BOSTON—Carol Adler was just 16 when her high school English teacher first started making advances. Adler said those moves turned sexual during her junior year, after her father died and she was her most vulnerable.
For the next two years, Adler said she and the teacher continued the affair, even though he was more than a decade her senior and married with two small children. Adler said the relationship filled her with remorse and a guilt that lingered into her adulthood.
"I was derailed," said Adler, now 49 and a mother of three. "It wasn't until my children got to that age that I looked back and said 'My God, that was why I had such a difficult time.'"
Now Adler is pushing a bill that would make sexual intercourse between teachers and students under 18 a criminal offense, regardless of consent. The bill is slated to come up for a public hearing at the Statehouse on Tuesday.
While sex between adults and anyone under the age of 16 is already covered by statutory rape laws, there is no criminal prohibition on teachers engaging in consensual sexual relations with students 16 or over.
State Sen. Mark Montigny, the bill's sponsor, said that although sex with a student can cost a teacher his or her job, the possibility of jail time would add another layer of protection for students.
"There's nothing clearer than a deep thick line that says if you break this line you will be held criminally liable," said Montigny, D-New Bedford.
Cases of teachers allegedly having sex with students can go unnoticed or unreported for years.
Adler said that while she confessed the affair to her husband before they married, she was too embarassed until recent years to report it to school authorities in Quincy, where she attended high school.
The teacher resigned in 2005 after Adler complained. He also voluntarily surrendered his teaching license without admitting wrongdoing after the state Department of Education opened an investigation into an alleged past relationship between him and a student. The investigation was closed after he gave up his license, said department spokeswoman Heidi Guarino.
The teacher, whom The Associated Press is declining to name because there was no disciplinary action or finding of wrongdoing against him, hung up after an AP reporter called and identified himself. A subsequent message was not returned.
At least 16 states have enacted regulations that call for the automatic revocation or denial of a teacher's license for a range of activities, from anyone convicted of crimes against children or sex offenses to "moral turpitude" or "improper conduct with a student."
Under Massachusetts' regulations, the commissioner of education can suspend a teaching license for any number of reasons including against anyone who has pleaded guilty or was convicted of "a crime involving moral turpitude."
Under the bill, any teacher or employee of a public or private school would face 2 1/2 years in jail and a fine of $10,000 if they are convicted of having sexual intercourse with a student under 18 in the school where they work, provided the employee is more than four years older than the student.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said he supports the bill, but thinks it should be expanded to include other adults who work with teens, including coaches, counselors and administrators.
"As a prosecutor I have seen several young people who are vulnerable and being taken advantage of by adults who are in positions of authority over them," he said. "I think it is appropriate to consider criminal sanctions."
Last year, Leone's office charged a gymnastics coach with raping one former student and molesting another in the early 1990s. One of the alleged victims was 16 at the time. Steve Infante, 51, was released on personal recognizance after he pleaded not guilty.
For Adler, the relationship marked a negative turning point in her life.
"When I met him I was 16 and I had won a local beauty contest, I was an honors student, I had a little cute boyfriend," said Adler, who lives in Mattapoisett.
By the end of the affair, when she was 18, Adler said she was "a wreck."
"A student and a teacher are different than two people in that kind of situation who aren't in a power relationship," she said.
