This is just weird. How stupid are these girls? I am going to go out on a limb and bet these girls are awful mothers and these children will end up being human trash. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/19/eveningnews/main4197525.shtml
A much better written article is at Time
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 girl drama conspiracy where several teenage girls are spinning wild tales of sexual decadence for school administrators who swallow it hook line and sinker, and then the media gobbles it up also.
I would take this tale with a pickup truck sized grain of salt.
People like this need to be shot with a contraceptive dart (like they do with overpopulated deer) then their kids given to infertile adult couples who are qualified and have the means to raise children.
Meanwhile how many couples can’t seem to get pregnant? Ah, to be young again.
From my cite at Time
Four times the previous year ain’t bullshit.
Not exactly “some teenage girl drama conspiracy where several teenage girls are spinning wild tales of sexual decadence for school administrators…”
Most of the sourcing for this appears to be what “some” of the teenage girls have told the school administrators. Given teenagers proclivity to simply make stuff up to shut people up, blame others for thier decisions, get out of trouble, or get some “dance puppets dance” drama going, I’m still taking the salt.
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 relative basis over time.
See Teen pregnancy rates dropping
17 pregnancies per 600 girls of HS age hardly seems to be pushing any demographic envelopes.
It’s pretty embarrassing that a bunch of people who met through the Straight Dope column could still be taken in by this.
Yeah, but do “qualifications” (what does that even mean?) and means always matter? there are countless people, some even on these boards, who had kids young and were fine, and lots of older, responsible couples who manage to fuck up their kids royally. At some point you sort of have to admit, there’s no way to know who’s going to be a great parent and who’s going to screw it up.
If the story is real, then these women and their families deserve pity, not ire. Yes by all rational accounts they did something extremely foolish, but I fail to see how to castigation and outrage is the appropriate response here.
The language in the OP suggests to me that 2.5 is trying to get a rise out of people. What a surprise.
That doesn’t even make sense. Go be dumb and smug somewhere else.
And that specifically is what causes me to have some degree of incredulity about the “realness” this story. It simply does not (to me) make sense only any level whatsoever that some cadre of teenage girls have embraced the concept of deliberately having out of wedlock babies sans husbands. It’s so counter to common sense and normal female teenage peer attitudes that my BSometer is ringing like a gong. I can understand getting pregnant accidently, but to embrace it and seek it out and the huge burdens it brings… 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.
By “a few pregnant teenagers” do you mean less than the reported 17?
It’s quite easy to believe there are 17 pregnant teenage girls, heck in some schools would be glad to have that few out of a population of approx 600 female HS students. No where in the story does it claim that ALL these girls are pregnant due to this purported pact.
So 7-8 girls (according to the Principal) are claiming that this seemingly insane “pact” exists. If I was a pregnant teenage girl looking for attention, sympathy, and/or peer support going along with an absurd story concocted by some of my more influential pregnant peers is not the worst way to go about it.
Look it could all be true, every bit. It just rings of BS to me. I’ll leave it at that.
As I understand the story, not all of the pregnant girls are supposed to be part of this pact.
ETA: Damn you, astro! 
Well, being around teenage girls regularly at a school where there are 5 or so pregnancies a year, that part of the story absolutely rings true to me. The response to the pregnant girl from a lot of girls is, just as the one student said, a bit jealous of the unconditional love the baby will provide. “You’re so lucky” is said to the pregnant girl quite a bit.
I find myself strangely unshocked.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Does the UK still provide council-flats for teenage girls?
About a decade ago it was quite customary for teenage girls to get pregnant so they would get an appartment from the state.
They would then dump the baby at moms and just carry on as usual.
If these weren’t middle-class white girls, would this still be a story?
I don’t know if it’d still be a story, but it’d still be stupid.