Yesterday, in partnership with Senator Joan Lovely (pictured speaking above) MassKids/Enough Abuse held a Legislative Briefing on Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse in Massachsuetts at the State House. Over 55 participants attended, representing 36 legislators' offices, as well as the Committee on Education.
Senator Joan Lovely shared her personal story of surviving childhood sexual abuse when she was 6 years old, and emphasized the need for legislative action on this issue.
MassKids and Enough Abuse Executive Director, Jetta Bernier spoke on the prevalence of the problem, detailing several recent cases of child sexual abuse/misconduct in Massachusetts schools, and citing the economic cost to cities and towns sued for damages relating to these cases. Jetta highlighted the three key prevention bills we are aiming to pass:
S314/H194 would require schools and youth organizations to provide child sexual abuse prevention education to staff and students and a comprehensive Code of Conduct to detail specific boundary-violating behaviors that must be prohibited;
S1040/H434 would strengthen the screening of school hires to disclose previous sexual abuse or misconduct; protect schools from liability for sharing information with another school about an employee’s misconduct; prohibit related confidentiality agreements; and prevent the practice known as “passing the trash.”
S106, H1537, and H1538 would ensure that youth under 19 (or 22 if special needs) would no longer be able to consent legally to sexual relations with an adult in a position of authority/trust in a school or other institution. Such adults would no longer be able to use age of consent as a defense in a civil or criminal action.
Steve Wojnar, Retired Police Chief and Past President of the Massachusetts Association of Chiefs of Police, said that he has been advocating for 20 years to pass legislation to close the "age of consent loophole" that currently protects adults in positions of authority who have sexual relationships with students ages 16-19. He noted that it is a crime under the rape statute for police officers to have sexual relations with a person in their custody, regardless of their age or consent. He questioned why students are not given the same legal protection from the adults who have authority over them.
Kathryn Robb, Esq., National Director of the Children’s Justice Campaign at Enough Abuse spoke on the need to pass legislation eliminating the Statute of Limitations (SOL) in child sexual abuse cases. H1614/S1038 would eliminate the civil SOL for child sexual abuse claims and open a permanent revival window for expired civil claims against all defendants.
