Braintree Boys Charged with Rape for Consensual Sex

Editorial
Braintree Boys Charged with Rape for Consensual Sex

Does Boston Globe Have New “Puritanical’ View

February 4, 2002

Four 17-year-old boys from Braintree are being charged with rape for having consensual sex with girls a year or two younger.

Wow!

The Globe’s reporting of this is a throwback to the ‘50s when men still believed that their role was to protect the helpless female.

Guide for Teenage Boys on ‘Statutory Rape'

Although many teachers say that all teenagers should be engaged in sex while still in high school, they don’t tell you about the terrible diseases you can get by doing so.

Nor do they tell you about the statutory rape laws that can be used against boys – even if the girl is the one who flirted and enticed you into sex.

We will print a guide for Mass. teenage boys tomorrow that will outline the laws that can be used against you when a girl gets bored or finds a guy with a more expensive car.

Doesn’t the Globe realize they are threatening forty years of “progress?” Where is NOW? This will ruin their agenda of proclaiming that females are strong, capable and able to defend themselves. In addition, we have all been taught that females mature much faster than males.

This sex was not forced upon the girls. It was “consensual,” according to the police.

Why is the Globe complaining if some girls finally get a couple of hunks to notice them and want to have sex with them? Isn’t this exactly what we’re teaching: That abstinence is for nerds and all normal teenagers should enjoy sex many times before graduation?

The extremists at the Globe will respond, “Haven’t you ever heard of statutory rape?”

Of course we’ve heard of statutory rape. It was used in the ‘50s to protect young girls. But we thought we were the only ones who still believed that silly stuff.

Boys Labeled as ‘Rapists'

The four 17-year-old boys were shown with their pictures as the lead story on page 1 of the City and Region section last Saturday, with the headline, “4 teens facing rape charges.” The four large mug shots of the boys were run down the right hand column.

In Sunday’s paper, the headline was, “Wider case feared in alleged rapes.” You have to read to the end of the story before you find “police say some will be classified as statutory rape.”

Which brings us back to the original Globe story with the shocking headline about the four boys facing rape charges. You have to read to the seventh paragraph before you come to this sentence, “Some of the sex between the girls and the suspects was consensual, [the policeman] said, and some of it was forced. But because all three victims are 15 [and possibly close to 16], they legally cannot consent to sex, [the policeman] said.”

So the police were told, apparently by the girls, that some of the sex was forced and some was consensual. The affair lasted for several months and all the participants knew each other. It always took place at the home of one of the boys.

Apparently we have a story about some girls who wanted to have sex with a group of hockey jocks and some who say they didn’t want to. Is there anyone who doesn’t wonder what actually happened?

But not the extremists at the Globe. They don’t care if they destroy the lives of four young men if it fits their plan.

Do their stories sound balanced to anyone? Why did the Globe bury the fact that some of the sex was consensual? Don’t they wonder if it was all consensual and some of the girls just don’t want to admit it? The police reported that no alcohol or drugs were used on the girls.

Anyone who looks at the stories must conclude that the Globe has already indicted these boys in their unfair coverage and then found them guilty. Many of us believe that all these young people were very foolish and irresponsible. Many of us can remember the ‘50s when this type of conduct absolutely did not happen. But isn’t this conduct just what the extremists at the Globe have been encouraging for years?

Some people will complain that this is group sex and that is terrible in itself. But there are over 200 websites out there for people who claim they have a Constitutional right to practice group sex. They call their passion “polyamory,” and they are passionate about it.

If we are going to have open and free sex as we are teaching our children, how can we complain if they have a little group sex now and then? Our children will reply, “Have you ever tried it?”

So a few of the girls got cold feet after it was over. That’s to be expected, particularly in our “Puritan society,” where people like MassNews encourage abstinence that was the model in the ‘50s. But who thought the Globe would become part of us “Puritans?” (On the other hand, they have always been schizophrenic in their extremist behavior.)

Other law-abiding types will say, “But there is a law.” The retort to that is there are many, many “silly” laws on the books that we don’t bother to enforce. One of them outlaws all homosexual sex, which is known to the law as “sodomy.” No District Attorney in Massachusetts ever takes those laws seriously any more. So why are we taking the statutory rape law so seriously?

Our Fault

At the end of its Saturday story, the Globe quoted one freshman at the high school as saying there is a lot of peer pressure among teens everywhere, not just at Braintree High, to have sex. An eighth grader said he is nervous about attending the school next year.

“I really don’t want to be in an environment with so much violence and sexuality going on,” he said.

We could not agree with him more.

We adults have promoted this environment in our schools much too long. And no one has been more avid in its promotion than the Boston Globe.