A Massachusetts high school is facing the highest number of pregnancies ever with 17 girls finishing their year expecting babies in what some have called a “pregnancy pact.”

Principal of Gloucester High School, Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine in an exclusive article published Wednesday that the girls, none over 16, made some kind of a “pregnancy pact” pledging to raise their babies together. Last October, the girls went multiple times to the school’s clinic to get pregnancy tests, acting very disappointed every time they learned they were not pregnant and high-fiving if they were.

Sullivan further added that one of the fathers is a 24-year-old “homeless guy.” In fact all fathers are believed to be in their twenties and could face the possibility of being charged for having sex with minors, which the state considers a crime.

Immediately after the story emerged into the media, opinions have not hesitated to appear. School Superintended Christopher Farmer told local Eagle Tribune that he had never heard the term pact from any of the students, parents, teachers or administrators at the high school until Time magazine wrote it.

“All we know was that there was a small group of girls who were not disappointed in the idea of being pregnant. I had never heard of any kind of communal effort that girls were trying to get pregnant,” he told the newspaper.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk, a member of the school committee, blamed the “hard economic time” the city is going through for what she called a “blip” in the pregnancy rate. Lack of money seems to cut services, after-school programs, all having a serious impact on the social climate. “We have fallen hard times,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Some other voices blamed the girls’ families who couldn’t provide the love and support they needed. Therefore, these girls tried to fill a void in their lives considering that a baby would love them unconditionally or give them a status.

There were also voices who blamed “the nation’s Hollywood-obsessed culture,” in which stories about pregnant celebrities and movies about pregnant teenagers abound. Everyone remembers “Juno” the story of a 16-year-old who gets pregnant, one of the most acclaimed movies of the year.

Just this week, Britney Spears’ teenage sister Jamie Lynn Spears had her baby girl after revealing her pregnancy in December, last year.

The so-called pact raised worries authorities who started wondering if having kids while being yourself a kid is a new trend. Some others, like Anne Rollins, adolescent health coordinator at the Virginia Department of Health, hope “it’s just an anomaly,” and teens would realize sooner or later that having a baby is not the best solution in fighting with the feeling of loneliness and void in their life.