'They thought I was nuts': Meet the high school student who faked her own pregnancy

[MrScorpio]

'They thought I was nuts': Meet the high school student who faked her own pregnancy - for a social experiment

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
UPDATED: 13:18 EST, 22 April 2011

Most students are happy to choose a conventional topic for their senior year project.
But aspiring social worker Gaby Rodriguez was determined to do something a little more challenging for hers, even if it meant lying to her whole school.
So the 17-year-old student from Washington State faked her own pregnancy, spending months wearing a fake belly to convince her friends - and gather their reactions.

Only a handful of people, including her mother, her boyfriend, and the school's principal, knew her burgeoning baby bump was in fact made from wire mesh and cotton quilting.
Her older brothers, the school's teachers and all the students aside from her best friend had been convinced she was pregnant - as had her boyfriend's parents.
Gaby said: 'At times, I just wanted to take it off and be done. I didn't want to go through this any more.'

She unveiled the truth - quite literally - on Wednesday, when she took off her fake bump in front of the entire student body at Toppenish High School in a presentation called 'stereotypes, rumours and statistics'.
Gaby decided to carry out the experiment as part of her senior project, which every student must pass in order to graduate.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379460/High-school-student-17-pretends-pregnant-senior-project.html#ixzz2IW5wNSD8

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. We had a thread on this at the time it happened

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x936419

And my question from it still stands - how did this affect the relationship of the boyfriend and his parents? The article talks about the fear that her brothers might beat up the boyfriend, but don't report that they did, so presumably they didn't; but it seems to me she gave her boyfriend the most difficult task - lying to his parents about it.

[Sheldon Cooper]

2. If I were the boyfriend's parents, I would be devastated.

The initial shock of finding out that your son had fathered a child, and then acceptance and eventually perhaps excitement of having your first grandchild on the way, only to find out that your son had knowingly lied about the whole thing. I would be hurt beyond belief.