Could this happen to your child?

This is the start of title the title for the website supporting Genarlow Wilson. And, the answer is...Not if you are involved! This young man was charged and convicted “Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of oral sex” with a 15-year old girl when he was two years her senior. Also, he was acquitted of a rape charge stemming from the same incident.

Mr. Wilson’s mother, Ms. Juanessa Bennett, provides more information about the crime in her January 2006 interview with BlackAmericaWeb. The article clearly shows this was not a simple case of a boy becoming intimate with his girlfriend but a New Year’s Eve party in a hotel where there was a video tape catching the action. Obviously, the classes in Civics are not being understood if a high school senior with a 3.2 GPA has not learned that the activities he participated in at best were inappropriate and likely to have been illegal.

Where are the parents of these kids? It does not take much imagination and/or interaction with your kids to understand that this party in a hotel room was unlikely to be a “positive” experience and that any problems could have long term negative implications. Less than a decade ago Georgia had a sexually transmitted disease outbreak among middle and high school age children (1999 Frontline documentary), which CNN noted as a Wake-up Call was an opportunity missed.

What’s most appalling is that there are people in our country that believe a child of 15 is capable of determining “consensual sex” with its potential for life changing consequences, while not having the maturity to legally operate a motor vehicle on the roads, purchase cigarettes, or be in possession of alcohol. It was not too many years ago that the voting age moved from 21 to 18 and so did the age of majority. It is tough enough to make good decisions at 18, 19 and 20, so how can anyone expect someone 15 to be capable make an intelligent choice about sex, especially when faced with pressure from older classmates?

As usually the ACLU has been involved in a related issue, but misses the “forest” of the problem because it focused on the “tree” of a single individual “minority” right. The CWA sheds a little more light on ACLU claims.

While former President Clinton struggled with the concept that intimacy without intercourse is “sexual relations,” it is clear that the activities in this case are so, and it is only appropriate that children be protected from undue exposure and/or pressure to such activities.