SALEM, Mass. —

State Sen. Joan Lovely has an idea why a bill to make it a crime for a teacher to have sex with a 16-year-old student has not passed the Massachusetts Legislature for the past 10 years.

"When you're talking about the sexual abuse of children, the rape, the rape of children, people shut down," Lovely said.

Lovely is hopeful that the continuing attention, including 5 Investigates' reporting last week on the issue, is finally reaching a kind of critical mass.

"The more that legislators hear about it, the more they're going to pay attention to it," Lovely said.

And they've been hearing about it from survivors of teacher sexual abuse since 2015.

"Children that are not allowed to smoke, vote, or drink alcohol are somehow supposed to protect themselves from adult sexual preda

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