From the office of District 34 Sen. Nancy Jacobs:
The Penn State scandal is a troubling example of how critical it is for people to report sexual child abuse if they witness it or hear it from the victim. Otherwise many more lives can be damaged as additional victims are preyed upon by the pedophile.
In Maryland now people are required to report child abuse to police or social services with few exceptions, yet surprisingly there is no criminal penalty if they don’t. Although the law does say teachers can be dismissed or suspended from their job for not reporting that abuse.
I believe there should be a criminal penalty for not reporting child abuse as required under law. I have begun to draft a bill to accomplish that. I am working with a State’s Attorney, Sexual Assault Centers and others to decide just what that penalty should be.
I hope you will support me in this effort. If you know someone in our state convicted of sexual child abuse that could have been caught earlier had people come forth to report it, please respond with an e-mail on this web site and we will contact you.
If you want to testify on such a bill send us your e-mail and we will try to keep you informed when the bill is heard by lawmakers in committee.
Our email form is at this page: http://www.nancyjacobs.com/site/Contact/contactform.htm
For full coverage and links to numerous informative news stories please visit our main website at http://www.nancyjacobs.com.
just seems like another why don’t you think of the children knee jerk reaction. Watch more children taken away from loving homes and traumatized over hyped up allegations and vindictive people lying. Turn this country in to a police state full of snitches.
I think there is a criminal penalty for not reporting child abuse. You may not have to serve time, but there is a conviction.
I am pretty sure it is just a civil penalty. Check out the Maryland Family Law, Title 5 – Children, Subtitle 7 – Child Abuse and Neglect. I think that is why Senator Jacobs wants to change it, to make it a criminal penalty.
Anyways, have a nice day.
excuse me? Paul Mc makes a comment to Harford Voter and dismisses his response. This is what happens when people try to make comments on here and then say have a nice day. The issue is child abuse and this is one reason why most people do not do a thing about it. I for one would report abuse! We want our children to grow up and become the best person there is and not say, again, Have a Nice Day!
Hey Concerned,
“excuse me? Paul Mc makes a comment to Harford Voter and dismisses his response.” – I did not dismiss anyone’s response. I simply stated the laws concerning this issue. If you took it as me dismissing anyone’s response, that is on you, it was not my intent.
“This is what happens when people try to make comments on here and then say have a nice day.” – I disagree with this statement. Some people actually mean it when they say have a nice day. I always mean it.
“The issue is child abuse and this is one reason why most people do not do a thing about it.” – The statement I responded to was about the penalty. I have not addressed the overall issue.
“I for one would report abuse!” – I think most would, and everyone should. I would report it as well.
“We want our children to grow up and become the best person there is and not say, again, Have a Nice Day!” – I want children to grow up to be the best possible people they can and for them to say ‘Have a nice day’.
Anyways, have a nice day.
Come on, Concerned Parent, read what Paul said. I know he doesn’t need me to defend him but for crying out loud stop with the venomous responses and just read what he actually said.
You said “most people don’t do a thing about it”. Really? Do you have some documented evidence for that or is it something that you just made up because you think might be true.
Yes, yes, I know as much about Penn State as most people and when that fiasco is all over a lot of people will be going down. And they should. The list of people who should go to jail will be long and contain many well known names. I doubt they will actually go to jail and that is a real shame. But Penn State is not broadly indicative of the country as a whole thankfully.
If you are going to participate on this site just drop the righteous indignation and read before your knee starts jerking.
@Alex R and Paul Mc….I do apologize if I “knee jerked”. I have had first hand knowledge of this issue and have taken action. This is the last I am going to say on the issue and I would hope everyone would report abuse to the proper authorities.
BTW Have a Nice Day
I just read the article and I am amazed that you want us to contact you and you will respond. Gotta love sending emails without knowing who is going to read the email. We are talking about abuse to children and you put an email on the dagger and expect people to use it. There is one number that I call and its 911.
The email is not to report abuse – it’s for if you want to testify on her proposed bill.
I applaud Nancy Jacobs thought here. That said Teacher’s face loss of their teaching liscence and thus their lively hood if they do not report suspected child abuse. If it is her belief that the current penelty is enough to get this crowd to report susbected abuse why make it tougher?
This is Senator Jacobs’ Chief of Staff Suzanne Collins. This isn’t kneejerk. As a matter of fact, this initiative to make criminal penalties for not reporting child abuse passed the full Senate in 2008. The bill died in the House Committee. I think this horrible story of the children who suffered at Penn State may convince that committee to rethink the issue..we are told by officers who’ve e-mailed and abuse centers it happens here too. We are only one of less than a handful of states without a criminal penalty for not reporting. The bill will be well thought out before drafting to not catch people who shouldn’t be charged. By the way, teachers are the only ones who have a job sanction..but not others.
Would placing the same job penalty on other mandatory reporters work?
The issue is something called “mandatory reporting”, which stipulates that teachers, school workers, social workers, and various types and levels of human service workers have a mandatory expectation to report even the slightest suspicion of child or adult abuse. Nearly all of these employees could be fired for not doing it, and any with licensure would lose it.
There is some training involved with such staff that alerts them to signs of abuse, warning indicators, behavioral indicators, etc.
People in other professions don’t have this training. To what standards are we going to hold the public at large?
If your nephew is abused by your brother and you don’t report it, is that a crime? How would you know it was happening? How is that proven?
There’s a lot here to be sorted out. If so many other States already have these laws on the books, there’s plenty of good copy to read and craft a good one.
who is considered public service workers? Bus drivers? custodians? school cafeteria workers?