It has been reported that officials at the Gloucester High School in Gloucester in the US are investigating reports that a pact has been made by a group of teenage girls to get pregnant and raise their babies together is at least partly behind a sudden spike in pregnancies at a high school in Massachusetts. Joseph Sullivan who is the principal at the Gloucester High School has said that the girls who are 16 and under have confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating a rise in pregnancies that has left 17 girls at the school carrying a child. Joseph also said that some of the girls reacted to the news they were pregnant with high fives and plans for baby showers.

According to reports it’s said that as least some of the men involved in the pregnancies were in their mid-20s, including one man who appears to be homeless.

A lot of people are blaming movies and celebrities for this and have said that films such as Juno and Knocked Up, are showing young, unwed mothers, or even celebrities such as Jamie Lynn Spears, who was just 16 when she found out that she was expecting her first baby which we are pleased to announce she delivered a healthy baby girl yesterday.

Ok its easy to blame celebrities and films/TV shows for this but could the problem be closer to home. It’s said that the school forbids the distribution of condoms and other contraception without parental consent which is a rule that prompted the school’s doctor and nurse to resign in protest in May. But surely it’s better for teenagers to be able to get protecion then to not have it at all. This makes me worry could things like this start to happen in the UK I know that there are quite of teenage pregnancies happen at a school near me and that is the reason my daughter who is nearly 10 will not be going there in September.

I was a teenage mum at 18 and yes it is hard and sometimes you wish that you went to collage and could go out on nights out like your friends and get a career behind you but what happens happens and only you are in control of what happens in your life.

So the question is, do you think that there should be more places available for young people who find it hard to talk to their parents and so that they can get the protection they need without needing their parents permission?

source