Gloucester fields calls on teen pregnancies

Mayor disputes reports of a pact

Mayor Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester talked to reporters about teen pregnancy issues yesterday. With her, from left, were Superintendent Christopher Farmer, Board of Health director Jack Vondras (center), and School Committee chairman Greg Verga. (DOMINIC CHAVEZ/GLOBE STAFF)

GLOUCESTER - The calls have come from as far away as Russia and Japan, not to mention from "The Oprah Winfrey Show," all seeking an answer to the question: Did girls at Gloucester High School make a pact to get pregnant?

The singular, explosive contention made by the high school principal earlier this month has made this fishing city the unwilling protagonist in a growing national debate about teen pregnancy, the distribution of contraceptives in the schools, and a popular culture that glorifies sex.

Yesterday, staring at eight television cameras in a City Hall auditorium crowded with print and radio reporters, the mayor was alternately defensive and combative as she sought to explain why 17 girls at the high school - four times the average annual figure - became pregnant in this school year.

"Any planned, blood-oath bond to become pregnant, there is absolutely no evidence of," said Mayor Carolyn Kirk. She said that school officials had pressed the principal, Joseph Sullivan, to explain his statement to Time magazine about a pact, but came away frustrated that he had no evidence.

"He was foggy in his memory of how he heard about the information," Kirk said. "When we pressed him for specifics, about who told him, when was he told, his memory failed."

Kirk was joined by School Superintendent Christopher Farmer, and Greg Verga, chairman of the School Committee, but said she was "not comfortable" inviting Sullivan because she has not substantiated his assertion about a pact.

Sullivan could not be reached for comment. An administrative assistant in the principal's office took a message, but said that Sullivan already had a stack of unreturned messages from reporters - and Oprah's people - piled on his desk.

Residents were angry and anguished that the city, a tightknit community of about 30,000 with strong Catholic roots, had been thrust into the national spotlight.

"It's really destroying our city," Leslie Bell told a reporter after stopping by the press conference. "I think you guys should leave and let us get on with our daily lives."

But others said the spike in pregnancy had sparked some soul-searching about life in Gloucester.

Annette Dion, 45, a private music teacher from Gloucester, said she was upset by the lack of constructive activities for teenagers.

"There's a sense of hopelessness overall in this town," she said. Dion said she believed that the teenagers had made a pact because they thought it was cool and that they were encouraged by movies and television shows.

"It's alarming to me because they show the glamorization of sex," said Dion, who had also stopped at the press conference. "We have a responsibility to these children to teach them what it is to be a grown-up."

The mayor also blamed popular culture and mentioned how Britney Spears' 17-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, made headlines last week after giving birth to a baby girl.

"I think the social climate that we live in [with] Jamie Lynn Spears, there's a certain glamorization of pregnancy," Kirk said. "And the movies that are out are portraying teen pregnancy as desirable or something that can be managed."

City officials said they had spoken to counselors who work with the girls, but have no plans to interview the girls about the possibility of a pact.

"I believe the issue of a pact has been greatly overstated," Farmer said. "And I'm not sure what conclusions we would make if we knew whether or not there was a pact."

Time first reported on June 18 that nearly half of the 17 pregnant girls at the 1,162-student school had made a pact. Yesterday, Time posted on its website additional quotations from its June 11 interview with Sullivan.

"That bump was because of seven or eight sophomore girls. They made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together," Time quoted Sullivan as saying.

The mayor also said that a city policy that forbids distribution of birth control in the schools did not play a role in the surge. But Kirk said the School Committee would review that rule as it overhauls the city's teen pregnancy policy before the next school year.

"We have to educate our children; we have to take steps to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy," she said. "We don't know the root cause of this spike in Gloucester. There are many, many factors that play into it."

Gloucester girls who want to get contraception can go confidentially to a clinic in nearby Beverly. Verga declined to say whether that policy should be changed. "My position is we need to do something, period," he said.

The Globe reported June 6 that when some of the girls found out they were pregnant, some broke down in tears, some smiled, and one exclaimed, "Sweet!"

City officials have said that some of the fathers were in their 20s, raising the possibility of statutory rape, because some of the girls were under age 16 when they were impregnated.

Kirk said that the state Department of Social Services is involved with some of the girls, but she declined to elaborate.

Alison Goodwin, a DSS spokeswoman, said the agency's Gloucester office has received two reports relating to criminal sexual activity with teenagers in the last six months, and has referred them to the district attorney's office. She said she did not know if the reports related to any of the 17 pregnant girls.

Kirk said the city's first priority is to protect the girls' privacy.

"I've been the mayor for six months. This is my first press conference," she said, clearly flustered as reporters peppered her with questions. "You've got to bear with me a little bit."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.