The front-page article about a criminal-justice reform bill pending in the state Senate (“Mass. bill aims to ease drug sentences,’’ Oct. 5) cites a “Romeo and Juliet law’’ provision, where sex between consenting teens close in age would not be considered a crime. The article gives an example of a 12- and 10-year-old having sex. This statement is shocking to me. How can sex between two children be presented in any way, shape, or form as normal?

As a pediatrician and a mother of four children, I am horrified. If a child as young as 10 is having sex — NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE — there is something gravely wrong with the child’s environment. This child would need serious intervention, investigation, and protection, and should not be seen as a simple math problem where, since 12 minus 10 equals only 2, it’s really not a big deal and no one should get in trouble.

Our children are already growing up in a society infested with violence and drugs. Please do not give out the message that sex between little kids is OK. If that behavior is normalized, another generation will be susceptible to the diseases of addiction and violence, and these cycles will never end.

Dr. Paula McEvoy

Needham