A renewed push is underway on Beacon Hill to strengthen protections for children against sexual abuse in schools and youth-serving organizations.
For more than two years, 25 Investigates has documented cases of educator and staff sexual misconduct and calls to strengthen penalties and close loopholes that critics say allow abuse to go unchecked.
Advocates say several bills now pending on Beacon Hill could significantly change how Massachusetts addresses child sexual abuse in schools.
Jetta Bernier with Enough Abuse said advocates believe the effort is gaining ground this legislative session.
“We have seen this momentum building and we think we’re at a crescendo now, and we’re very hopeful that during this legislative session we will succeed for kids,” Bernier said.
The calls for change are not new. Efforts to pass legislation aimed at preventing child sexual abuse measures have repeatedly failed to reach the finish line.
Versions of these bills have been debated on Beacon Hill for decades.
Among the proposals are measures to improve screenings of new employees, eliminate the statute of limitations on reporting abuse, and require all youth-serving organizations to have clear abuse prevention policies in place.
Another proposal would close what advocates describe as a loophole in Massachusetts’ age of consent law. The age of consent in Massachusetts is currently 16. Lawmakers and advocates want to criminalize sexual relationships involving people in positions of trust and authority — such as coaches, teachers, or priests — with someone under the age of 19, or under 22 for a person with disabilities.
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Bernier said public reporting has helped shed light on the issue.
“We’re so grateful to Channel 25 and other reporters out there who have made it their business to report on these cases whenever they discover them. So, if it wasn’t for these publicly reported cases, we would not know about this,” Bernier said.
She says Massachusetts has fallen behind other states in passing stronger protections.
“If we had passed these bills a decade ago, Massachusetts would have been at the head of the class and now we find ourselves in the back seat on the last row of the class, struggling to join with the other states to address these important critical issues for children,” Bernier said.
Several bills, including a comprehensive measure that includes several of these provisions, are now before the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee.
25 Investigates will continue tracking their progress.
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