Pacific Island Times April 2019 Vol 3 No. 4 | Page 4
FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK Legislating high school love
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
The so-called Romeo and Juliet law, as we all know, is an allusion to Shakespeare’s tragic play that revolves around ill-fated young lovers, who have to run away from too many people interfering with their budding romance. If you do not know how it ends, it’s proba- bly because you skipped your litera- ture class. Five centuries later, we have ele- vated to the state level the practice of interfering with young flames. Their raw emotions are rendered abstract by the law. The legal system is bur- dened by its complexity and trapped in the numbers provided by law. An innocent love between two high-schoolers suddenly becomes the subject of a criminal prosecution for statutory rape when one hits past the age of pu- berty, and the continued relationship is typically defined as sexual assault on a child. If convicted, the older one becomes a registered sex offender for life. Attorney General Leevin Camacho sees this anomaly. “The law should distinguish between child molesters and teenage consensual sex,” he said. “The current law does not promote justice for young indi- viduals in this circumstance. They should not receive the same penalties and consequences as an adult who forcibly rapes someone. That is not justice.” Taking a cue from the attorney general’s concerns, Speaker Tina Muna Barnes has introduced Bill 50- 35 that would establish a close-in-age exception for a criminal sexual con- duct. The bill also sets a maximum offender age of 19 and a close-in-age exception of less than four years. Which means, a 19-year-old found having consensual sex with a minor 4 Mar-Vic Cagurangan [email protected] Associate Editor Bruce Lloyd [email protected] Associate Editor (Pacific Note/Palau) Ongerung Kambes Kesolei [email protected] over the age of 15 could be charged with a misde- meanor offense. Critics see the bill from another window. “I think that this is basically, a kind of bill or law that would that would simply result in more permissive predatory sexual behavior directed against young people,” University of Guam professor Ron McNinch said in an inter- view with KUAM. That seems like an exaggerated warning. Romeo and Juliet laws and clauses concern young adults who have willingly had sexual relations— as opposed to “predatory sexual behavior directed against young people,” which is already a criminal offense under the current law. Bill 50-35 seeks to fix the distortions in the law. Unfortunately, fixing laws has become a legislative routine and lawmakers are trapped in the web of statutes—some of them deal with matters that are better left to people’s personal judgment and decisions. The legal system tends to find itself snagged in a conundrum when deal- ing with legislated morals and values. Such legislative practice is driven by the nanny-state syndrome, which conjures images of a finger-wagging government forever telling us all what to do, what not to do, how to behave. What’s missing in this discussion is what matters most— education and parental responsibility to instill values in their own children. And if parents choose to impose a dating embargo on their own Romeos and Juliets, it should be their call, not the state’s. Unfortunately, fixing laws has become a legislative routine and lawmakers are trapped in the web of statutes—some of them deal with matters that are better left to people’s personal judgment and decisions.