Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman and I welcomed Norwalk students from the Center for Youth Leadership at Brien McMahon High School to the State Capitol.
The students made their annual trip to Hartford to make a visual statement about the important issue of child abuse in Connecticut. This year the students strung together multi-colored popsicle sticks, each of the 4,000 sticks representing half of the abused children in Connecticut, to promote their message of putting an end to child abuse.
It is always a pleasure to welcome students to our State Capitol, but never more so than when they come to promote a worthy cause. Child abuse is a very pressing problem, which tragically impacts the lives of thousands of Connecticut children. As it happens, today we voted on a Connecticut version of the nationally-known ‘Erin’s Law’, which will create a statewide master plan for recognizing and addressing sexual abuse.
I joined his colleagues in a unanimous, bipartisan vote in the State Senate Tuesday in support of a bill that would create a state-wide task force to help prevent the sexual abuse of children – Connecticut’s version of the nationally-known ‘Erin’s Law.’
The task force will gather information from a variety of individuals and community organizations throughout the state. It is charged with studying how best to educate school children and their parents on sexual abuse, then developing an age-appropriate curriculum and training educators in its use. The plan must also include recommendations on providing counseling and resources for any student affected by sexual abuse.
A master plan must be submitted by the task force to the legislature in 2014 for approval. ‘Erin’s Law’ is named after Erin Merryn, who was sexually abused as a child by a neighbor and an older cousin and who believes she would have spoken out much earlier about her abuse if she had been taught at a young age about the threat. Five states have passed some version of ‘Erin’s Law,’ and another 10 are considering it.
The enabling legislation, Senate Bill 158, now awaits further action in the House of Representatives.
State Senator Bob Duff represents the 25th Senatorial District, which includes Norwalk and Darien. To follow Senator Duff's Patch blog click here and then click "Get email updates.
