Protect young people

Your sixth-grade daughter is fair game for high-school sophomores. That is the ruling of the federal judge for the district of Kansas (4/20, Metro, "Kline expects to appeal ruling on teenage sex").

Judge J. Thomas Marten states that there is no "injury" when a 12-year-old is impregnated by a 15-year-old, and that health-care providers need not report this.

He is more impressed with the policy manual of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services than the laws of Kansas. The department gives counselors the discretion to determine whether sex for a 12-year-old is "injurious." If not, then it is not reported.

Score one for the randy teenagers hanging around your daughter.

In fairness to the judge and others, they admit that underage sexual activity is illegal in Kansas. Their point: Big deal, no harm, no foul - even if your kid is pregnant at 12. What sort of message are our young men getting from such scholarly judicial opinion?

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline should appeal. The case might get to the U.S. Supreme Court. So there is still hope that sanity might be restored.

Steve Fitzgerald
Leavenworth