Posted: | December 19, 2012 03:02 PM |
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From: | Representative Mauree Gingrich |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Co-sponsor legislation: Child Exploitation Awareness Education |
Sexual abuse of children is most often committed by those entrusted with the care and protection of those children! It is vital to provide children with information and support to aid in avoiding abuse, exploitation and abduction. It is essential to address this subject in schools since abuse often takes place in a child’s own home by trusted individuals. More than 90% of sexual abuse child victims know their abuser, according to the US Department of Justice. Sexual abuse of children is most often committed by those entrusted with the care and protection of those children! It is vital to provide children with information and support to aid in avoiding abuse, exploitation and abduction. It is essential to address this subject in schools since abuse often takes place in a child’s own home by trusted individuals. More than 90% of sexual abuse child victims know their abuser, according to the US Department of Justice. In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to provide for child exploitation awareness education in schools. The purpose of this legislation is to ensure that our children are aware of the definition of child exploitation, able to recognize types of child exploitation and aware of warning signs of child exploitation. The program would provide age appropriate awareness education within the existing curriculum for students in grades K-8. The Office of Safe Schools within the Pennsylvania Department of Education would be charged with designing a model curriculum that school districts may incorporate into an existing annual curriculum. In addition, the department would provide age-appropriate educational materials regarding child exploitation awareness. Child exploitation includes child abduction and sexual abuse or exploitation. The recently released report for the Governor’s task force on Child Protection praised the bill and recognized prevention as “equally important, if not greater” than other measures in the protection of children. If you would like to join me in cosponsoring this legislation, please contact my staff Anne Yanikov via e-mail at ayanikov@pahousegop.com or (717) 783-1815. |
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Introduced as HB19