By Patrick Anderson
Staff writer
June 24, 2008 06:11 pm Claims that girls at Gloucester High School made a pact to become pregnant, first questioned by city officials, are now being challenged by students at the school, including girls who have recently had children. Three high school students who are also new mothers have said in the past two days that they had never heard of an agreement among girls to have children before the idea appeared in stories last week. Brianne Mackey, 17, a Gloucester sophomore whose baby girl Karlee was born 17 days ago, said yesterday she was not part of any pregnancy pact and did not know any girls at the school who were. Lindsey Oliver, also 17, appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" program yesterday, said there was "definitely no pact" and that the surge in pregnancies at the high school this year was likely a "coincidence." A 17-year-old mother of two boys, who declined to be interviewed or identified, said by e-mail that she was not part of any pact when she became pregnant. She gave birth to her second child earlier this year. National and international news outlets descended on Gloucester late last week after Time magazine published a story suggesting the spike in pregnancies at the high school this year, reported to be as high as 18 by some officials, had been spurred by a group of girls in the sophomore class who joined a pact to have children together. On Monday, Mayor Carolyn Kirk and schools Superintendent Christopher Farmer told dozens of newspaper and television reporters that no one at the high school, including Principal Joseph Sullivan, could substantiate reports of the pact or say where they started. The Time article attributed the notion of the pact to Sullivan, who was not invited to the mayor's news conference. Kirk said Sullivan, when contacted, had not been able to remember who had told him about the pact. A follow-up story published in Time on Monday said Sue Todd, the chief executive officer of Pathways for Children, the Emerson Avenue nonprofit that runs the high school's day-care center, had told the magazine that her organization had heard about a "plan" among girls at the school to become pregnant last fall and had identified a group of students at O'Maley Middle School who had requested pregnancy tests as being at risk of becoming teen moms. Yesterday Todd disputed knowing about or having referred to a pregnancy pact or plan and said Pathways had never identified a group of students at the middle school requesting pregnancy tests. "We run the program and have excellent relationships with the girls and we have never heard about the pact and never said anything different," Todd said. "It is a multifaceted issue and the fact that we stated that girls in middle school were requesting pregnancy tests was something I wouldn't know and couldn't say." Dr. Brian Orr, the medical director of the high school health clinic who resigned in May over a dispute with members of a clinic advisory group about providing confidential access to contraceptives, told the Gloucester Daily Times today he had never heard of a pregnancy pact.
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