JUNEAU — Alaska lawmakers are debating whether volunteers should be subject to criminal penalties if they fail to report suspected child abuse.
Gov. Sean Parnell’s crime bill, HB73 in the House and SB22 in the Senate, stipulates that volunteer or paid athletic coaches are required to report if they have a reasonable suspicion that a child has been subjected to abuse or neglect.
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced amendments to the bill for the first time, one of which would remove volunteers from the list of those subject to mandatory reporting.
Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, proposed the amendment. He said Friday that he believes volunteers who have not had professional training to look for signs of abuse should not face the threat of legal penalties.
“This is not talking about potential perpetrators. This is talking about reporting,” Dyson said Friday, when the issue was also discussed. “Once you expand that to volunteers, who have not had the professional training — they may be great soccer players and so on and so forth — but has no idea of what to look for, signs of abuse, then you’re putting them subject to legal penalties for things that they are very poorly trained for.”
Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, said she “vehemently” disagreed with the amendment, adding that volunteers have a moral obligation to report suspected abuse.
“It is my belief that both of those classes of human beings should rightfully be added,” McGuire said. “Often it is the coaches and the volunteers that are right there on the front lines.”
She said she doesn’t expect the state would prosecute a volunteer who saw signs of abuse and failed to report them, but she wants volunteers put on notice about their moral responsibility.
During Friday’s deliberation, McGuire said she believed the provision wasn’t broad enough and wanted it to encompass more people who deal with kids, including nonprofits and boys’ and girls’ clubs.
“My concern would be if we don’t catch all, that there could be some kind of athletic organization that’s springs up under a loophole that a parent would send their child to unwittingly, not understanding that that might be a place for predation,” McGuire said.
The amendment was held until Friday for further discussion, but McGuire noted she will be absent from the committee then.
___
Online:
SB22: http://bit.ly/12nlIfP
Comments (8)
Add commentInteresting issue
Do you potentially have abuse go ignored by a volunteer who "doesn't want to get involved" or do you potentially drive away volunteers over fears of being prosecuted for missing the signs? Or perhaps kids are prevented from participating in activities by their parents due to fears that the volunteers will be playing 'junior detective'?
At the end of the day this seems like a fringe amendment that won't have much impact either way.
How about a run-down of all of the bills currently under consideration with a brief synopsis of what they entail? Picking and choosing off of the wire on legislative actions is lazy reporting for the Capital's newspaper.
Oh, and you have a typo in THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.
Go ahead with this and just
Go ahead with this and just see how many volunteers you have left... You start talking about forcing me to do something and prosecuting me if I dont and I'm not gonna be a volunteer anymore...
The Governor's bill is well intentioned
But I agree that this could have some unfortunate unintended consequences.
Sen. Lesil McGuire How about THIS...
How about we put a Special Amendment in the Statute, that says "All Elected, Municipal, and State Officials" as well... so that YOU have YOUR Personal "Skin in the Game"... If you don't accept that, why should ANY Volunteers subject themselves to something YOU, as an Elected Official, are NOT willing to subject YOURSELF to?
Inquiring Minds, want to KNOW?
Politicos, somehow they think that they are ABOVE the rest of US... and their LAWS don't effect THEM, just US....
Sean Parnell??? Lesil McGuire
Sean Parnell??? Lesil McGuire ????
I'm speechless, this is so half-baked.
more good touchy-feelly nonsence
from our legislators. How do you know when a volunteer has had this training or if the training is remotely in tune with current issues. Ask any one who has taught for twenty years how the thoughts on what is abuse is has changed. For the concerns today are far different than they were twenty years ago.
Twenty years ago a priest, teacher or minister would have been reluctant to consider one of their peers as culpable of abusing a child. Unfortunately today it comes as no surprise when it is discovered. Parents were rarely the subject of investigations of child abuse twenty years ago. Today it a daily occurrence for someone to report possible child abuse.
Moreover the attorneys have created a fear in so many of us that if we do report anything we will be sued for some obscure interpretation while the actual culprits go on their merry way.
How about we require that
How about we require that adult volunteers involved with children undergo a background check?
That's the greater risk to children.
Any moral adult should report suspected child abuse without the threat of penalty.
All this does is lead to
All this does is lead to craziness. Scouts do this. Everything must have two deep leadership so there is no one on one time. I went to take my kid to camp in Anchorage and they wouldnt let us register because I needed a second adult. I told them I was the father. made no difference. if I have to have a chaperone to be with my own kids we got bigger problems. Finaly they attached us to another troop, who completely ignored us and we spent all our time as father and son. Focus on the problem, rather than turning everyone into a potential suspect.