House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

Posted:	June 4, 2013 08:47 AM
From:	Representative Louise Williams Bishop
To:	All House members
Subject:	Co-Sponsorship Memo - School Training

In the near future I plan to introduce legislation that would make child abuse awareness education mandatory for public and non-public school children from kindergarten to 12^th grade. The additional course of study would include recognizing and reporting sexual abuse of children, understanding the appropriate and inappropriate contact, recognizing sexual predator behavior including secretive locations, language, and activity and reporting procedures. The course of instruction would be prepared and approved by the state Department of Education and would need to be approved by the school boards. I feel as though if children are taught at a young age to identify the grooming procedures and sexual abuse by someone they trust we can possibly decrease the number of child abuse victims in Pennsylvania. The curriculum would be mandatory and parents or guardians would not have the option to opt out to release their child from the curriculum.
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Introduced as HB1528