BOSTON (MA)
Greenfield Recorder [Greenfield MA]
April 10, 2025
By Madison Schofield
BOSTON — At least one in every four girls and one in every 20 boys will experience childhood sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In an effort to reduce this rate, legislators on Beacon Hill are considering several bills to strengthen protections for children and teenagers.
In total, 20 bills have been filed across the state Senate and House of Representatives that seek to address school policies and hiring practices, expand the statute of limitations and criminal penalties for adults who engage in inappropriate relationships with students, and require additional education, training and policies in schools.
Versions of the bills have been filed and failed to pass previously, but legislators and advocates say they are feeling confident they will pass this legislative session.
“I have refiled these bills, which have been referred to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary and are awaiting hearing dates,” said Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Essex, who is sponsoring the majority of the bills, written with help from Enough Abuse, a nonprofit dedicated to ending child sexual abuse. “With the increased momentum surrounding them, I look forward to testifying on these bills and working with my colleagues to move them forward for passage this session.”
“We are pushing on every front to make sure we have enough voices at a public hearing so this goes through,” Enough Abuse Executive Director Jetta Bernier said. “This is way overdue.”
Enough Abuse has been working on much of the legislation for more than a decade. Bernier noted the work is building on the organization’s largely successful efforts in 2013 and 2014 to increase the statute of limitations for criminal and civil sexual assault lawsuits, with a compromise being reached that criminal cases can be brought forward until the victim is 48 years old and civil cases can be filed until the victim is 53 years old.
Bernier said the bills are a complete package — but being submitted as individual pieces of legislation — covering everything from abuse prevention efforts to criminal penalties for offenders. After reworking them from one long bill to several smaller companion bills, Enough Abuse has been able to work with more legislators to help get it passed. Co-petitioners include state Sens. Paul Mark and Jo Comerford, and Reps. Susannah Whipps and Natalie Blais.
“We’re moving forward — I think we’ve gained a lot of followers,” Bernier said. “Taken together, the bills will be a powerful way to prevent the sexual abuse of children.”
A look at the bills
“An act relative to sexual assaults by adults in positions of authority or trust” (S.1163/H.1634) states that adults in positions as teachers, coaches, tutors, special educators and paraprofessionals, both in paid and volunteer capacities, are considered in positions of trust with children.
If the legislation passes, any adult in a position of trust “who commits such conduct in the course of acting in that position or at any time thereafter, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison [for] not less than 10 years.”
Additional bills bar children and teens under the age of 19 from legally consenting to sexual relations with an adult in a position of trust. Therefore, adults would not be able to claim age of consent, which is 16 in Massachusetts, as defense in a civil lawsuit.
“An act relative to enhancing hiring practices to prevent sexual abuse” (S.1166) would require stricter screening protocols for hiring staff, and would prohibit confidentiality agreements from preventing schools from disclosing instances of misconduct. The bill would also require schools and youth organizations to adopt policies on inappropriate behaviors and educate staff, volunteers and students on how to prevent abuse. A similar House bill (H.516) would require schools to examine policies on personnel conduct and establish a clear list of inappropriate behaviors, while also ensuring schools provide staff with annual training on what is inappropriate.
Child safety advocates are in favor of the legislation.
“We here at the Children’s Advocacy Center [of Franklin County and the North Quabbin] really support anything being done to protect children and victims,” said interim Executive Director Beth Agostino-Evans. “This legislation, especially around the age of consent, is needed.”
A good step, but problems remain
Lisa Fontes, a psychologist, activist and expert on child abuse, sexual violence and coercive relationships who teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst through the University Without Walls program, said these bills are a step in the right direction but would not solve the problem entirely.
“I’m happy to see legislation to protect children and teens from adults that look for jobs that give them an opportunity to prey on them,” Fontes said. “I think they will help, but I don’t think it’s enough. Most people who offend don’t have records of it, so it won’t show up on a CORI.”
Fontes said the additional training for parents and teachers, as well as requiring schools to share information about employee misconduct investigations, would be helpful in teaching how to identify inappropriate behaviors and would prevent teachers who have shown a pattern of these behaviors from jumping from one school to another. However, she added that this would not end child sexual abuse unless school cultures are also addressed.
“You can teach students about boundary-crossing behaviors, but if you don’t listen when they try to report a boundary has been crossed, nothing will change and children will continue to be abused,” Fontes said.
A 2023 study that surveyed 6,632 recent high school graduates across multiple U.S. states found that approximately 11.7% reported experiencing at least one form of educator sexual misconduct during their K-12 education. Not all of these children would be physically assaulted by a teacher, Bernier said; some are victims of inappropriate behaviors such as receiving gifts and attention other students do not receive, texting or communicating outside of the classroom, sharing secrets or inside jokes, and being involved in lingering touches and stares.
“Every time I’ve stood in front of a class and asked if your school had a creepy teacher, they’ve all raised their hands,” Fontes said. “I’ve seen way too much of this.”
The different bills have been referred to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, the Joint Committee on Education, and the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities for review.
“I think, from what I’ve heard from leadership on Beacon Hill, they’re talking about what decision to make and they’re going to choose children,” Bernier said.
A list of all the bills can be found on Enough Abuse’s website at enoughabuse.org/get-vocal/ma-child-sexual-abuse-prevention-bills.
Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.