DELAWARE- Senator Nicole Poore was inspired in part to sponsor three new bills after a number of Delaware school employees were charged with child pornography in unrelated cases.
"It was unimaginable to many families that the very people we trust to protect and educate our children may be doing them harm," Poore said.
Senate Bill 289 would expand Delaware's sexual extortion law to include asking someone to take a photo or video of themselves nude or in a sexual manner and/or distributing that material.
Senate Bill 290 requires additional training for school staff on sexual misconduct, now including prevention training.
Senate Bill 291 would require school districts and charter schools to make a policy about appropriate and inappropriate relationships between students and adults in the school system, including coaches and volunteers. It also includes a procedure for notifying the Delaware Department of Education and police of suspected sexual misconduct.
The new policies especially hit home in Milford after a former custodian was charged with child porn.
The school district says none of Albright's victims were students, but is offering additional resources for students and staff.
Representative Bryan Shupe says the new trio of bills are more needed than ever.
"We need to acknowledge that there are true monsters out there and we need to arm our schools with the education to not be blinded by this and not always have our blinders on and actually learn how we can stop this from happening in our school systems," Shupe said.
Patty Dailey Lewis of the Beau Biden Foundation For Protection Of Children says there are 500,000 child predators online with the average age of victims being 12 years old.
"21.7 million complaints in 2021," Dailey Lewis said. "Imagine the harm that is being done in living rooms, in classrooms, on baseball fields, all over this country."
Twenty-eight days are left in the legislative session with a full speed ahead effort to get these bills passed.
