Legislation that spells out the duties and deadlines of college coaches and other professions to report evidence of child abuse and increases punishment for those who don't received a House committee's unanimous blessing Thursday.
The three bills are Virginia's response to child abuse allegations that rocked Penn State's mighty football program and forced the November firing of its legendary head coach, Joe Paterno.
Together, they place statutory requirements on coaches, recreation specialists, youth volunteers and others to report suspected child abuse to law enforcement and other authorities. The legislation also shortens the deadline from 72 hours to just 24.
One, by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, adds athletic coaches and leaders of private sports teams and organizations to the list of people the law requires to report abuse or neglect of children to the Department of Social Services.
Another, by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, specifically adds coaches at public or private colleges in Virginia to that same list.
And the third, by Del. Ed Scott, R-Madison, boosts the penalty for failing to report from a fine of up to $1,000, to a misdemeanor that carries up to a year's jail time and a fine as high as $2,500. If sexual abuse to a child causes death or injury, failure to report it is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
House floor debate on the three bills is expected early next week.
The bills as originally presented Thursday defined the authorities and chains of command to whom abuse claims should be made, primarily the Department of Social Services and its hotline. Bell, who is running for state attorney general in 2013, offered amendments that would allow a simple call to the police to satisfy the reporting obligations.
"All of us are aware of what happened at Penn State and that's providing the backdrop to this," Bell said.
Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, 68, faces trial on felony charges that he sexually abused 10 boys over a 15-year span, with some of the attacks reported in the school's athletic facilities. But the scandal widened far beyond Sandusky because of the silence that surrounded the alleged abuses for years.
Paterno, who won more games than any coach in major college football history, was fired Nov. 9 amid criticism that he never notified police officers of the attacks when he learned Sandusky had been seen sexually assaulting a boy in the showers. Paterno told his superiors, but Penn State's trustees felt he should have done more. Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said that Paterno satisfied his legal obligation, but not a moral one.
Besides Paterno, who died at age 85 of lung cancer on Jan. 22, Penn State fired its president, placed its athletics director on administrative leave and forced a senior official who oversaw the university police department to step down.
The three bills, expected to win easy House and Senate passage, expand the number of groups or professions required to report child abuse to 18. Del. Joe Morrissey, D-Henrico, questioned why it stops there.
"Is there a group of people in ... Virginia who we do not want to report suspected cases of child abuse?" Morrissey asked. "Would we not be better off saying anybody 18 years old or older ... should be reporting suspected cases of child abuse?"
With the list so narrow, he said, legislators will be forced to return perennially to add new categories.
In an interview after the committee adjourned, Bell said that while decency dictates that everyone report child abuse, "the question is where is the law going to punish those who don't. We have done this group-by-group in the past, but we are reaching the point where it may be essential to bring in everybody else as well."
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Online:
HB1237 (Scott, E.T.): http://bit.ly/yrwfyH
HB3 (Marshall, R.G.): http://bit.ly/wsvsfc
HB970 (Bell, R.B.): http://bit.ly/xSyzNc
