In the recent spate of national and local news concerning women teachers being sexually involved with young make students, a recurring question arises: isn’t there gender “discrimination” in the public’s reactions and in the legal sanctions involved? There’s no question that there’s been a detrimental long-standing attitude on the part of the public. Remember such movies as Summer of ‘42, which perpetuated the stereotypical “a consummation devoutly to be wished” sexual initiation idea.

But evidently forgotten in all the reaction and discussion in recent months, is the disastrous Supreme Court Decision some twenty years ago, with Chief Justice Rehnquist leading the vote, which said that Statutory Rape Laws were chiefly intended to protect girls. He clarified it by saying that it was because girls could become pregnant.

Most feminists were outraged at the time, as many of us have sons as well as daughters. Since then, the states have had to deal with protecting young boys as best they can.

– Dolores M. Klein

Has it really been that long?

by Dolores Klein

It is gratifying when we see very young people dedicate themselves to an important project, acting on research and study, and creatively and boldly taking action. An eighth grade student, now a graduate, Madeline Piller from Mendota, Illinois, along with her brother and school friends, acting on their research, wrote a play, took it a Washington, D.C. competition, and since then have seriously dedicated themselves to the building of a RADIUM GIRLS MONUMENT.

There are few monuments to women: we have Lydia Moss Bradley and Mother Jones in Illinois. This proposed monument to be erected on the site of the Radium Dial plant in Ottawa, as designed by Madeline, depicts a young, healthy dial painter “who is ready to take on the tragic challenges that will come her way.” Her story will be etched on the marble base. Though the monument is being seen as a gift to the city of Ottawa, I see it more of an Illinois asset, considering this to be example of strength in the face of certain death.

In 1925, Radium Dial became aware of the occupational danger of radium radiation exposure and the poisoning that would follow. These young women, who started in 1922 ingesting radium in the paint they were applying on brushes to numbers on clock faces, were never told. Instead, after being examined, they had their fears calmed. In 1934, seven women began legal battles to win financial compensation for occupationally acquired radium poisoning: debilitating bone fractures and infections, bone tumors and anemia. Small settlements did not pay their mounting bills. The company shut down, but reopened, remaining in business into the 70’s; finally being shut down by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for improper handling of tritium.

The seven women, known as “the Society of the Living Dead” gave more than an example. They and others traveled to Argonne National Laboratory, undergoing tests for the effects on their bodies of radium radiation, being monitored for years, sometimes being studied after death. These studies were used to set safety standards for industrial exposure to radiation, which is a gift to all of us from these women.

They took on an industry, a medical community and a legal system. While suffering from debilitating fatal illness, they fought the system that recognized women to be inferior and individual workers to be less important than the industry in which they worked.

Personally, I want to be part of Madeline Piller’s project, to be there at the dedication. NO MONEY IS BEING ASKED FOR, only pledges to see if it is financially feasible to go forward and complete it. The sculptor has donated most of the time it will take to create the life-sized bronze. Call for pledge info at 681-0311.