.GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) – One of the girls who became pregnant at Gloucester High School this year denied Tuesday there was any pact among them to have children, saying instead they decided to help each other make the best of their situations.

Lindsey Oliver refuted the principal’s claim that a sharp increase in teen pregnancies – 17 compared to a typical four – was in part because several girls planned to get pregnant so they could raise their babies together.

“There was definitely no pact,” Oliver told “Good Morning America.” ”There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together. I think it was just a coincidence.”

Oliver, 17, said she became pregnant by accident and that she and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Andrew Psalidas, a community college student, were using birth control.

The couple was in New York and could not be immediately reached for comment. Psalidas’s father, Charles Psalidas, said his son would not talk to any other reporters because he’d made an exclusive interview agreement.