BOSTON (MA)
MSN [Redmond WA ]
July 27, 2026
By Greta Jochem, masslive.com
About a decade ago when N. turned 16, an educator in her Western Massachusetts school started a sexual relationship with her, she said.
N., who requested anonymity to protect her privacy, was shocked when police later told her there was nothing they could do because she was 16 at the time.
That will no longer be the case in Massachusetts after more than a decade of advocacy to change the law.
This month, Gov. Maura Healey signed a law that makes it illegal for adult mandated reporters — a category that includes teachers, police officers, coaches and social workers — to have sexual contact with anyone under 18.
The age of consent is 16 in the state, and previously without an explicit carve out, a “loophole” made it lawful for those adults to have sexual relationships with 16- and 17-year-olds.
The change was included in an amendment to the state’s budget bill, which became law earlier this month. Healey held a ceremonial signing of the consent law on Friday.
The change comes after Melissa Fares and Hilary Simon in 2024 publicly accused Matthew Rutledge, a teacher at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, of sexually abusing them years ago while they were underage students. The Berkshire District Attorney’s Office cited the age of consent law as a barrier to prosecution, but after two years, Rutledge was charged with rape.
Fares and Simon advocated for the law to change.
“I was failed,” Fares said in a statement Friday. “Failed by Massachusetts. Failed by the adults who were supposed to protect me. For a long time, the law failed kids like me, too. Today, it doesn’t.”
“This law doesn’t erase what happened,” she said. “But it closes a loophole that never should have existed to begin with, and because of that, children in Massachusetts will be safer.”
After speaking with the Miss Hall’s community, state Rep. Leigh Davis, D-Great Barrington, worked on the House legislation.
“But this achievement belongs to the survivors who found the courage to speak out,” she said in a statement, “especially Melissa Fares, Hilary Simon, the Miss Hall’s School community, and every survivor who refused to stay silent.”
Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Salem, sponsored legislation this session and in many prior ones.
“Closing this loophole has been one of the most personal and important fights of my career,” she said in a statement, “and I am proud that we got it done for the children and families of the commonwealth.”
The news was a relief for N., who testified for a previous version of the bill in a prior legislative session.
“I think this will protect children and hold predators accountable,” she said. “It also gives a sense of healing and justice for those of us who have experienced something like this.”
As of last year, laws in 39 states and Washington, D.C., criminalize sexual abuse of students who are at the age of consent, but are still minors, by school staff and adults in authority positions, according to a review by Enough Abuse, a nonprofit group that fights child sexual abuse and has long pushed for the new law.
“We were very pleased that finally with the additional voices of survivors — particularly those who had been abused after the age of 16 by school employees — we were grateful the bill finally made it through,” Jetta Bernier, executive director of Enough Abuse, said on Monday.
But she’s not celebrating yet. Enough Abuse is pushing for several other bills this session, including one that would criminalize creating artificial intelligence-generated or computer-edited child sexual abuse material. According to Enough Abuse, Massachusetts is one of only a few states that has not yet done so.
Bernier also is advocating for a law that would, among other provisions, require schools to adopt an abuse prevention policy.
Mandated reporters are required to be trained to recognize and report suspected child abuse, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which recommends — but does not require — training annually.
“We need the focus now to be on prevention,“ Bernier said. “Otherwise, we are running in place.”
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