MA- Bill bars students’ sex with teachers

The evidence used to support this type of legislation is the evidence needed to show the fallacy of residency laws.

7-22-2009 Massachusetts:

When teachers or caregivers engage in the unthinkable — sexual relationships with their young students or clients — getting a conviction can be difficult because of the consent defense, says state Rep. Geraldo Alicea, D-Charlton.

Many times these cases don’t even make their way to a jury trial once consent is mentioned, as long as the person giving consent is at least 16 years old, Mr. Alicea said.

The probation officer-turned legislator wants that to change.

Earlier this year Mr. Alicea filed House Bill 1246, “An Act for Public Protection of our Youth.”

It is a re-file of a bill from last year, when it wasn’t heard until the end of the session. This time it was heard within six months of filing — with the support of a district attorney and police chief — all positive signs, Mr. Alicea said.

Cases working their way though courts in the state include those of a former teacher in Holyoke, a former substitute teacher at Quaboag Regional Middle School who lives in Sturbridge, and a former elementary school teacher in Abington accused of having sex with a teenager.

Five years ago Amber S. Jennings, a former English teacher at Shepherd Hill Regional High School in Dudley, was accused of having sex with a student.

Dudley Police Chief Steven J. Wojnar, who supports the bill, testified about that case and the challenges of legal vagaries before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. submitted a letter on behalf of Mr. Alicea’s bill and mentioned supportive comments during the same hearing.

“Teachers are in a position of authority over students,” Timothy J. Connolly, Mr. Early’s spokesman, said. “To have inappropriate contact with pupils or students is crossing a very clear line. Mr. Early feels as though this law is needed for the few teachers out there who may think crossing this line isn’t a big deal.”

Most teachers in the state live by a high moral standard and conduct themselves in classrooms and schools in a professional way, said Mr. Connolly, a sentiment echoed by Chief Wojnar.

“But it’s for that small group of teachers over the years who have crossed this line that this law would be appropriate,” Mr. Connolly said.

On Sept. 26, 2005, Ms. Jennings pleaded guilty to a single count of disseminating harmful materials to a minor. Under a plea agreement, Ms. Jennings was sentenced to two years of supervised probation. She surrendered her teaching license and was ordered to stay away from the then teenager.

The charge was related to her having a sexual relationship from November 2003 to June 2004 with a 16-year-old male student.

“When we went forward with the case and investigation,” said Chief Wojnar, after testifying to a legislative body for the first time in his career, “we found out the laws covering this were rather vague. I think everybody knew the situation was wrong and illegal.”

Ms. Jennings admitted in Worcester Superior Court to e-mailing the teenager nude pictures of herself. The judge did not order her to register as a sex offender because she did not have a criminal record.

The chief said state Rep. Paul J. Kujawski, D-Webster, and Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, have worked on proposals similar to Mr. Alicea’s.

“Certainly anybody who has teenage children or soon-to-be-teenage children would have the same feeling: They wouldn’t want to have that trust betrayed, and there should be some kind of a law in place to really prevent it,” Chief Wojnar said.

Regarding consent, the chief said, “The biggest thing, as far as the law would go with these types of situations, is people have some kind of direct control over these young people. Are they using influence over them? You could relate it to sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Mr. Alicea’s bill also covers caregivers, social workers, or people who drive people who have mental disabilities.

Some of the mentally challenged people are adults. But Mr. Alicea argues that, “Realistically someone who has a mental disability may be like 45 (years old), but mentally they may have” the discretion of a young person.

“We’re trying to protect a group of people who fall through the cracks. People with mental disabilities are one of them,” he said.

This indeed happens sometimes, but there is a fine line, said Cynthia L. Howard, director of services for the Southern Worcester County ARC, also called the Center of Hope.

“Some people absolutely have the right to a consensual relationship. Every case needs to be looked at case by case,” she said.

The center will likely write a letter of support for the bill, but Mrs. Howard said she wants to carefully review it.

Even high school students who repeated a grade, and are as old as 19, shouldn’t be able to consent to sexual relationships with teachers, Mr. Alicea said.

“It’s time to tell the worker, ‘You cannot legally have a relationship with that person, even if that person is 19. That person is in your care,’ ” he said.

Asked what a person should be charged with in such cases, he said, “Rape.”

But he said a jury is likely to have a harder time finding beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty of committing that offense. “They turn it around,” the representative said. “ ‘We had a relationship. We became more than friends. It’s consensual. It’s not rape.’ ”

In his 10 years working in the district attorney’s office, he said he worked on about 12 such cases. If a person was convicted, it was for a far lesser charge, such as with Ms. Jennings, a case with which he was not involved.

If the bill becomes law, the next step would be amending the crime of rape to say something to the effect that supervisory personnel of young people can be charged with rape, he said. But the bill has several hurdles to clear.

“The advantage of having it heard within six months of it being filed is it gives it the time it needs to go through the process to be heard and cleaned up if it needs any kind of amendments or clarifications,” he said.

Whether it will pass is hard to predict, with more than 6,000 bills filed every session.

There have been questions as to how the bill relates to higher education institutions. The bill would have “nothing to do with professors,” because college students are “old enough to make those decisions,” Mr. Alicea said, adding he has written Senate Judiciary Chairman Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, and House Chairman Eugene L. Flaherty, D-Boston, to make that point clear.

Also, a relationship, say, between a teacher and a 23-year-old taking classes at a vocational school would be permissible, and the bill would have protections to that effect.

Similar legislation has passed regarding a correction officer not being allowed to have a relationship with an inmate, Mr. Alicea noted. ..Source.. by Brian Lee TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF