Child Sex Abuse Advocates Blast Pa. Lawmaker

By Dennis Owens
WHTM
June 7, 2012

http://www.abc27.com/story/18721344/child-sex-abuse-advocates-blast-pa-lawmaker

[with video]

A creepy looking newspaper ad purchased by a group called The Foundation to Abolish Child Sexual Abuse is taking aim at House Judiciary Chairman Ron Marsico.

The ad has text in the blackened silhouette of a child and it accuses Marsico of sitting on House bills 832 and 878, which deal with the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and open a retroactive window for past victims to sue their abusers in civil court.

Foundation Vice President Tammy Lerner says Marsico, R-Dauphin, has rebuffed repeated attempts for meetings and has steadfastly refused attempts to move the bills to a vote in committee.

"I think it's despicable that they're being held up," said Lerner, an abuse victim. "We're putting the welfare of children at risk. Why? Because of special interest groups, because of money."

Marsico refused to comment about the ad or the group's allegations. The bills are strongly opposed by the Catholic church and the insurance industry. Both fear that if the floodgates are opened and the statue of limitations removed, whopping settlements would result; settlements they haven't adequately planned for.

"It is a valid point," said state Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland. "But there's another side to that. What about the person that's suffered this? And I do mean suffered."

Joyce Lukima of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape is not sympathetic to the church or the insurance industry.

"Maybe they should put more focus on how to prevent child abuse and in preventing child abuse and they won't have to worry about payouts," Lukima said.

A bill that is moving and passed out of a House committee would require teachers and coaches, who are already required to report suspected abuse of children, to get training in what exactly to look for. Vance wrote the bill months before the Sandusky scandal broke, and she did it at the request of tentative teachers.

"Nobody wants to accuse, for instance a parent, of abusing a child when they're not sure," Vance said.

Lukima tried to calm fears that teachers must now become abuse sleuths.

"They don't have to get into investigating or even accusing somebody of child abuse. All they have to do is report a suspicion and then it's up to trained investigators," she said.

Requiring abuse training for people who work with kids seems like a no-brainer now, but before Sandusky that wasn't the case.

"I can still remember people from Allegheny Social Services," Vance said. "They didn't like it at all because it wasn't necessary. Well, obviously it is."

Experts estimate that one-in-three girls and one-in-six boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18 in Pennsylvania.