Is that the principal, and any other school personnel who gave statements to the press should be fired. Whether or not the pact was real, he violated the girls' privacy by going public with their medical information. Nowhere in a principal's job description is it to give this information to Time magazine. This guy invited global scrutiny on the children in his district and rampant speculation about their private lives. Whatever his motivation, it is way over the line.

Great instinct by the mayor, who was once a 15 year old girl herself, that a pact by so many children, that still has all members silent, may never have existed.

"The question we should be asking is what the school could do to teach its students -- present and future -- that becoming a young, single mother is not usually the ticket to a better life.

No, the question we should be asking is what the hell is going on with the girls' families? What kind of home life do they have that would lead to that kind of thinking? What kind of home life do they have that would let that kind of thinking develop and take hold? One almost concludes that child protective services should take a look; at least some of those girls must have younger sisters. Not all child abuse is active; neglect and failure to care are child abuse too, and perhaps a case for that could be made here too.

But like I commented the first time this story came up, it smells fishy. There has got to be more here, the story really doesn't make much sense on the face of it. But the media feeding frenzy has started, because it is such a man bites dog kind of story that no one wants to look at it too critically.

One wonders how the brand-new teenage dads feel about all this. Did they know about the pact in advance and willingly go along with it? (Yikes) Did the girls just trick them into it? (Not that it would be difficult to trick high school boys into having sex) Are the dads irrelevant? Will the dads have any part in raising the new kids, or is this strictly a new moms club?

I'm not sure I'm following your logic, Kite. Did the principal reveal their blood types or further medical history? If not, then I don't seen any violations.

Why does this story have traction?

it mix Girls go Wild with YaYa Sisterhood and Knocked Up. Guarantee me that publicity will make for copy cat copulate and more adult who wring hand wonder what happen.

School can only teach so much and is no match for peer pressure. Unfortunate, experience will teach these girls and their even more unfortunate children.

One of the articles I read in the Boston Globe stated that it is believed that several of the fathers are in their 20s. There was a mention of possible charges if the men could be identified, etc.

The school should be teaching these girls that having children while still in high school isn't the way to a better life? First, that they have a high school should get that message across. Why else would we invest hundreds of millions of dollars to teach kids reading, writing, arithmatic, biology, chemistry, American Literature, French, Spanish, and computer programming. Every class offered at a high school says that education is better than pregnancy.

But the great thing about teens is that with the bodies of almost adults and without the conceptual brain engaged yet, they're a great reflection of the *actual values* of a community.

These girls saw that their lives were going to get better with a baby around. It increased their social connections. They found a support group they weren't getting at home or school. They identified ways their community supported them. (Like telling them that having a child was better than free condoms.) They were going to be taken more seriously as mothers than they would be as just another teen. And they took their community up on all those unspoken values.

Stop making everything a goddamn Lifetime Movie.

A health center on the school premises is probably the best place for teens to get contraceptives, as well as other health services, including mental health care. However, lack of funds, politics, and community "outrage" will prevail in most US schools.

So the school has known since the fall that these girls might commit fraud to young men and did nothing to warn them? The only thing I would like to know is if these girls defrauded these young men to get knocked up? I know it does not really matter because even if these girls defrauded these boys of there sperm these boys will still have to pay for the result of being a victim.

The instant I saw this absurd story my BSometer was banging like a gong and I knew it was going to be fun to watch the media fling themselves at this story.

The veracity of these "teen sex pact/sex club" stories, and there have been several of various types over the years, generally seem to fall apart when seriously investigated. It often turns out it's some teenage drama where several teenagers (usually a group of girls) are spinning wild tales of sexual decadence or other bizarre practices for school administrators who swallow it hook line and sinker, and then the media gobbles it up also.

Re the 4X increase in pregnancies you seem so worked up about, assuming the 1200 person school has approx 600 girls the 17 pregnant teens are only 2.8 % of the total female student population. This is a tiny enough number, and well below the average rates in many high schools, that 2X to 4X swings could be well with the range of random distribution over time. I'd have to see the last 10 years of pregnancies At that school to draw any conclusion that the incidence of pregnancies are "exploding" on a relative basis over time. 17 pregnancies per 600 girls of HS age hardly seems to be pushing any demographic envelopes.

It stuns me that you (as a purported journalist) are determined to swallow this nonsense hook, line and sinker, and don't have some degree of common sense incredulity about the "realness" this story. It simply does not make sense on any level whatsoever that some cadre of teenage girls have embraced the concept of deliberately having out of wedlock babies sans husbands as a willful project. I can understand getting pregnant accidentally, but to embrace it and seek it out and the huge burdens it brings is beyond any suspension of disbelief. It's just asking too much to believe that this is not some stunt by a few pregnant teenagers, and their friends to spin this story and see who would bite.

And you did!