Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Teenage Sex

Finally I can write about something in the news and to which I have a personal connection (it's not what you think!) and that is guaranteed to bring some search traffic.

I went to a prestigious (or substitute your own adjective) private high school in the Boston area that just made headlines for expelling five members of the hockey team. The offense? The boys, age 16 to 18, all engaged in a consensual sexual act in the locker room with a 15 year old female student. Apparently there was some bragging and the administration eventually caught on.

An op-ed piece by Joan Vennochi in today's Boston Globe looks at the legal implications of the situation. In Massachusetts, anyone under 16 cannot consent to sex, so anywone engaging in sex with a 15 year-old is committing statutory rape, as simple as that. The premise of the law is that children are unable to make a good decision about sex, which is absolutely right. The problem with the law is that in reality, kids don't magically gain this ability when they turn 16. A 16 year-old with a woody is perhaps the stupidest creature on earth, dumber than a bug flying into the light of the bug zapper.

The law as written makes no distinction between this dumb 16 year-old and a 45 year-old sexual predator. That's where those in authority need to exercise careful judgment in how forcefully to apply the law. It remains to be seen how this will play out with the prosecuters, but the school administrators, in expelling the five, failed to show any understanding of the situation beyond the black-and-white legal framework and the fear of being perceived as soft on discipline.

Immediate expulsion would be warranted if the case involved assault or explicit coercion, but that's not what happened here according to published accounts. By rushing to the zero-tolerance bandwagon, the Academy abandoned its obligation to help these 6 kids and their classmates grow to become responsible young adults. By expelling five and sending the sixth into exile, the Academy chose to turn away from the unpleasant reality of teenage sex instead of facing it head on. The sex isn't going to go away, yet now the administration has sent a message to the student body: We don't trust you. And you shouldn't trust us. Be paranoid.

The larger problem isn't that teenagers are having sex. It's that the school isn't helping students figure out how and a what age sex should fit into their lives. The fact that these six students have such a warped idea of sex and relationships shows me that the Academy is not educating its students in the art of life. That's something they need even more than U.S. History and Calculus.

5 Comments:

At 7:41 PM, Blogger JKHGJHGJHGJHG said...

It's crazy that the right wing in this country stops most attempts to systematically educate kids at an early age about sex. Have you heard about girls wearing jelly bracelets in Jr High? Check this out: http://www.sex-bracelets.com/color.shtml If a boy rips off the right color the girl must agree to do whatever that color means :

Black: sexual intercourse
Blue: blow job
Green: cunnilingus
Clear: whatever you want
Orange: kiss
Yellow: hug
Red: lap dance
Purple: anal sex
White: flash your tits
Pink: flashing
Gold glitter: make out
Brown: analingus

So indirectly, I give full credit to the right wing for creating this game. If we really taught our kids about sex they would think it was a silly game for adults.

 
At 5:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am a little girl in elenmentury school and I think it is so stupied that people are coming up with this stuff because they are just colored brasslets and now cause of this i am not allowed to wear them and i think it is just stupied.

 
At 7:31 PM, Blogger Bill said...

Anonymous,

Your point is well taken but I wish you would be more sincere. I hardly believe an elementary school student would spell like that.

Also, you arrived at this page via an AOL search on the term "www.sex bracelets.com" which tells me 2 things: 1) you really do know how to spell bracelet and 2)you knew about and even sought out the sex reference before you got here.

Still, thanks for the comment. I agree that jelly bracelets should just be about fun jewelry and nothing more.

 
At 9:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think its stupide people want to make up these dum games and have sex. people get raped in everything bye this stuff. and it made everybody not able to were these jelly braclets in its no fair it should be about fun playing with jelly braclets not getting raped or killed or kid napped by jessi j. :(

 
At 6:41 AM, Blogger Bill said...

Jessi,

Personally, I think the jelly bracelet stuff that my first commenter said is a myth. Some people even think it's a ploy by the companies who make them to sell more.

Talk to your parents first, but I doubt any of the terrible things you mention would happen to you if you wore jelly bracelets.

Also, ask your parents about "safe search" filters for your computer so you don't end up at pages like this.

 

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