Brianne Mackey was just 16 when she found out she was pregnant with Carly. In Gloucester, a town of 30,000, speculation around the girls' motives has focused on the media. By March 2008, almost a dozen girls had requested pregnancy tests from the school health clinic. Why Did Half The Staff Quit? Time magazine claimed the spike was due to a “pregnancy pact” among the girls, and the world’s media decamped to the seaside town to cover the story. The story quickly gained international attention, with news outlets sending in correspondents from places as distant as Brazil and Japan. The Real Story Behind the Teen Pregnancy “Pact” Jun 26, 2008, 7:00am Karyn Brownson. In the summer, the film The Perfect Storm is filmed in Gloucester. Pact or no pact, public furor over the teen pregnancy spike in Gloucester, Massachusetts, reveals our profound discomfort with teens who decide, for … He also maintained that at least one student pursued a 24-year-old homeless man to father her child. Statistics showed a steady decline in teen birth rates between 1991 and 2005 - attributed to safe sex practices. Inspired by the true story of teenagers at Gloucester (Mass.) At the time of the numerous confirmed pregnancies, it was too soon for health officials to determine whether Gloucester was somehow part of a growing trend or simply its own anomaly. Directed by Rosemary Rodriguez. The others have gone underground, protected by … By May of 2008, Daly had administered some 150 pregnancy tests and confirmed 17 pregnancies - which would later tick up to 18 before the year's end. Reportedly, the principal of Gloucester High School claimed that many sophomore girls deliberately got impregnated so that they could be mothers together. Mackey says she didn’t know any of the girls that got pregnant at the time. Teen pregnancy can be a controversial matter, involving conversations regarding sex education, contraception, and responsibility. | iHeartRadio Since then, a handful of the Gloucester 18 have denied the existence of a pregnancy pact. 2008: In June, the Pregnancy Pact scandal takes place at the Gloucester High School during which 7 or 8 high school students become pregnant allegedly as the result of a secret pact to get pregnant that year and raise their children together. One resident said the story was like a black eye for Gloucester, telling Inside Edition, "Is this what we really want to be known for?". At the time, she was a junior at Gloucester High School. In the tight-knit Irish-Catholic community, the blame-game began. As for Mackey, she ended up marrying her high school boyfriend, Michael. Sex education was suggestively lacking, yet so were prospective futures for the oft-bored youth. The Gloucester teen pregnancies became a national scandal after a Time magazine piece revealed the backstory. Nearly a decade later, the community remains haunted by it. In 2008, 18 students at the public high school in Gloucester, Mass., became pregnant, four times the school’s typical rate. She later gave birth to Carly, who is now 9 years old and in the 4th grade. After all, unwed teen mothers like Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin were in the news, and Juno, a film about a pregnant high school student, was nominated for several Oscars at the 2008 Academy Awards. The apparent pact might explain the four-fold increase in teen pregnancies at the school this year. ", Read: Surrogate Mom Gets Pregnant While Carrying Another Couple's Baby. Lists of bizarre real headlines and 100% true actual news stories from the physical world in which we all really live that are stranger, scarier, and more depressing than any fiction writer could ever dream. The tale of the Gloucester High School pregnancy pact has exposed many culprits, many causes and much confusion over what it actually tells us about anything larger than the luck and judgment of 17 now infamous teenage girls.. However, like the rest of Sullivan's story, there is a large amount of speculation regarding this claim. The two have since had another child but recently separated. DVD: $195 college and university; $95 high school, community college and nonprofit. A new French movie about the Gloucester “pregnancy pact.” In 2008, 18 students at the public high school in Gloucester, Mass., became pregnant, four times the school’s typical rate. Carly is one of the kids born out of the so-called “pregnancy pact,” the purported scandal that shocked the nation when it was reported that 18 high school girls in Gloucester, Mass., were all pregnant at the same time back in 2008. With Thora Birch, Madisen Beaty, David Clayton Rogers, Max Ehrich. The Gloucester teen pregnancies became a national scandal after a Time magazine piece revealed the backstory. Gloucester High School's Principal at the time, Dr. Joseph Sullivan, told reporters from Time magazine that approximately 8 of the school's 18 soon-to-be pregnant students had formed a “pact” together. You know you've found a perfect cultural touchstone when everyone brushes past it on the way to opposite conclusions. — where a virtual epidemic of high school pregnancies has been tied to a pact reported in TIME … In his account to Time's reporters, Principal Sullivan maintained that one of the teen pregnancy pact's members pursued a 24-year-old homeless man to father her child. This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors. The Pregnancy Pact is a 2010 television film directed by Rosemary Rodriguez and starring Thora Birch, Madisen Beaty, and Camryn Manheim, based on the allegedly true story of a 2008 media circus surrounding a large group of teen girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts, who allegedly agreed to concurrently get pregnant, give birth and raise their children communally. A young girl has no clue she was at the center of a national uproar before she was even born. "I think that people are always going to sadly think there was some type of pact or some type of thing going on," Mackey said. Gloucester's school nurse, Kim Daly, conceded that the number of girls requesting tests - and coming back weekly for updated results - was a shocking new phenomenon. Beneath the unprecedented media fervor are the stories of girls searching … Â. That said, the 18 girls at the same high school did get pregnant in the same year. Carly is one of the kids born out of the so-called “ pregnancy pact,” the purported scandal that shocked the nation when it was reported that 18 high school girls in Gloucester, … Yet Superintendent Christopher Farmer says that while the girls may have intentionally gotten pregnant, the concept of a pact is more reflective of post-pregnancy. This new documentary about a so-called “pregnancy pact,” when 18 students became pregnant at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts during the … The June 2008 allegation that a teenage pregnancy pact may have existed at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts, resulting in 17 pregnancies in a school of 1200 students, rocked a town that counts among its residents a large Catholic population. As in, the girls vowed to band together in a teen support system following the positive test results. Sullivan claimed the students were mostly sophomores when the pact was first formed and that a majority were pregnant by their junior year. School officials discovered the pregnancy pact after some girls seemed disappointed that their pregnancy tests from the school nurse came back negative. None of the rising juniors TIME identified as being members of the pact have come forward publicly, but nine Gloucester High students have talked to … During this time, teen pregnancies at Gloucester High School quadrupled since the previous year.  