Principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday that the girls confessed to making the pactafter the school began investigating a rise in pregnancies that has left 17 girls at the schoolcarrying a child. Normally, there are about four pregnancies a year at the school.
Sullivan told Time that students were coming to the school clinic multiple times to get pregnancy tests,and "seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were."
Some of the girls reacted to the news they were pregnant with high fives and plansfor baby showers, Sullivan said. One of the fathers "is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan toldthe magazine.
Superintendent Christopher Farmer confirmed the deal to WBZ-TV, saying the girlshad "an agreement to get pregnant."
He said the girls are generally "girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of lovein their life."
The first reports of the students' apparent plan to get pregnant were in the Gloucester Daily Times in March, when Sullivan said students were reporting that the girlswere getting pregnant on purpose.
The rash of pregnancies has shaken the seaside city about 30 miles north of Boston. Last month,two officials at the high school health center resigned to protest the resistance from the localhospital to the confidential distribution of contraceptives. The hospital administers the statemoney that funds the clinic.
