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Alison Skirtboston

Skirt! Boston editor

Skirt! is evidence that the universe is paying attention: I spent the last six years at mach speed, whether finishing college (Emerson) while writing full time for Boston Globe West (2001-2004) or editing the Boston Parents’ Paper during the day while holding down the steady gig writing for Globe ...

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What Kind of Girl...?

Alison, editor

When I saw the movie Juno, I enjoyed its realism – the clueless teenaged father of the baby, the aimless ambiguity of the mother-to-be...

Time magazine claims that a group of girls in the coastal town of Gloucester didn’t take an accidental path to pregnancy. Something like 17 sophomores in that town got pregnant this school year, and Time said they’d formed a pact to raise their babies together.  Some people are blaming movies Juno and Knocked Up for prompting the ill-planned pregnancies, which are about quadruple the normal rate.

Well, it takes more than watching a movie to get pregnant... and given that all of the girls are age 16 or younger, it’s pretty clear nobody’s been watching them.

As a parent who’s on duty 24/7 to make sure my own daughters make the most of their educations, I think it’s time for Goucester (and other towns, including one where I know there’s a 15-year-old mom living with the 20-year-old father of her baby in her parents’ house) to start prosecuting for statutory rape and negligent parents. Because we’ll all pay the price for their recklessness in the form of welfare, alternative education programs and, in the next generation, likely prosecution of their offspring.

Damn! I’m starting to sound conservative, aren’t I? -shudder!- Bottom line is, 15-year-olds aren’t mature enough to decide for themselves about getting pregnant, pact or no pact. Some people say the schools shouldn’t hand out birth control, but when a situation like this comes up, I say don’t ask to hand it out – put it in the water with the fluouride!

In case you think I’ve lost my mind and started channeling Ann Coulter, check out this 2007 report from the National Women’s Law Center:

“There are significant costs to be paid by both the individual and the nation as a whole for each and every student who drops out of high school. In general, dropouts face significant challenges to obtaining employment and achieving economic security. Female dropouts are at particular economic risk. As compared to their male peers, girls who fail to graduate from high school have higher rates of unemployment; make significantly lower wages; and are more likely to need to rely on public support programs to provide for their families. With so many students dropping out of high school each year, the aggregate drain on our nation’s economy—through foregone income tax revenue and increased public spending—is substantial.”