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US probes teen 'pregnancy pact' US probes teen 'pregnancy pact'
(about 2 hours later)
Officials in the US state of Massachusetts are investigating how 17 teenage girls from the same school have become pregnant.Officials in the US state of Massachusetts are investigating how 17 teenage girls from the same school have become pregnant.
The number is four times as high as the year before at Gloucester High School.The number is four times as high as the year before at Gloucester High School.
There are reports that some of the girls - none of whom is older than 16 - entered into a pact to have their babies together.There are reports that some of the girls - none of whom is older than 16 - entered into a pact to have their babies together.
The girls and their families have so far made no comment. Officials are also investigating the ages of the fathers.The girls and their families have so far made no comment. Officials are also investigating the ages of the fathers.
Some are believed to be in their twenties and could face the possibility of being charged with having sex with minors.Some are believed to be in their twenties and could face the possibility of being charged with having sex with minors.
It is illegal to have sex with anyone younger than 16 in Massachusetts.
DisturbingDisturbing
When students at Gloucester High School broke up for the summer, officials, parents and the whole community had to face up to a shocking statistic. Some of the school's own staff believe say the sharp increase in the number of pregnancies this was no accident.
Seventeen teenage pupils had walked out of the school gates pregnant. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine.
More disturbing is that some of the school's own staff believe that this was no accident.
Local officials say that nearly half of the girls had entered into a bizarre pact to have their babies together.Local officials say that nearly half of the girls had entered into a bizarre pact to have their babies together.
The school principal says that several students returned multiple times to take pregnancy tests and some appeared upset when they found out they were not pregnant. David Landry, a researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based non-profit group focusing on reproductive issues, said the declining teenage pregnancy rate of recent years appears to be reversing.
The school - which has 1,200 students - carried out 150 pregnancy tests in the past year alone. Birth rates for teenagers aged 15 to 17 rose by 3% in 2006, the first increase since 1991, according to preliminary data released in December by the National Center for Health Statistics.
This trend was highlighted on Thursday when Britney Spears' 17-year-old sister Jamie Lynn, star of a popular television show Zoey 101 gave birth to a baby girl, according to People magazine.
But Mr Landry cautioned against attributing the pact or the worrying statistics to Hollywood following the recent hit movie Juno, in which a teenager gets pregnant and decides to have the baby, and Knocked Up, a comedy about a one-night stand.
"The trend emerged before those movies," he said.