A pregnancy boom at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts is shocking many, and it's not necessarily because teens didn't have access to birth control.
According to officials at the school, seventeen girls made a pact together to get pregnant at the same time and raise their kids together.
School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time Magazine, who first broke the story, that he started noticing something suspicious when the pregnancy rate had rose more than four times the school's average. He also observed more girls visiting the school clinic to get pregnancy tests.
"Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan said.
The girls slowly began revealing the truth to officials after they confronted them, none of whom are over 16 years of age. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan told Time.
Some of the other fathers are reportedly in their mid-20s, leading officials to explore statutory rape charges.
Why the girls would do something like this remains a mystery. But 18-year-old Amanda Ireland who gave birth her freshman year said many girls would tell her how lucky she was to have a baby.
"They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland told Time. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."
Gloucester student Kaitlyn Delong said she knows some of the teen moms and that their lives have changed for the better. "They don't party as much, they don't drink as much," she told Fox 25 in Boston.
Users are sounding off on MyFoxBoston's message board, expressing their anger and disbelief.
CandiceMcD wrote, "Babies are not the newest things in accessories. These girls, I don't know WHAT they were thinking. Things happen, teens get pregnant (I am the product of a teen mother) -- however, getting pregnant on PURPOSE? What?? If you want to take care of something as a group -- grow a tomato plant."
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