Task Force Urges Sweeping Changes to Pa Child Protection Laws

By Mark Shade
Philly Burbs
November 27, 2012

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/task-force-urges-sweeping-changes-to-pa-child-protection-laws/article_1bdd0d1c-bd6b-5ece-a928-6792e637ac95.html

The Pennsylvania Legislature should enact extensive changes to the state’s child abuse laws, a panel of pediatricians, lawyers and lawmakers recommended Tuesday after a year-long study prompted by the arrest and conviction of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges.

The Task Force on Child Protection, chaired by Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler, issued dozens of proposals that would change everything from the definition of child abuse to who would be legally mandated to report suspected child abuse.

In a case that drew international attention, Sandusky was sentenced in October to between 30 and 60 years for sexually abusing underage boys on campus and elsewhere. Legendary football coach Joe Paterno lost his job, along with three other top PSU officials for their response to complaints about Sandusky.

The Legislature created the task force after Sandusky’s indictment 13 months ago, but Heckler insisted the group take a wider view of the issue.

“What we did here is not a knee-jerk reaction to anything. It is seizing the opportunity to look at the whole system,” the former judge said.

“We propose a transformation in the way information concerning child abuse is handled and maintained, the way in which crimes against children are investigated in parts of the state, and the way in which those with a responsibility for the well-being of children are trained,” Heckler added.

The task force is making dozens of proposals, including asking state lawmakers to change the definition of child abuse by lowering the threshold for substantiating the crime and eliminating the requirement that a child experience severe pain. The definition of a perpetrator also would be broadened.

The requirement to report suspected child abuse would be expanded to include college administrators, coaches, librarians, and commercial film processors who develop child pornography photographs.

For willfully failing to report suspected cases of child abuse, the task force wants lawmakers to increase the penalties and revoke the professional licenses of counselors and doctors. It also wants to punish those who make false reports.

The definition of sexual abuse would be expanded to include sexually explicit conversations, under the task force’s recommendations. Changes were recommended in Pennsylvania’s cumbersome, paper-laden, toll-free child abuse reporting network, ChildLine, so reports of suspected child abuse could be investigated faster.

Reaction to the task force’s findings was positive.

“These are common-sense changes that can better protect kids,” said Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children CEO Joan Benso.

Gov. Tom Corbett also expressed his approval of the task force’s work.

“It’s my hope that we can take the work of the task force to help create a culture that promotes greater awareness, more accountability and better coordination,” the governor said in a press release.

Task force member Dr. Rachel Berger of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh said the culture is one of the things that must change.

“People have no sense (of the problem) because of all the stigma. The only thing we ever hear about child protective services is bad and the only time we read (about) it in the press, it’s bad,” Berger said.

While Heckler insists the task force report is independent of the Sandusky scandal, it was hard for him and others to predict how things would have unfolded in State College had the recommendations been law two decades ago.

“If the proposal for individual reporter requirements for those working in institutions had been law in 2001, Mike McQueary would have been required to directly report what he witnessed rather than relying on (Paterno and former Penn State President Graham Spanier). This could have stopped many more years of child abuse committed by Mr. Sandusky,” Benso said.

Heckler agreed.

“I firmly believe if there had been a multidisciplinary investigative team in Centre County in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, that you would have heard about Jerry Sandusky then and not 10 years later and that all of the intervening victims would have been spared,” said the DA.

Heckler said it will take time for the Legislature to digest the task force’s recommendations and to make the changes the group believes are needed to “put children first.”

Dr. Cindy Christian, director of Safe Place at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said all the proposals need to be considered together.

“We want to hold the Jerry Sanduskys of the world accountable … so I think all of these things really do work together,” Christian said.

Prosecutors have been able to investigate and prosecute suspected child abusers, including Sandusky, despite the current law’s many shortcomings, PA Partnerships for Children spokesman Mike Race said.

“Like any profession, prosecutors try to make best use of the tools at their disposal. Giving them better tools — as this report suggests — can help them be more effective at prosecuting abuse,” Race said.

Montgomery County Rep. Todd Stephens might be one lawmaker who uses the task force recommendations to rewrite Pennsylvania’s child protective services law. He already has introduced some legislation to better guard against child abuse and will continue to do so.

“I am working vigorously to enact the legislation that is necessary to protect our kids,” the Republican state lawmaker said.

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