BCAC also joined the State Council of Child Abuse and Neglect (of which our Medical Director Dr. Wendy Lane is chair) and a coalition of leaders and Del. CT Wilson of Charles County to pass a law to prevent sexual misconduct by teachers and faculty in schools. This important piece of legislation does what criminal background checks do not-- it prevents the practice of “passing the trash” whereby teachers accused of sexual abuse are allowed to resign quietly and are passed from school to school. This legislation requires educational job applicants to disclose any professional discipline or investigations arising from sexual
misconduct or sexual abuse and requires schools to thoroughly vet those they seek to hire.
Our work in preventing internet exploitation and crimes against children saw us be a strong partner with the passage of Grace’s Law 2.0 – a first of its kind bill in the nation that Sen. Bobby Zirkin and Del. Jon Cardin of Baltimore County authored to stop cyber-bullying. Named after 15 year old Grace McComas who took her own life after being bombarded by online bullies, this will strengthen all of our efforts to keep children safe on the internet as well as in real life.
And
lastly, after more than a decade of advocacy and hard work, Maryland became the 49th state to enforce the very important duty that mandated reporters have to report suspected child abuse. Reeling from terrible cases of professionals who failed to protect children and report abuse, a newly emboldened legislature and team of advocates worked out a bill to strengthen our mandated reporting laws with an appropriate criminal penalty for the failure to report abuse. Del. Vanessa Atterbeary of Howard County and Sen. Susan Lee of Montgomery County fought hard and worked with many stakeholders to finally provide the remedy needed in a long open loophole.
BCAC’s incredible legislative efforts would not have been possible without the support of over 50 advocates who came to Annapolis for BCAC’s Advocacy Day in March – our blue shirts were everywhere that day as we shared our message of child protection. Many of you called and made visits to your members as well – there are far too many of you to thank individually, but I must share a huge thank you for the tireless efforts of our Director of Government Affairs Joyce Lombardi who led our team in Annapolis and truly made a difference.
Thank you to all the heroes who made this happen – if you’re interested in furthering our advocacy efforts in Baltimore, Annapolis, or across the nation, let us know! And be sure to join us as we celebrate these accomplishments and more on May
10th at our annual Be A Hero event. Tickets are still available – I hope to see you there.
Let’s stay safe,