The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would work to strengthen awareness and prevention of child sexual abuse in schools and evaluate the state’s probate court system to prevent the placement of minors in the care of abusers.
“The Committee on Children, for years, has really been focused on hopefully someday ending child sex abuse,” said Rep. Liz Linehan (D-Cheshire), Co-Chair of the Committee on Children. “I would love to be able to sit here and tell you that there is one piece of legislation that is going to make sweeping changes, however, it’s more of a chipping away at the stone because there are things that we can do everywhere and that’s what this bill does.”
The original bill, HB 5262, called for the creation of a statewide child sexual abuse (CSA) awareness and prevention program to be implemented by school districts across the state. Linehan introduced an amendment that would package other CSA-related bills that passed through the Committee on Children into the original bill, greatly expanding its scope. This amendment was passed 139-4.
In the amendment, the survey would be expanded to include a separate survey for school administrators. It would be created by the Departments of Public Health, Education, and Children and Families. The survey would serve as a sister survey to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey and would measure a school district’s capability to respond to reported instances of child sexual abuse. The results of the survey would be submitted to the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).
“So this survey has been around for over 20 years for kids,” said Linehan. “And now what’s going to happen is anytime that a school district is randomly chosen by the CDC to perform this survey, there is now going to be a partner survey that goes to the administration of that school.”
The amendment also proposed the creation of a task force to analyze relevant state agencies’ responses and procedures regarding incidents of CSA. The agencies inspected would be the Judicial Branch, Department of Children and Families, Department of Public Health, Department of Development Service, Department of Social Services, Emergency Services, and Public Protection and Education. Linehan said this was inspired by a recent instance of a man in Bristol who allegedly molested a child thousands of times over the course of a decade. According to the DCF, the man received custody of the child through the state’s probate court system.
“Recently, there was a man from Bristol who had utilized the probate court system to actually gain temporary custody for the purpose of sexually abusing kids in his care,” said Linehan. “So what we’re really looking to do is have the Office of the Child Advocate look at how these temporary custody orders are given.”
The awareness and prevention program included in the bill would train school staff in identifying signs of CSA and highlight additional educational resources for parents, staff and students on the subject, in hopes of increasing awareness and outlining the response people should take when potential cases are identified. It would also include a bystander training program and guidelines on how to appropriately interact with children who may be the victims of abuse.
The bill also mandates the creation of age-appropriate educational materials for children from kindergarten to 12th grade, that would mirror the content and purpose of the adult awareness and prevention program. The program would not be mandatory, and parents would be able to provide their schools with written notice if they wish to opt their children out of it. Furthermore, the bill would require the creation of a uniform CSA reporting procedure for school officials and require that victims be made aware of how to report their abuse. It also proposes access to additional educational resources for victims to improve their educational outcomes.
Lastly, the bill would change all instances of the words ‘child pornography’ in Connecticut statutes to ‘child sexual abuse material.’ Linehan explained that the term has recently become the preferred terminology of experts in the field and that it “supports the gravity of the problem,” but does not change the legal definition or penalties.
This proposed change was the one viewed most skeptically by members of the floor. Reps. Anne Dauphinais (R-Killingly) and Gale Mastrofrancesco (R-Southington) both questioned the reasoning behind the change and asked for clarity as to its definitions. Linehan explained it was a simple terminology change, and did not legally change what is considered to be child pornography, nor the penalties given to those in possession of it.
“Child sexual abuse material is very clear that anytime there is a photo or video depiction of a child in a sex act, or sexual manner, that that is abuse, plain and simple,” said Linehan. “So therefore, this terminology better reflects what child sexual abuse material truly is.”
Rep. Francis Cooley (R-Farmington) objected to the change.
“One of the things George Orwell said is we want to keep our language simple and precise,” said Cooley. “I think the term child pornography is well understood by the public and everybody here. I’m not sure the replacement term is necessarily understood in this chamber right now, and I’m not sure the public is necessarily going to understand that.”
Regardless of these objections, the bill as amended passed unanimously by a vote of 142-0.
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