Gloucester High principal resigns after pregnancy pact flap

August 12, 2008 07:50 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan, who drew worldwide media attention to his community when he told a reporter in June that a number of teenagers in his school had a pact to get pregnant, abruptly resigned from his post today.

In his resignation letter, which was obtained by the Globe, Sullivan said Mayor Carolyn Kirk had "publicly slandered my reputation, my integrity, and my intelligence," referring to a news conference in which Kirk had said his memory had "failed" when he was pressed for specifics about how he learned about the pact.

He said he had been forced to "recognize that I have neither the trust, confidence or respect of the Mayor nor the Superintendent. My instinctive reaction to this realization has been to soldier on, but I have too much respect for myself, my family, the school, the students, the faculty and the staff to continue."

Without the mayor's and superintendent's support, he said, "the already difficult and challenging job of being the high school principal becomes next to impossible."

School Committee chairman Greg Verga said, “It's a loss for the community. I think Joe was an excellent principal. My only concern is that people will remember only this most recent episode."

The School Committee is slated to meet Wednesday night and Verga said Sullivan's resignation would be discussed.

Sullivan handed in his resignation letter today. It goes into effect Friday. School begins in three weeks.

Seventeen girls at the high school -- four times the average annual figure -- became pregnant in this school year. There was interest from around the country -- and around the world --in the story.

The explosive contention placed the fishing city in the center of the national debate about teen pregnancy.

But Kirk said there was "absolutely no evidence" of any pact. At a July 23 news conference, she said that Sullivan "was foggy in his memory of how he heard about the information."

"When we pressed him for specifics, about who told him, when was he told, his memory failed," she said.