortable talking about their problems, but the place for those safe spaces is within the home or school, not a public citywide forum.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk says the meeting is about "raising awareness in the community. This isn't just a school issue; it's not just a city issue. It's also about families taking responsibility and providing them with awareness." Well, what better way to raise awareness than through media coverage?

It took a barrage of negative media coverage to shame Gloucester into finally acknowledging its issues with teen pregnancy. We don't pretend that media treatment of the issue was necessarily fair, balanced, or even factual, but at least it was relentless enough to make the city realize it might have an issue. Media coverage of the discussions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy in Gloucester could serve as a model for other communities to have similar discussions.

Gloucester is by no means the only city with a teen pregnancy problem, nor is it necessarily even the most pregnant town in Massachusetts. For better or for worse, though, the city has been turned into a poster child for teen pregnancy. Now the city has the chance to turn itself into a model for dealing with and preventing teen pregnancy, but it looks like Gloucester may throw that opportunity out the window by balking at the very spotlight that illuminated its problems in the first place. We urge Gloucester to address its issues more openly and to serve as an example for other communities to do the same.