Chez Chesler

See http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=69753

As police continue to probe sex acts between five hockey players and one underage girl at Milton Academy last month, women's advocates say the troubling case shows schools need to be more frank in discussing teen sex.

The tony private school, where tuition runs more than $25,000 a year without boarding, expelled three sophomores and two juniors after a three-day investigation uncovered the hockey players asked a 15-year-old sophomore to perform oral sex on all five in the boy's locker room Jan. 24, reportedly as a birthday gift to one of the boys.

The girl - who was placed on indefinite administrative leave - and all but one of the boys were boarding students.

Police are investigating and intend to interview all six students involved. Under state law, the girl was one year too young to consent to a sexual act.

...

Wendy Murphy, a New England School of Law professor who teaches a sexual violence seminar, applauded the school for sending a clear message to its students that illegal sexual behavior will not be tolerated.

"Whatever was behind her willingness to be there, it doesn't mean consent," Murphy said. "Anyone who wants to normalize this as an erotic play group for kids is fantasizing because it feels better."

See also http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/02/20/milton_academy_rocked_by_expulsions/

Mearn said he believed the boys were between 16 and 18 years old. In Massachusetts, a 17-year-old can be charged as an adult, said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney Wiliam R. Keating, whose office is assisting in the investigation.

Under state law, anyone who has sexual intercourse or "unnatural sexual intercourse" with someone under 16 can be imprisoned for life for statutory rape, even if the sex is consensual. "There is no mechanism in the law where someone can consent before the age of 16," said Traub.

Which seems to mean that as a matter of law the girl was raped, and has been suspended for being raped.

(The statute quoted, MGL C 265, §23, refers to unlawful intercourse, which I suspect refers to fornication, which may be a common-law crime, and which is probably no longer a crime. The prior two sections, §22 and §22A, describe non-statutory rape, compelled intercourse. I don't know how consentual statutory rape is actually prosecuted in Massachusetts, but they have a tendency to dispense with criminal trials and either declare people sexually dangerous or issue restraining orders.)

BostonHerald.com - Local/ Regional News: Scientists say lobster shell disease worsening, spreading

The disease doesn't spoil the meat, but makes lobsters unfit to serve whole because their shells are so ugly.

We're talking about something that when healthy looks like an oversized, multi-legged bug with eyestalks, aren't we?

BostonHerald.com - Local/ Regional News: Ex-cop Conley, still in limbo, glad for beaten brethren Cox The Michael Cox story made the news again when the victim received a promotion. Kenneth Conley, who was convicted of perjury for maintaining the "Blue Wall of Silence" was quoted.

More than 10 years have passed since Conley, now 36 and making ends meet doing carpentry work, is alleged to have turned a blind eye to his former brethren in blue stomping Cox into unconsciousness after mistaking him for a shooting suspect in Mattapan. Conley lost his badge over the ``blue wall of silence'' scandal, but he wasn't alone. David Williams, 42, who along with former patrolmen Ian Daley, 38, and James Burgio, 39, was fired amid internal charges they took Cox down and then left him to die upon finding out he was one of them, is awaiting an arbitrator's decision on whether he can be reinstated with Boston police - an appeal Burgio already lost. "At the same time (Williams) was accused of beating Cox, he was also accused of recognizing Cox from a distance and yelling, 'Stop! He's a cop!' '' said attorney Alan Shapiro, who is representing Williams on behalf of the patrolmen's union. "Williams neither beat him nor knew he was there.''

Why is it that nobody ever questions why these members of Boston's finest would have thought it was acceptable to beat Cox if he hadn't been a cop?

The classic picture of a young football fan crazed with excitement for the team is shirtless, sometimes painted in the team's colors. The Supreme Judicial Court tells us that Article I of the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires that equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex. Justice Greaney, in his concurring opinion in Goodridge, tells us that this provision guarantees "to all people of the Commonwealth -- equally -- the enjoyment of rights that are deemed important or fundamental. The withholding of relief from the plaintiffs, who wish to marry, and are otherwise eligible to marry, on the ground that the couples are of the same gender, constitutes a categorical restriction of a fundamental right." What right is more fundamental that the right of expression (freedom of speech and of the press)? That right is generally protected more strongly even than the right to choose whom one wishes to marry. And yet Tara Brogdan was arrested at the Patriots rolling rally on Tuesday for expressing her exhuberance at their third Superbowl victory by means of removing her shirt.

Rowdy fans tossed for a loss By Jules Crittenden and Michele McPhee Wednesday, February 9, 2005

... Even before the Pats showed up, a blonde-haired, green-eyed Westford lass allegedly hoisted her top at Tremont and Park streets.

"This caused the crowd at the Patriots celebration to become loud and excited," police reported. Tara Bogdan, 18, was charged with indecent exposure.

(Note that Ms. Bogdan was not charged with inciting the fans to riot, and one would think that loud and excited is the appropriate way to greet the team.) For the converse of this reasoning, see http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_02_07.shtml#1108149480