Let's Talk Gloucester Teen Pregnancy Pact
Jun 25, 2008 AT 07:40 am
It's been all over the news and everyone I know is talking about it. The pact... or the non pact that existed between 17 young girls who are all now pregnant in a Gloucester High School. Did they or didn't they all agree to get pregnant at the same time? And were movies like Juno and young actresses like Jamie Lynn Spears an inspiration?
One high schooler who is 5 months pregnant was interviewed and said there was NO prior pact to get pregnant. Instead, the girls promised to help one another out once they all found out about their circumstances. The interviewer also specifically asked if JUNO and SPEARS were influential and the teen said absolutely not.
Jason Batemen has come to the defense of the movie industry saying its not their fault if people act out in this manner after seeing a movie. After all, it's just entertainment.
“I don’t know the specifics, but I can speak about what sort of responsibility entertainment should hold for social behavior.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had these instances where guys kill people because of what they hear in rock ‘n roll lyrics or some garbage like that. Look, if you’re going to blame a movie or song for your actions, whether they be good or bad, I think you’re looking at the wrong things to influence your life.
I think people should look to other areas of their life for lessons and guidance, mainly parents, or teachers, or friends, or whomever. That should probably be where you should point your eyes and ears.”
What do you think?
22 Comments
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Sad! Babies having babies. To throw your dreams and life away like this to become parents at such a young age.... I can't even fathom that. When I was a teen, all I was thinking about was Duran Duran, not about getting pregnant! Even in my 20s, I wanted to travel, discover the world, enjoy my youth, party and have fun. They're too young to understand the consequences of having children, which means offering them a stable life, making them a priority, and giving lots of love, attention and guidance. It's a huge responsiblity and it's not about changing diapers or shopping for cute kids outfits. They're in for the shock of their lives! Sad!!!
Eek! I wish them good luck. Honestly, no one with common sense can truly believe that this was influenced by a movie or Jamie Lynn.
These girls aren't victims, nor are they "special" or deserving of any sympathy. They're selfish little children/attention whores who actively decided to NOT practice safe sex in order to procreate, knowing full well that they lack the same sort of emotional maturity present in women decades older that happens to be necessary for motherhood. *phew.* People just get dumber and dumber, I swear. This post reminded me to take my pill, though, so thanks for that!
Actively decide NOT to practice safe sex??? How about the fact that our government has cut all funding for sex education and kids are taught abstinence only??? If they aren't TAUGHT how to have safe sex, then they don't know! I'm not saying that these kids didn't realize that having sex could mean getting pregnant, I'm just saying that maybe if we let them learn how to properly put on a condom or get the pill, they might actively decide to have safe sex. The rate of teen mothers is only increasing in this country and a lot of that has to do with the lack of sex education.
This isn't the 80's or early 90's... If a 16 year old girl doesn't know that unprotected sex gets you pregnant, then she's either been locked away her whole life or she just acts dumb when she gets knocked up on purpose... I feel bad for all the guys who are now forever weighed down with a baby, because a bunch of brain dead little girls, decided it would be fun to be a mommy at 17... hmm 17 young and unprepared moms, there must be some mathematical equation to figure out how many will spend their lives living in a trailer park collecting their welfare......
I take such issue with the whole blaming the media card. I'm in my mid 20s and have no children yet, however, growing up my sister and I were raised to take responsibility for our actions. Blaming the kid next to us in school or the girl on tv was not an acceptable excuse in our family. We weren't allowed to dress like Madonna when we were 8 and we were taught to use our own brain, not follow our friends (especially in an all girls catholic high school when at least 5-7 girls per year were pregnant). Now I can't speak for how young girls look at Jaime Lynn Spears but the thing I don't understand about Juno is I don't see how it glorified pregnancy at all...even in a 15 year olds mind. As lovable as she was, Juno hated being pregnant and had a hard time parting with the baby when it came time to give it up for adoption. Maybe I'm missing something but I don't think the high school version of myself would've wanted to end up like Juno at all. Moms of teens am I missing something?
There is a new show coming out about giving babies to teens for 2 days who think they are ready for them. They should have done that first. I bet that would have changed things!
I know I saw a commercial for that show on TV. It looks pretty interesting!
Honestly, blaming the media drives me crazy. It's like we look for any way to not be responsible for our own actions. I watched a ton of TV and movies as a kid and I managed to grow up reasonably well-adjusted. No teen pregnancy, and I graduated from law school, even. It helps that I had amazing parents, of course. Anyway, are we going to blame the next rash of teenage pregnancy in a town on all the coverage the Gloucester teens are getting? I highly doubt there was a pact. I think the principal, who can now not remember how he heard about the pact, was trying to deflect from the fact that he refused to allow contraceptives to be given to the students without parental consent. Ideally, yes, kids would talk to their parents about sex, but if a student wants contraception, chances are that student has already made the decision to have sex or is in fact having sex, so please, help that student protect herself or himself. I wish all the babies and their parents well, of course, but this is a very bad situation and we need to find ways to teach kids that having babies is hard, hard work even for two married adult parents with incomes, let alone for single teenagers without incomes. Yikes.
