In a healthy society a sexually active 13 year old girl ought to be an anomaly but sadly, today it is not. The Coquille girl at the center of a flurry of teenage arrests for consensual intercourse with a child too young to give consent was a friend of my daughter just a couple of years ago. Normally, I wouldn’t want to touch this issue especially since I know no more than what is reported in the paper but I believe as a society we need to do some serious soul searching. So far three teens, seventeen to nineteen with at least two more likely to be charged may find themselves behind bars facing six years in prison. [see exceptions]

Whether this child was preyed upon by these older boys or acted the coquette enticing their attention really isn’t relevant. She is a victim as are these boys of a society that expects its children to behave counter to societal pressures imposed on them with images of sexy teen temptress role models on television programming, slick ad campaigns, hormone additives in factory beef and their own natural instincts. They are victims of a community that doesn’t care enough to build a skate park or fund a music department or establish supervised activities for unemployed kids.

This young girl’s case is not an anomaly, it is not the exception it is becoming more and more the norm. There is no defending these boys, they all knew better but right or wrong society will have to deal with the fact that girls are becoming sexually active earlier and earlier and unless laws carrying mandatory sentences are adapted to adjust to this sad truth our prisons are going to be filled to the brim with otherwise law abiding but nonetheless “horny” teenagers.

This case should become a national issue and seriously debated far and wide.