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Wednesday January 23, 2013 at 3:45 pm

The PA House Children and Youth Committee and the Judiciary Committee met on January 22, 2013 in a joint public hearing to evaluate a report presented by the Child Protection Task Force. The objectives of the report are to amend state law pertaining to child abuse.

The Child Protection Task Force is headed by David W. Heckler, an attorney from Bucks County who has previously served in the State house of Representatives and State Senate.

Accusing the current laws of being too "vague," Heckler gathered a team of pediatricians and attorneys to spearhead the proposed law changes. "We don’t want to do this once every 10 to 15 years when a Sandusky case blows up,” he said. In order to stress the frequency of child abuse and the need to beef up the current laws, Heckler went on to say, “This stuff happens, it happens in our cities, it happens in our small towns, it happens in our affluent suburbs."

Jason Kutalakis, a lawyer from Carlisle, explained that anyone in Pennsylvania is eligible to report child abuse. Certain members of society such as employees of schools and medical facilities are required to report child abuse. When these people fail to report suspected child abuse, it may result in a third degree misdemeanor. Kutalakis wants to expand the list to include employees of colleges and universities, coaches, attorneys, librarians, program volunteers, and people involved in movie production. Kutalakis proposed that the penalty for failing to report child abuse should be heightened to a second degree misdemeanor.

The report also proposes that the definition of child abuse be expanded. Child abuse in Pennsylvania is defined as "a recent act or failure to act by a perpetrator which causes non accidental serious physical injury to a child under 18 years of age."

Dr. Cindy W. Christian, a pediatrician who was appointed to the task force, called the State's definition as "the most narrow in the country." Christian wants to add more specific criteria to the law to include multiple bruises, injuries in abnormal places, recent intentional attempts to do serious injury, kicking, burning, biting, stabbing, throwing the child, extended confinement, shaking, slapping an infant, intentional interference with breathing, exposure to drugs, and placing a child as a passenger in a vehicle while the driver is under the influence.

The report proposes the establishment of more Child Advocacy Centers (CAC) throughout the State. CACs are a safe setting where abused children are able to retell their stories of abuse to proper authorities and trained staff. It was stated that there are not enough of them in the state. Part of the proposal includes implementing standards to ensure that all of the CAC's are operating the same way.

The proposal is now under review by the house and a follow up hearing is expected to take place in February.

by Daniel Haubert

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