SCANDAL has engulfed a small coastal town in the New England state of Massachusetts after news broke of a "baby pact" by students of a high school where 17 have become pregnant.
Authorities are bewildered by the pact in which the girls, none older than 16, agreed to get pregnant and support each other in raising the children.
Why this pact was formed, and why at this particular school, remains a mystery, with none of th
e girls so far breaking a bond of silence.
But the news has touched a raw nerve in the United States, which has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the western world and where abortion is a hot political issue.
Teachers at the high school in the impoverished fishing port of Gloucester first noticed something amiss when girls began overwhelming the school's small clinic with requests for repeated pregnancy tests.
More surprising still was their reaction to the test results. The principal, Joseph Sullivan, told Time magazine that the girls "seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were".
Positive results were greeted with whoops of joy and "high fives", said Mr Sullivan.
Investigations later found that many of the girls became pregnant by the same man, a 24-year-old homeless man.
None of the girls involved has spoken publicly about their reasons for the pact, but one former student at the school who became pregnant at 15 said pupils had been supportive.
"They would say stuff like, 'Oh, I think my parents would be fine with it and they would help me, stuff like that," said Christen Callahan. "They were just kind of like curious about it."
The clinic at Gloucester High School, which has 1,200 pupils, administered 150 pregnancy tests to students in the past academic year.
The school, in a largely Catholic community, forbids the distribution of condoms and other contraception without parental consent – a rule that prompted the school's doctor and nurse to resign in protest in May.
"But even if we had contraceptives, that pact shows that if they wanted to get pregnant they will get pregnant. Whether we distribute contraceptives is irrelevant," said Greg Verga, chairman of the school committee.
Gloucester, made famous as the home port of the doomed fishermen in the true-life book and film The Perfect Storm, is struggling with the widespread poverty caused by a dying fishing industry.
This has triggered speculation that the "baby pact" may be a means for children who feel bored or unloved to boost their self-esteem.
With none of the children or their parents coming forward to talk publicly about the issue, this remains speculation, as does any link to the big film success of the year, Juno, in which a teenaged girl decides to have a baby after accidentally getting pregnant.
Carolyn Kirk, the mayor of the town, which is on the tip of Cape Ann, 30 miles north-east of Boston, said authorities are looking at whether to pursue statutory rape charges.
"We're at the very early stages of wrestling with the complexities of this problem," she said. "But we also have to think about the boys.
"Some of these boys could have their lives changed. They could be in serious, serious trouble, even if it was consensual sex, because of their age – not from what the city could do but from what the girls' families could do," she said.
Mr Verga too offered a robust response: "At the very least these men should be held responsible for financial support, if not put in jail for statutory rape as the mayor has suggested."
Under Massachusetts law, it is a crime to have sex with anyone under the age of 16.
The US has 53 pregnancies per thousand women aged 15-19, the highest in the western world, compared to 20 for the UK, although the rate has fallen 30 per cent from a high in 1990.
BACKGROUND JUNO tells the story of a girl of 16, played by rising star Ellen Page, who finds love and contentment after being made pregnant by a fellow pupil.
Like last year's equally successful Knocked Up, some critics charge that Juno may be painting a rosy picture of teen pregnancy.
"In the real world we all know that unplanned pregnancies are rarely played out in such an alarmingly over-simplified manner," wrote Anita Quigley, an American film critic.
"While I am not suggesting these films will lead to a spike in teenage births and single moms, the way in which they glamorise the situation is nonetheless irresponsible."
The full article contains 778 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
