By State Rep. Tarah Toohil (R-Luzerne) Poder Latino News -- Strengthening state law to provide better protections for
Pennsylvania’s children is one of the top items on the agenda in the House of
Representatives. Earlier this year, House members passed a package of nearly
two dozen child abuse bills, which is now under consideration in the Senate. In
addition, three more child protection measures were recently approved by the
House.
House Bill 20 would
upgrade the offense of concealing the death of a child to a third-degree felony
and increase the maximum penalties to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.
The measure also would clarify who can be charged with the crime. They include a
natural parent, stepparent, adoptive parent, guardian or intimate partner of
the child’s parent; an individual residing in the same household as the child;
or an individual responsible for the child’s welfare, such as a babysitter,
teacher or coach.
House Bill 494 would
create a new crime of failure to report the disappearance of a child. Under
this bill, a parent of a child under age 14 can be charged with the offense if
he or she acts with reckless disregard for the child’s welfare and fails to
report the disappearance of the child to a law enforcement agency within 24
hours of knowing the child was missing. The offense would be a third-degree
felony, which carries a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison and a
$15,000 fine.
Together, House Bills 20 and 494 are known as “Caylee’s
Law.” They were drafted in response to the highly publicized Caylee Anthony
case in Florida several years ago. During the trial of Casey Anthony, the
evidence disclosed that she waited almost a month before reporting her child
was missing. That led to a national public outcry over the concealment of
little Caylee’s death, even if it was accidental as claimed. I believe we need
to strengthen our laws here in Pennsylvania to discourage that kind of tragic
behavior involving a young child from taking place here.
The third measure approved by the House would upgrade the
crime of luring a child into a vehicle or structure to a second-degree felony
if the child is less than 13 years old. The crime would carry a maximum penalty
of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. House Bill 1594 also provides that
mistaking the age of the child is no defense. In all too many cases, sexual
predators take advantage of a young child’s innocence and willingness to be
helpful and succeed in enticing them into a car or a vacant building, often
with tragic results.
A fourth child
protection bill was recently approved by the House Judiciary Committee. House Bill
1045 would create the offense of making false reports of child abuse. A person would
commit a second-degree misdemeanor if the person knowingly or intentionally
makes a false report of child abuse or induces a child to make a false report
of child abuse. The offense would carry a maximum penalty of two years in
prison and a $5,000 fine. House Bill 1045 next goes to the full House for
consideration.
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