School health centers didn't report underage sex
After King Middle School moves to offer birth control, the District Attorney says schools must report anyone under age 14 who's having sex.
By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Staff Writer October 26, 2007
Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson
Portland's school-based health centers have not been reporting all illegal sexual activity involving minors as required by law, but they will from now on, city officials said Thursday.
Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson questioned the health centers' reporting practices after the Portland School Committee decided last week to offer prescription birth control at the King Middle School health center.
The King Student Health Center has offered comprehensive reproductive health care, including providing condoms and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, since it opened in 2000. The school serves students in grades 6 to 8, ages 11 to 15.
Maine law prohibits having sex with a person under age 14, regardless of the age of the other person involved, Anderson said.
A health care provider must report all known or suspected cases of sex with minors age 13 and under to the state Department of Health and Human Services, she said. Abuse also must be reported to the appropriate district attorney's office, Anderson said, when the suspected perpetrator is someone other than the minor's parent or guardian.
"When it's somebody under age 14, it is a crime and it must be reported," Anderson said. "The health care provider has no discretion in the matter. It's up to the district attorney to decide."
Anderson said she contacted Portland officials after she learned that some employees of the health centers, which are operated by the city's Public Health Division, believed they could decide whether a child's sexual activity constituted criminal abuse.
In fact, if a child under age 14 was having consensual sex with someone of a similar age, health center employees weren't reporting it to the proper authorities, said City Attorney Gary Wood.
Anderson said doctors and other health care providers in private practice may falsely believe they have similar leeway, but they must follow the same laws.
"It's clear that it's going on all the time," Anderson said. "Either the law is going to be enforced or it needs to be changed. I don't think a law should be routinely violated."
Portland's six school-based health centers had no formal policy on reporting sexual activity involving students under age 14, said Douglas Gardner, director of Portland's Department of Health and Human Services.
Gardner said it's unclear whether any health center employee failed to report suspected cases to the state Department of Health and Human Services, but they did fail to report cases to Anderson's office.
"Moving forward, we will report to the letter of the law," Gardner said.
He noted that the reporting issue applies to few students. Five King students reported being sexually active last year, and school officials said they were all ages 14 and 15.
Although Portland officials intend to comply with the law, exactly what the law requires remains unclear, Wood said. Having sex with a 13-year-old is clearly illegal, he said, but the law doesn't address the possibility of the other person involved being 13 years old, too.
"I think (Anderson) has raised a legitimate point," Wood said. "I'm just not sure that consensual sexual activity (between two 13-year-olds) constitutes abuse."
If Anderson's office received a report of two 13-year-olds having sex, she said, each minor would be considered a victim and a perpetrator and the case likely wouldn't be prosecuted.
Wood said he plans to seek guidance from Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe. Rowe is married to Amanda Rowe, Portland's head school nurse and a proponent of the King contraception proposal.
The School Committee voted 7-2 last week to expand contraceptive offerings at King, with John Coyne, chairman, and Benjamin Meiklejohn in opposition.
Both opponents are developing proposals that would clarify the School Department's role in offering reproductive health care at the middle school, including a possible age limit of 14 and up. The committee is expected to take up the issue Nov. 7.
"If there are legal issues with providing reproductive health care at King, I would want them to be brought forward to the board and explained to make sure that it's provided in a safe and legal way," Coyne said.
Anderson said she will wait to see if the committee makes changes before deciding how to proceed.
Meiklejohn said Anderson's concern confirms his own. "I'm not opposed to the services being provided, but we need to have public confidence in whatever we do," he said.
Andrew MacNeal, a lawyer with the Maine Medical Association, called Anderson's interpretation of Maine law on this issue "conservative."
"I might argue that the health care provider has more discretion in reporting abuse," MacNeal said. "Always, a physician's first obligation is to the patient."
MacNeal said it's not practical to apply the law this way to all health care practitioners, especially when many of them wouldn't consider consensual sex between two 12-year-olds to be a crime.
MacNeal and Gardner questioned whether strict reporting requirements might have a chilling effect on young people seeking health care.
"If we're reporting to the district attorney's office, it brings it to a whole other level," Gardner said. "I don't know what that would do to the comfort level of young people coming to us for health care."
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
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