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| State Rep. Louise Williams Bishop |
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State Rep. Mike McGeehan
D-Philadelphia
Bishop, McGeehan, pledge relentless pursuit of child sexual abuse bills
HARRISBURG, Oct. 17 – State Reps. Louise Williams Bishop and Mike McGeehan, both D-Phila., joined a news conference held by Justice4PaKids. The legislators reasserted their dedication to seeing bills enacted that reform statute of limitations laws in Pennsylvania.
The first would open the door for adults to seek justice from people who have allegedly sexually abused them during their childhood years. The other would eliminate the statute of limitations altogether for victims going forward.
Justice4PAKids is a newly formed coalition of child and victim advocates formed in support of reforming the statute of limitations in the cases of child sexual abuse. The organization also offers child sex abuse educational seminars and outreach to victims.
Bishop and McGeehan expressed frustration that their bills (H.B.s 832 and 878), introduced last spring, have not been called up for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.
Among the speakers at the news conference was Al Chesley, former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker, who said he was assaulted by a respected neighborhood police officer. Now 53, Chesley said it was only recently that he came to terms with his experience. He urged the Legislature to act promptly to better safeguard young Pennsylvanians.
“I believe it will protect children today by allowing victims like me who could not speak about it sooner to do so now,” Chesley said. “It will allow victims to expose predators so parents will know how to keep their young ones away from the predators. I know if my parents had known that the police officer down the block was a child molester, they would have kept me away from him.
“No one had warned them. This bill will help parents be warned.”
To strengthen the fight against child predators, Bishop has introduced a new bill (H.B. 1876) that would allow the prosecution of anyone who has knowledge of sex offenses against children but fails to report the incidents to law enforcement officers.
“It is time to bring this out of the dark ages and do something about this horrifying crime,” said Bishop, Democratic Chairwoman of the House Children and Youth Committee. “Report those who know of child sexual abuse but are keeping their mouths closed.”
Another news conference participant, Tammy Lerner of The Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, a victim herself, addressed the economic impact of child sex abuse.
“Above the moral imperative to protect children, child sex abuse directly impacts our pocketbooks,” Lerner said. “In Pennsylvania, costs attributed to child sex abuse reach upwards of $138 million in the short term. On the national level, the numbers are a staggering $400 million per year. Just think what else the Commonwealth could do with that money.”
“This is not an issue that we can cover up and believe that it will go away on its own,” Bishop said. “It will not go away. It is still happening today. There is a lot of pain from years back that is being expressed; people want it to be dealt with.”
McGeehan charged that the present system does a better job at shielding the pedophiles than it does protecting their past victims. He asserted that every day a pedophile remains shielded, they will ensnare more and more children.
“When our government, our schools, our churches, our clubs for boys and girls, turn a blind eye to criminality of the worst kind, we need to DO something about it,” McGeehan said. When organizations are more interested in self-preservation than self-policing, at the expense of children, it is time for action in the halls of Harrisburg.”
McGeehan has proposed a new bill that would close a loophole in the statute of limitations law.
“Even though the ‘window’ legislation expressly includes all entities ‘public or private,’ one concern that surfaces is that of whether sovereign immunity for public institutions, like school districts, may trump my proposal,” McGeehan said.
“So there can be no question that a public entity can be found liable, I introduced House Bill 1895, which calls for make child sex abuse one of the exceptions to the sovereign immunity rules.”
Following the news conference, the members of Justice4PAKids delivered dozens of petitions baring thousands of names to the office of Rep. Ron Marsico, calling upon him, as majority chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to, at the very least, hold hearings on the child sex abuse measures.
“Changing statute of limitations laws is fraught with misconceptions, conflict and hypocrisy,” McGeehan concluded. “If ever there was a reason, or the time, to hold hearings to debate the issues and craft laws that truly protect the most vulnerable of our society – the time is now.”
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