[UPDATE: Mac weighs in with her own experience and how she would have been affected if this bill were in place when she was a teen.]
Imagine for a moment that your fourteen year old is discovered in school with a condom in his or her bag. The school nurse is required to call the local sex abuse hotline and report that your son or daughter has been abused, whether or not he or she has actually had sex.
Or imagine that your daughter, during a gynecological exam, is discovered to have a broken hymen, something that regularly occurs in young women for many reasons that have nothing to do with sexual activity. The doctor is required to report her as having been sexually abused.
Now, imagine that your sixteen year old daughter has sex with her eighteen year old boyfriend, a decision you are ambivalent about, but have discussed with your daughter along with providing an open line of communication and easy access to professional medical care. A teacher hears that the couple is sexually active in the hallways of the school and is legally required to report this relationship as child abuse.
Overkill, no?
A bill that seeks to overhaul Missouri’s child abuse reporting laws could require teachers, doctors, nurses and others to report sexually active teenagers and children to the state’s abuse hot line…
…Perhaps the most controversial provision of the bill is one that many say would require educators, medical personnel and other professionals to report “substantial evidence of sexual intercourse by an unmarried minor under the age of consent.”
Critics say the language would, in essence, require child abuse reports even of cases of consensual sex between two teens. Byrd claims the bill seeks only to target sex by children under the age of 15.
Regardless of the age covered by the bill, some opponents say its consequences would be stifling for those who are required by law to report child abuse.
That list of “mandated reporters” includes educators, physicians, nurses and other professionals who come in contact with children.
Otto Fajen, a lobbyist for the Missouri chapter of the National Education Association, said the bill, as written, could stifle the ability of teachers and counselors to speak candidly to teens about sexual activity. Fajen said that by forcing teachers to always report sexual activity as abuse, the law removes sound professional judgment of what constitutes abuse.
Byrd said his bill has been misinterpreted to include sexual activity by older teens. He said that the “age of consent” referred to in the bill is 15. He said sexual activity by children under that age is something that should be reported to the child abuse hot line, regardless of the age of the sexual partner.
The scenarios listed above this clip aren’t so unlikely if this bill succeeds. Like many states, the age of consent laws in Missouri are blurry at best, sometimes referring to the age of consent as fifteen years and at other times seventeen years. Similar laws exist on the books in many states (including Indiana), effectively making consentual relationships between teens illegal in the eyes of the law.
Write Republican Representative Richard Byrd of Kirkwood, Missouri, today to protect reasonable legal approaches to the sexual health of teens and the ability for families to decide what is appropriate for their individual children.
Richard Byrd
201 West Capitol Avenue
Room 412C
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Capitol Ph: 573-751-5956
Capitol Fax: 573-522-9288
E-Mail: Richard.Byrd@house.mo.gov
More on this gynophobic legislation at Bitch Ph.D.