Senate Closes Loophole: 16- and 17-Year-Olds Can’t Consent to Sex with Teachers or Coaches

BY ELLA ADAMS

People under the age of 18 would be unable to legally consent to sexual conduct with an adult who holds, or has held, supervisory or custodial authority over them in a public or private school setting or similar context, under a Senate budget amendment adopted Thursday.

The redrafted Sen. Joan Lovely amendment (#841) would close a “legal gap” in state law, she said, in which criminal sentencing protections for indecent assault and battery on a child apply only to victims under the age of 14. 

“Once a young person turns 16, they are presumed legally capable of consenting to sexual activity, even with an adult in a position of supervisory or custodial authority, who may have groomed or manipulated them over months or years,” the Salem Democrat said. “This is the loophole. A 16- or 17-year-old student cannot consent to having sex with their teacher. A teenage athlete cannot consent to having sex with their coach.”

Lovely has been filing related legislation for years, and said the amendment would create a new section in Chapter 265 specifically addressing sexual assault by mandated reporters against minors ages 16 and 17. The abuse would remain a crime even if the adult is no longer formally in a supervisory role at the time of the offense, according to the amendment. 

It implements an up to 20-year sentence for rape and up to 10 years for indecent assault and battery, Lovely said, “adding these new offenses to the definitions underlying the sex offender registry, ensuring these crimes are captured and tracked.” She said the amendment also includes “a narrow close-in-age exemption” to protect relationships between young people who are closer in age. 

“The headlines have not stopped. Across all of Massachusetts, we are seeing horrific stories of sexual abuse in schools,” Lovely said during floor remarks. She and Rep. Leigh Davis filed companion bills (S 1163, H 1634) on the topic this session. 

Citing data from child advocacy organization Enough Abuse, Lovely said there were 34 publicly reported recent cases of child sexual abuse in Massachusetts documented in the last year. She said one in five girls and one in 16 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault, and the numbers increase to one in three girls and one in nine boys when online experiences are included. 

Lovely referred to recent related cases in Worcester and on the South Shore, while Sens. Mark Montigny and Becca Rausch cited cases in New Bedford and Needham when rising in support of the amendment. Rep. Davis told the News Service when she took office in 2024 that she heard while knocking on doors during her campaign how many people were concerned about the issue after a story broke about alleged instances of sexual abuse at Miss Hall’s School for Girls in Pittsfield. 

“Power and trust make true consent impossible,” Lovely said, noting district attorneys under existing law are unable to prosecute adults who exploit teenagers because it doesn’t recognize “the inherent power imbalance.” 

Montigny spoke about “ignorance in society about sexual abuse,” and Rausch spoke to her experience having a conversation about the topic with her kids after an incident at their elementary school.