Sex at Brookline High? Ho-hum!

''BROOKLINE HIGH teens face charges of statutory rape," read the headline in Wednesday's Boston Globe. The story below reported that two 17-year-old boys at Brookline High School -- a celebrated institution whose graduates include former Governor Michael Dukakis, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, and CBS newsman Mike Wallace -- have been charged with statutory rape for having sex with a 15-year-old girl, a classmate who said the sex was consensual. This is the third time since February that students at the school have been accused of having sex with a minor.

The Globe story ran about 1,000 words -- roughly the length of the Page 1 report the same day on former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird's call for a gradual troop pullout from Iraq. But unlike the Vietnam-era Pentagon chief, who is almost never in the news, sex scandals involving students erupt so often they could almost justify a beat of their own.

''Scandals" is probably not the right word for them. Are you actually scandalized by news of high school kids having sex? Is anybody? Last month the National Center for Health Statistics reported that more than half of American teenagers 15 and older engage in oral sex; the story got a ton of coverage, but no one seemed terribly dismayed by the information. ''At 50 percent, we're talking about a major social norm," Claire Brindis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, told The Washington Post. ''It's part of kids' lives."

Not necessarily so. The age of consent law varies from state to state.

In one of my political science classes, we've talked (nay, debated ) about statutory rape at length (along with the alleged Griswold "right of privacy"). And while I'm not a lawyer (and neither is my professor for that matter), I can say that one should consult for legal advice or the statutes (preferably a lawyer).

That said, I know that the laws in my state (Wisconsin) don't specify a requirement of age, declaring that anyone who has sexual contact with anyone under the age of consent (set at age 18) is guilty of statutory rape.

However, the distinction is drawn at 16. 16 and 17 year olds are treated as misdemeanor crimes, while anything younger is a felony. Felony sex crimes also usually require registration on the sex offender registry for life.

I remember a couple of cases that sparked controversy a couple years ago in Milwaukee County, when two 15 year olds were referred to the DA's office for statutory rape.

I have a feeling many other states follow this or something similar. And, I don't know about Massachusetts' laws. In any case, however, I believe that it is not the law that is the problem, but the lack of effective and active enforcement of it--from the police AND the state.

It's a crime to have sex when one's a minor. Therefore, I digress from your assessment. From a purely parental standpoint, that may work, and I'm all for the parents punishing their kids. But we are also talking about a possible felonious crime here, and the legal ramifications clearly cannot be discarded.

IMO how this ought to be handled is that the DA's ought to prosecute these kids. And if it's indeed a felony crime, so what? It's irrelevant at this point. The People duly enacted that specific law for a reason. And if it's asinine, then perhaps these kids and their parents should petition the legislature and persuade the general masses of the state to accordingly change the law, not go and break it anyway.

Maybe if a few of these kids do infact end up in prison and on the Sex Offender Registry for life, it might make my generation "wake up and smell the coffee." And, how about educating teens on the law during any health class that's taught?

For goodness sake, the freaks in the public schools teach kids utter smut, such as how to put condoms on cucumbers and oral sex techniques, but how about the legality of such acts (or, shall we say, the lack thereof)? And the penalties thereof?

I agree it is indeed a tough approach. But the state cannot capitulate or stick its head in the sand. Sexual crimes are, as my professor stated,

The law was meant to reflect societal morality. The reason such a law was put into effect is because society agreed that having sex with a kid was clearly mala in se-wrong in itself.

But since our country is rapidly approaching pure moral bankruptcy (thanks to the Klintoon Legacy, the Demoncraps, and the MSM), is it any wonder why the moral lines of our youth have become obfuscated beyond belief?

I know this almost firsthand; I'm a college student, and I saw it happen (at times almost daily) during high school, which I will add that I left only a few years ago.

We have been blessed with freedom. But with it comes responsibility. And one of those responsibilities is exercising those freedoms with maturity and cleanliness.

Of course, given it's Massachusetts, and given the political climate, I have a hunch it will infact be an uphill battle. Difficult, but a worthy cause nonetheless.

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