Find the Hidden Lessons Contest

The fullness of modern culture has surfaced in beautiful downtown Gloucester, Massachusetts...or at least at Gloucester High School. This story is so rich in metaphor, human nature, human experience, and just plain old natural consequences that it was too juicy to pass up.

It seems a bunch of young girls (students at Gloucester HS) made a peer-pact to get pregnant. So serious were they that one of the girls even allowed a 24 year old homeless man to father her child. The fun of this story for policy wonks and students of modern liberal/secular culture is to identify the many underlying lessons within it. Kind of like those old Highlights magazine games to find the "hidden" item on the page. Let me start you off and then see how many "hidden" lessons we can find in the Gloucester story:

1. Teen pregnancies aren't always due to a lack of proper contraception.

2. Contraceptives don't work when girls actually want to get pregnant. (Two Gloucester HS health officials quit their jobs to protest a lack of free contraceptives for students at the HS...all for naught...so sad.)

3. Modern equity feminism still can't deal with human nature -- girls just want to be mommies.

4. But feminists take heart...the girls still don't want daddies, just the babies.

5. Where is Massachusetts child welfare services when you need them? (Surely they will swoop in at any moment...a la FLDS in TX...and snatch ALL of the children from the in loco parentis authority of the HS? Clearly, ALL girls at the school are endangered.)

6. (And speaking of in loco parentis authority)...uh, government parents are no substitute for real ones.

7. What does Planned Parenthood have to say? (official response from Gloucester PP: "ummmm...ummmm...oh yeah, we just assume kids only want to have non-consequential sex. Whoda thunk???")

8. Gee, aren't we all a bit surprised this occured in enlightened Massachusetts (where everything but consequences are free)!

9. Lesson learned by Utah PP..."Let's see if we can pass a law requiring all boys to wear condoms 24 hours a day." (Nah, stupid idea...we all know they would just turn them into water balloons.) Follow up lesson learned by Utah PP..."But maybe water ballon fights might distract them. Eureka!!"

10. Lessons learned by liberal do-gooders...A) no need to blame anyone here, B) poor girls...they just need a public school lesson on self-esteem, C) we told you that selling high-fat junk food from vending machines would lead to no good, D) if only we had an international baccalaureate program...(liberal thoughts slowly devolving into)...T) damn conservatives, U) impeach Bush, V) get us out of the war, W) Obama would have kept those girls from getting pregnant, X) if only Barack and Oprah would make up, Y) Hillary should be our nominee, and Z) McCain is a wimp!!!

Okay, Amicus faithful. It's up to you. What are the hidden lessons in the mystery of the Gloucester teen moms?


Gloucester Teens Had Pact To Get Pregnant
Keller Blog: Kids Having Kids

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (WBZ) ― There's a stunning twist to the sudden rise in teen pregnancies at Gloucester High School. Seventeen students there are expecting and many of them became that way on purpose. Time Magazine first reported that nearly half of the girls confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. None of them is older than 16. Schools Superintendent Christopher Farmer told WBZ's Bill Shields Thursday the girls had "an agreement to get pregnant." Farmer said these are generally "girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their life." "The common threat is the lack of self-esteem and purpose in life, and a lack of a sense of direction," said Farmer. "Young women wanting and needing affection."Principal Joseph Sullivan has not returned calls from WBZ for comment. Sullivan told the magazine that the pact wasn't the only shocking incident. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," he told Time. Last month, two top officials at the high school's health center resigned in a fight over contraceptives distribution. Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly support confidentially giving contraceptives to students. They were outraged about resistance from Addison Gilbert Hospital, which administers the state public health grant that funds the school clinic. Normally, the school has about four pregnancies per school year. According to Time, school officials started looking into the spike in pregnancies after an unusual number of girls came to the school clinic for pregnancy tests. Some came by several times. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan told the magazine. The pregnant girls and their parents turned down requests to be interviewed. A recent graduate who had a baby during her freshman year told Time she knows why the girls wanted to get pregnant. "They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Amanda Ireland, 18, said. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m." Ireland also spoke with WBZ about her young pregnancy."I don't call it a mistake because the way I look at is everything happens for a reason," Ireland said. "But, no, she was not planned."WBZ has also tried to contact Mayor Carolyn Kirk and Public Health Director Jack Vondras. Both are said to be out of town this week.Beyond the social implications of the pregnancies, there are some legal questions being asked, including whether the men who fathered the babies will face charges of statutory rape.
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