Why Do People Turn to Conspiracy Theories During Times of Uncertainty. The high school’s student body population was approximately 1,200 students and already more than triple the number of the previous school year’s students had become pregnant. Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk denies any evidence of a pact - a term Principal Sullivan introduced. In 2008, people across the country were shocked by the events developing in a small Massachusetts town. Little has been heard from the eighteen girls who catapulted Gloucester into international infamy-until now. Everything would be so much simpler. It's anyone's guess as to why the Gloucester High School staff felt … The scandal erupted after a school official told Time magazine in June 2008 that the students had made "a pregnancy pact.” From there, heaps of unwanted attention piled on the small fishing town. "They will have a … Parents blamed the media while school health officials blamed the hospital board for lack of resources. ... got another one amanda richards. On Thursday, Joseph Sullivan broke his silence in an 850-word statement. Gloucester Pregnancy Pact. The previous year, the school had only 4 student pregnancies in comparison. Mackey said her senior year of high school was “very stressful. In the 2006-2007 school year, Gloucester High School's nurse had confirmed four teen pregnancies. Mackey, however, insists there was no pact. Time magazine claimed … Commentators have pointed to films portraying pregnancy in … High School who agreed to get pregnant at the same time. In the summer of 2008, news broke nationwide that 18 high school girls from the fishing village of Gloucester, Mass. In the summer of 2008, Gloucester drew international media attention after a report that a spike in the teen pregnancy rate was the result of a "pact" among teenagers at Gloucester … However, birth rates for girls 15 to 17 had risen 3 percent by 2006. Nearly a decade later, questions remain about whether or not there was a pact to begin with. "But after a day or two, I told my mom.". However, despite the media's sensationalized reaction, the town of Gloucester, including its mayor and school superintendent, wasn't as quick to believe Sullivan's story, especially because he couldn't confirm how he had learned of the alleged pact. “I took a test — I didn't tell anybody right away," she recalled to Inside Edition. Some blamed pop culture. "It was no, 'Hey, let's do this together,'" she said. In June of 2008, when 18 Massachusetts teens got pregnant in an alleged "pact," the sleepy fishing town of Gloucester exploded in a moral panic. If only there had been a Gloucester pregnancy pact. Read: Pregnant Kate Too Sick to See Prince George's First Day of School. As the definitive investigation into the Gloucester pregnancy pact, The Gloucester 18 explores what really happened in this hyped and bizarre media circus, and its impact on a small fishing village. The girl in question was never identified and reports never confirmed the sexual allegations. CAMBRIDGE — Was the national and global media fascination with Gloucester High School students' alleged pregnancy "pact" drawn in part from the race and color of the city's 18 pregnant In June of 2008, when 18 Massachusetts teens got pregnant in an alleged "pact," the sleepy fishing town of Gloucester exploded in a moral panic. had made a pact to become pregnant. A Time magazine reporter coined the phrase “pregnancy pact,” and it drew reporters from such faraway places as Brazil, England, and the Netherlands to every corner of Gloucester to report the lascivious details. The scandal shocked the world, breaking in the days before teen moms graced the cover of US Weekly by virtue of MTV reality shows like “16 and Pregnant.” A supposed "pregnancy pact" at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts has drawn international attention to the small Massachusetts fishing city … "As far as I know, none of the girls who got pregnant were even friends.". In interviews with Time and other news outlets, both the school principal and superintendent reported that the girls celebrated a positive result. School health officials first became aware of Gloucester's abrupt increase in teen pregnancies. As the definitive investigation of the Gloucester pregnancy pact, “The Gloucester 18” introduces the world to the girls behind the headlines, many of who are speaking publicly for the first time. In the summer of 2008, the high school principal of the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts told a TIME Magazine reporter that 18 girls at his school had made a pact to become pregnant. By the end of 2008, there would be a total of 18 pregnancies, with no teen mother over the age of 16, and many of whom were only 15. She claimed the girls would cry over negative tests. It was a headline that grabbed the nation's attention in early June of 2008 - a group of teenage girls, none older than 16, allegedly made a pact to get pregnant together. Inside Edition reached out to the school official who told Time of the pregnancy pact, but he refused to comment on our story. The story was never much more specific, and it origins were humble; I know because I was a local reporter in Gloucester … As soon as Time magazine reported the presence of a “pregnancy pact” — as its headline blared in its online edition Thursday — this story, … That's the rumor anyway — a rumor given credence by an interview that Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan gave to Time, in which he described a pact entered into by the girls to get pregnant and raise their babies together. 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As his statements to Time magazine stirred national attention and a local furor over his credibility, the principal of Gloucester High School in Massachusetts has been silent on this year’s spike in pregnancies among his students and the word he used to describe their intentional nature: “pact.”. The media got the story mostly wrong. Go to https://BuyRaycon.com/cynicalreviews for 15% off your order! The spike in cases of teen pregnancy that happened within just one school year shocked residents of Gloucester. When my TIME colleague Katie Kingsbury … Gloucester High School is a public four-year comprehensive secondary school, with 865 students and 150 faculty and staff, serving Gloucester, Massachusetts. The Gloucester 18: The Realities of Teen PregnancyDirected by John Michael Williams; produced by Kristen GriecoMedia Education Foundation67 minutes.