I'm sure many of you have heard of the pregnancy pact made at a public high school in Massachusetts, or maybe you have just heard of the Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Pact. Either way, the story is disturbing and raises a lot of concern. The actual high school that the pact was made at (Gloucester High School) offers a clinic to get pregnancy tests and a free daycare for teen mothers to use while they are attending class. Here is an article to read to learn more about what exactly happened at the school and what issues began to rise when the spike in pregnancies happened:
http://www.time.com/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html
Do you think the high school (and other schools) should stop sex education after freshman year? Do you think an on-site daycare encourages teenage pregnancies? What do you think schools can do to discourage the intentional and wanted pregnancies in teens? Will offering birth control help this issue? It seems to be more an issue of the girls being uninformed of how hard it actually is to be a young mother than the availability of birth control.
We talked a lot about sexuality this week. Do you think the movie Juno encourages sexual activity as a young teen? Maybe all of the movies (and TV shows) about young moms are glamorizing teen pregnancy a little too much. Here is a video with another perspective on why teens are wanting to get pregnant instead of hoping they won't.
Jessie Pietroburgo
This is a pretty strange occurrence, I don't think these girls really understood what having a child meant when they decided to do this. Even the term "Pregnancy Pact" makes it sound like a game or a joke.
ReplyDeleteI don't think stopping sex education at any point will help. If anything there should be more persistent sex ed. so that even kids who don't care about it and have the "It won't happen to me" mindset are forced to learn it.
I don't think assistance for teen mothers has much of an impact on who gets pregnant, but I think these resources are important to improve the lives of both the mother and the child.
I think that more frank and informative sex ed. would help discourage teens from wanting pregnancy, I also think this would dampen the glamor that some media may be giving teen pregnancy. Finally, if a teen wants birth control I think it's the responsibility of the community to make that available or they're letting the teens down and worsening the problem of teen pregnancy.
-Ryan Cuscaden
I think schools with daycare services are shielding girls from the true struggle of finishing high school once they’re a mother; however, I don’t think that they are encouraging teens to become mothers by doing this. In my opinion this is just an example of how society has realized that they need to step up and help our teens deal with the situation they have gotten themselves into. I don’t know that the age at which we stop teaching sex ed matters, I think it’s the material at which we stop. If we don’t show the true realities of the hardships teen mothers face, then they will never learn. I just waiting for teens to step up and take a more responsibility than they are at the moment... I have a hard time relating/understanding these teens who want to get pregnant because the thought of having kids in general terrifies me.
ReplyDeleteLauren
The Gloucest high pregnancy pact, in my opinion, is more of a desire to fit in with my peers problem than a teen pregnancy one. These girls were motivated by an overwhelming desire to fit in with other girls that they were willing to give up their teen years and become single mothers- this is alarming. The idea that someone could sway another peer to make such a life altering decision illustrates both the lack of self esteem and lack of decision making skills these girls have. One girl even went so far as to resort to using a homeless man to become pregnant, showing she would go to great lengths to be accepted. I think the school first needs to address this issue with the women of their school.
ReplyDeleteSecond, it is clear these women have no respect or understanding of their own bodies and view sexuality in an unhealthy way. They engage in risky behavior like having sex with a stranger and ustify it by outweighing the risks with the social rewards- a deepened "friendship" even more intensified by a "pact". Perhaps these women feel alone; the pact makes them feel like they are a part of something, and thus, they go to great and unhealthy lengths to be welcomed into it. these girls need, like very other adolscent and teenager in this country, attention. We need to star paying attention to the fact that teens need direction and guidance and stop assuming that because we are not talking about sex with teens, they are oblivious to the act. If we educate them more on sex and their bodies, then they will respect themselves more and maybe things like a pregnancy pact will not happen.
Schools, parents, communities, and individuals all need to take responsibility for teen pregnancy and stop poiting fingers because if the different institutions do not work together, then we all fail.
Simply offering birth control and offering condoms is not enough because there is still the social stigma and embarrassment that our society attaches to sex. If we start talking about it more and start making it more conversational and less taboo, then we can work towards reversing these negative stigmas and maybe people will feel more comofortable asking questions and getting educated. for this to happen, schools need to allow sex education that preaches more than just abstinence. The girls at Gloucester are another prime example of how teens are getting their inadequate sex education when schools and parents refuse to step up- from each other.
That last comment is from Alison Gammon.
ReplyDelete