If you think that the high school principal calling a group of "seven or eight sophomore girls" trying to getting pregnant and raise their kids together a "pact" causes a media headache for the mayor, you're right.
So far, no one's found any Gloucester '10 Mamas Facebook groups, which is proof enough for Gloucester's mayor, Carolyn Kirk, who is furiously attempting to muddy the pregnancy pact waters by claiming that only one person called it a "pact," and he [the principal] "is now 'foggy in his memory.'"
From the reports of the school social worker, who "had heard of the girls' plan to get pregnant as early as last fall," and friends of the girls in question, who say things like, "I think the plan was a lot about peer pressure," the only reason the girls might not have called it a "pact" is because they didn't know what the word meant.
Personally, even though the "last fall" comment doesn't support it, I'm still holding out hope for my "It. Was. The. Spears. It. Was. The. Spears." theory. [Jamie Lynn announced her pregnancy in December, which no one in Gloucester would mistake for fall.]
Gloucester Pregnancy Plot Thickens [time]
Previously: DT Friday Freakout: A Very Special Episode Of Zoey 101 Edition
Well, about the "last fall" thing...Time says social worker Sue Todd told them that, but today Sue Todd told the AP she said no such thing.
"At no time have I stated to anyone that our social worker had knowledge of this. I have stated the opposite," Todd told the Associated Press.
Another article states that the mayor said the spike in pregnancies was similar to spikes in "other cities". I have absolutely no idea where that data comes from, but perhaps those other cities' problems can also be attributed to The Spears...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-23-teens-pact_N.htm?csp=34
[hm, looks like Time is at once standing by its reporting, and is leaving out some strong refutations of it. There's no mention of the "blood-oath" comment, and none of the social worker's denials. interesting. FWIW, I thought the implications of the original Time article about sex ed classes and the availability of contraceptives were wrong and irrelevant. -ed.]
I really don't blame the Spears' for this ruckus. If that's the way I put it. Yes, peer pressure is number one. Secondly, these teens' decision to go with their friends and don't have a mind of their own. I would say that what they have done is now considered a first step to seeing the real picture of what is. Now they will learn from this and now we don't know for sure that they should be responsible for their own actions. :)
One of the girls appeared on GMA and said pretty much (1) no pact, just a plan to support each other once they were already in the same boat, and (2) they could have used some access to birth control. No mention of Spears. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/16692720/detail.html
For whatever it's worth, the plot is still thickening, as the principal issued a statement standing by his original statement (that there was a pact, or at least that a number of pregnancies were intentional).
I am issuing this statement today to put to rest the notion that I am "foggy in my memory" or that when pressed, "my memory failed,"...
Full text of principal Sullivan's statement at
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/06/26/statement_of_gloucester_principal/