3rd Berkshire District State Representative Leigh Davis is behind a bill in the State House that would make it illegal for adults with authority over young people to have sexual relationships with them despite 16 being the age of consent in Massachusetts. Interest in the issue arose in Berkshire County last year when District Attorney Timothy Shugrue said he could not prosecute a teacher at private all-girls boarding school Miss Hall’s in Pittsfield over rape allegations due to existing law.
“I’m shocked to learn that Massachusetts is one of the few states in the country that does not have a law that protects children from sexual abuse from people of authority," said Sean Muellers, father of a Miss Hall’s student who was taught by the former teacher accused of sexual predation, spoke on behalf of the measure at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. “I'm asking that the council here and the mayor do all that they can to please help us protect the children here in Pittsfield and across the whole state. Nothing has been done for over eight years. These laws, bills have been floundering. It's in large part because not enough of us have said anything, and not enough of us in this room have done anything. That stops now. We are very angry. We are very motivated. We are going to do all we can to implement these changes to protect the children. We've honored the children today, we need to protect the children tomorrow.”
The council unanimously voted to back the state law.
“In this bill, what [State Representative] Davis has done is written something to introduce a carve out in the statutory rape law criminalizing sexual conduct between adults in positions of trust. That's going to be our teachers, coaches, clergy and minors under their supervision, addressing the incoherent power imbalance which exists," said Ward 6 city councilor Dina Lampiasi. “Reports of sexual misconduct in education settings have been steadily rising across the state. In Massachusetts, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has documented over 200 incidents of abuse involving teachers and school staff in the past year. 200 in the past year. 7% of US students in grades 8 to [11] report unwanted sexual conduct by authority figures, and that's according to the US Department of Education. Presently, 39 states including DC have passed laws to address this problem, and we are the only state in New England that has yet to do it. We're Massachusetts. We're the best state in New England. What are we doing?"
At-large city councilor Earl Persip berated the legislature, accusing it of dragging its heels on the matter.
“Everyone who this bill has crossed before or this issue has crossed that's taken years to pass should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "A freshman representative had to bring it back up. It's been sitting on people's desks- This problem hasn't arose in the last six months of the last year, the last five years, this problems have been going on for years, and everybody at the State House is sitting on their hands for some reason, while every state around us is passing us on an issue like this. So, anybody's desk this past before or this issue has been brought up before, and they didn't do anything to move it forward- You should be ashamed of yourself.”
The council amended the order to make sure its endorsement for the bill and recommendation to pass it urgently was sent to legislative leaders on Beacon Hill, including the third and final member of the all-Democrat Berkshire House delegation yet to sign onto it, Pittsfield’s own Tricia Farley-Bouvier.
“I do want to point out that the legislation is sponsored by Leigh Davis out of Great Barrington, and also John Barrett up in the 1st Berkshire district is a sponsor, but representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier, ours, is not a sponsor yet," said At-large city councilor Alisa Costa. "I'm sure it's an oversight, but I think I would like to make an amendment to also notify her and ask her to sponsor the legislation.”
WAMC has reached out to Farley-Bouvier for comment on this story.