Yep, I got pregnant at 17 but I wasn't blaming it on Madonna for that influential little song "papa don't preach" or the teen pregnancy movies of my time: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, For Keeps, etc. Juno isn't the first teen pregnancy movie for pete's sake. And Jamie Lynn is hardly the first teenager to get pregnant. Teenagers make stupid choices sometimes and noone is to blame but themselves. I take full responsibility for my actions back then, just like today. And I now have a beautiful teenage daughter that I love more than anything. It's the same as when they blame violent crimes on a particular band that the offender was "into" or blaming bad behavior on video games. It's ridiculous in our society how there always has to be blame laid somewhere but never on the individual.
Blaming the entertainment industry is a cop out, pure and simple. god forbid that anyone in today's society actually stand up and take responsibility for their own actions - that would be madness right?! i graduated from high school ten years ago and there were about 6 girls in my class pregnant at the time....though I don't think they were "in a pact", it's nothing new. It is a real shame that these children and that's what they are, children, think it's cool for whatever reason to have a child that young. I feel for them and I feel for their parents, because unfortunately, the parents are more than likely the ones who are going to end up raising the babies. Now I know that a good deal of teen mothers go on to very sucessful lives, but from what I have read of the young women in question, none seem eqiupped to do so.
Honestly, whether there is a pact or not this community has failed their children. The school system/parents must not be teaching about safe sex! I remember the days in Health class. Seeing the pictures of genital warts and other things made me obsessed with safe sex! If these girls did get pregnant because Jamie Lynn did, they are not realizing that she at least has the means to take care of a child. These girls will not be able to bring in the kind of income Jamie Lynn is to raise those babies. I do find it odd that 17 are pregnant and they say there is no pact. Obviously something is going on and school officials are trying to cover it up. It seems like too big of a coincidence that 17 girls just happen to be pregnant.
I took health in summer school. A male coach was teaching it, but basically just talking about how many women he slept with. I had to learn about everything from my fiance, who had a sister and 9 aunts. I've always wondered how many people actually had a good health class or any class, for that matter.
I took Health in summer school as well, but with a female teacher. She broke sex down to the basics, which I think was good because none of the kids obsessed over it. We learned about the physiology, biological influences (ie. why some body types are more attractive than others for procreation and how we view each other with this goal subconsciously), and also cases of STDs and pregnancy. And dang, we had to get parental permission to view videos of childbirth, both natural and c-section, and I think that was the best form of birth control EVER.
Where did I just read that 45% of births are to unwed mothers now? And look, they all feel famous now. They have daycare at the high school, and the "moms" all get special attention, this may have been easy way to the 15 minutes, and with that comes a heavy burden.
I hate when people start blaming the media for all the troubles in our society. Yes it is easy to point fingers and play the blame game when your perfect child does something you feel they are not capable of. A teen commits suicide and because he was listening to Marilyn Manson and Judas Priest...well it must be their fault. A group of kids get pregnant and instead of standing up and saying that oops maybe we should be teaching them sex ed and preventative measures in school so this doesn't happen they point to who ever is famous and may have done something similiar. Seriously---can even one of you say that when you were planning on taking that first big step of maybe having sex with your boyfriend you wanted to talk to your mom and dad about the pros and cons of birth control and the responsibilities of potential teen pregnancies over the dinner table?
I think it's sick. Disgusting. Horrible. There are a million things I can say. But, in small towns there's really nothing better to do. My husband grew up in a small town, and now 95% of his classmates (being the ripe age of 24) have multiple children and divorces, then re-marrages to other people and more children, all the while making 8.25 at either the towns Quiznos or Jamba Juice. It's babies or drugs. Both take my taxes, and unwillingly from me. They all had a chance to get out (yes, really) and go to college, but only few took it. I know the few, and they're the only without children/divorces.
I think that this news interviewer did this interview in such a classy and non threatning way. You can tell that the young couple are scared and unsure of what is going to happen and I am glad that this guy did not attack them but rather try to get the truth. Regardless, pact or no pact, I do not know why this has attracted so much attention. For as long as I have known teen pregnancy has been happening. My GRANDMOTHER got pregnant at 17 with my MOTHER and had to fight to be able to participate at her high school graduation. The school was afraid of the image it would portray. That was over 40 years ago and she told me she was not the only girl pregnant at the time, other girls were able to hide it until after graduation. So, why are we so schocked about it happening now? Sex is everywhere we look in our society today. The problem I think is too much exposure to sexual things and images and not enough education.
I want to add to my comment by saying. In no way do I see these girls as victims or think they deserve special treatment. Regardless of if there was a pact or not, they made a choice that they will have to live with. The couple in this interview seems to have a sensibile grip on reality, they know this will be a big change and they seem to know what they are facing. Good for them. I just think that better education and readily available contraception will help the teen pregnancy rate. Some say say offering contraception may encourage sex, but as the girl in the interview says "it is obviously already happening regardless" why not help to protect them from pregnancy and other things like STD's
Hmmm, what came first, the chicken or the egg? As much as anyone might like to blame the entertainment industry, I'm afraid that art mirrors society, and not the other way around. You wanna change the world? Change society first. Change yourself first. Be the change that you want to see in the world, and encourage others to do the same.
We my daughter got pregnant at 17 and she was talked to about safe sex for years by all of our families. She honestly didn't think it could happen to her. Well now she has HPV and the cancerous type, and she didn't think that could happen either - It's pretty obvious they just don't think about any consequences. Sad.
these chicks need to watch the baby borrowers on nbc. the show premieres tonight at 9. i feel like it should be required reading for all teens. especially teens considering becoming pregnant, even casually considering it. hopefully this show will make them reconsider.
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