By JAMES FANELLI
Posted: 4:14 am
June 29, 2008
GLOUCESTER, Mass. - The revelation last week that 18 Gloucester HS teens were part of a "pregnancy pact" may have shocked the nation, but many residents of this seaport city - where having a baby bump at a tender age isn't uncommon - were less than surprised.
The proof is in one Cape Cod-style home, where four generations of Gloucester gals live, including one of the high-school teens and her newborn daughter.
"She's a really good baby," said 17-year-old sophomore Brianne Mackey, mother of the newest member of the household, Kaylee Mitchell. "She doesn't cry a lot. She sleeps good during the night. So I'm really lucky."
Mackey has been staying at the home of her boyfriend of two years, Michael Mitchell, a baby-faced 17-year-old who graduated Gloucester HS on June 9, the day after their daughter was born.
Both teens' families quickly accepted news of the pregnancy last fall, largely because they've been caught in similar situations.
"I was shocked and said, 'All right, we gotta figure out what you guys want to do,' " said Donna Mitchell, Michael's mom, who had him when she was 16. "We left it up to them, and now here [Kaylee] is."
Donna, 35, and Michael's father parted ways for a while after Michael's birth but eventually married and had two more children ages 6 and 8.
"I don't advise it, but I wouldn't trade it," Donna said of having a kid in her teens.
She's not the only family member who has done that.
Mitchell's paternal grandmother, Barbara Mitchell, 63, had twins at 19.
Mackey's mother, Kim, an EMT, had her older sister when she was 20. Her parents are not married, and her father does not live in Gloucester.
The high number of teen pregnancies at the 1,200-student high school - five times the average annual amount - drew public criticism and heated debate over administering contraceptives in this staunchly Catholic city.
But the media firestorm stemmed largely from comments by the school principal, Joseph Sullivan, who said there had been a "pact" among students to get pregnant and raise their babies together.
While the mayor and school superintendent later denied the existence of a pact, Sullivan reaffirmed on Thursday that some teens had intentionally gotten pregnant.
Mackey said her pregnancy wasn't planned.
