Column: Pregnancy is the problem - not the principal
By Jonathan Pope
Thu Jun 26, 2008, 11:20 AM EDT
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GLOUCESTER -
I don't know any of the young girls who are pregnant, I don't know the individual circumstances resulting in these pregnancies, I don't know who the fathers are, but I do know Gloucester High School Principal Joseph Sullivan, and I know him to be a person who is dedicated to the protection and education of Gloucester's children. Dr. Sullivan is the kind of person who would step in front of a moving bus to save a child. Unfortunately that seems to be exactly what he has done, and more disturbing is that the leadership of this community is driving the bus.


It is an appalling use of diversion to try to make the High School principal the issue. "He was foggy in his memory of how he heard about the information. When we pressed him for specifics, about who told him, when he was told, his memory failed," instead of addressing the 400 percent increase of teen pregnancy.


If a 15-year-old girl does not want to become pregnant but does, there is a problem. If a 15-year-old girl wants to become pregnant and does, there is a problem. These are not exactly the same problem, and need different strategies to correct them, but the results are the same, and the long-range likelihood of successful productive lives is diminished. To hang a dedicated educator for talking about the different approaches to these two similar problems, but refusing to reveal his sources, is shameful. Nine of the 10 years I was on the School Committee Joe Sullivan was the principal of Gloucester High School and when issues arose he could almost always tell you what the dynamics of the situation were but would never reveal the names of students or personnel.


Whether there was a pact among some of the girls who got pregnant is really of no importance unless there was coercion involved. I have not heard any one make a claim that girls were forced to get pregnant. What I have heard and have not heard it refuted is that some of the girls wanted to have babies. Young girls wanting to get pregnant is a problem Dr. Sullivan tried to explain to Time Magazine that it will not be solved by making contraceptives available.


Gloucester had a great opportunity, a teaching moment, to engage in discussions vital to our community's health. Parental responsibility, the role of the schools when parents fail to be responsible, how to prevent adolescents from becoming isolated, opportunities for adult mentoring of teenagers, and yes, the availability of contraceptives, are all things we could have been talking about but instead it is pacts, and who knew what where and when.


Now that everyone's had their 15 minutes of fame, let's hope our leaders can stop posturing for the cameras and get back to resolving the many issues before us.
Jonathan Pope is the former chairman of the Gloucester School Committee and a resident of East Gloucester.