The Teenage Baby Boom In Gloucester, Massachusetts

London Times ^ | May 31st 2009

[Steelfish]

he Sunday Times May 31, 2009

The teenage baby boom in Gloucester, Massachusetts One Year On: A mysterious spate of teenage pregnancies has shaken up one isolated American town

(REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni) Some have blamed the example set by Hollywood for the teen pregnancy spree. Last year, the Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn Spears (pictured) announced her surprise pregnancy at 16

Caroline Scott

The story really began at the monthly committee meeting at Gloucester High, a school in Massachusetts with 1,200 pupils. Around the table, along with the other business of the day — school food, parking, litter — someone raised the thorny issue of teenage pregnancy: “We really need to talk about the daycare centre.

We’re licensed by the state to take seven children and we have 10 girls pregnant at the school right now...”

[Dilbert San Diego]

We have got to change the whole baby mama culture. We have to change the mindset that causes these girls to end up being a baby mama.

I don’t know all the answers, I admit. Part of it has got to involve having these girls thinking about their future, and what they can do in life if they aren’t a baby mama. Part of it has got to do with their boyfriends, and their relationships with men. Part of it could be birth control. Part of it could be good old fashioned self control, and staying away from situations where they might go farther than they would have planned with a man if thinking clearly. Part of it could be mentoring by older girls who have “been there”. Part of it could be mentoring by older girls who can educate the younger girls about men.

There’s no real easy answer to this in a culture which has few if any sexual behavior standards remaining. Ideally everybody stays away from sex till marriage, but hardly anybody behaves that way nowadays.

[joma89]

Massachusetts reaped what it sows.

JoMa

[armymarinemom]

Salem horribles parade.