Sandusky/PSU — New Pennsylvania State Senate Proposal Strengthening Mandatatory Reporting Of Child Abuse May Be Voted On Today. See Full Text Of SB549.
Western Pennsylvania Democratic State Senator Wayne Fontana has been down this road before. In 2005 he first introduced a bill to clarify and strengthen the state’s mandated reporting requirements for suspected child abuse. He reintroduced his bill in the present legislative session, SB549 (set out in full below), in February this year. . . .
On May 24th, on a bipartisan basis, SB549 was unanimously reported out of the Senate Committee on Aging and Youth without amendment. On June 20th on the Senate floor, when called up for consideration, Republican Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi had it re-referred to the Appropriations Committee [at pg. 700]. (I emailed Sen. Pileggi’s office to learn why he re-referred the bill. Haven’t heard back yet. Perhaps these re-referrals are normal events in the PA legislature regardless of ruling party.)
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi asked why Penn State administrators didn’t contact police after the graduate assistant said he saw Sandusky sexually assault a boy at the team’s practice center in 2002. “If there are no good and prompt answers, there needs to be a change in leadership,” said Pileggi, R-Delaware County. [For complete article]
Also, Pileggi’s office, through spokesman Erik Arneson, asserted that PSU President Graham Spanier should not remain as Penn State’s president if there isn’t an explanation of why university officials didn’t report the allegations. PSU trustees, responding to many such calls for action, fired Spanier last Wednesday.
Pileggi’s viewpoint bodes well for a quick release of SB549 from Appropriations, and just as quickly on to the Senate floor for a vote, perhaps, according to Senator Fontana on CNN, as early as today..
Here’s SB549l as reported out of the Aging and Youth Committee:
