AURORA | A bill in the Colorado Legislature — prompted by students assaulted by teachers in school — that would have extended the statute of limitations for failure to report child abuse to law enforcement was defeated in committee Tuesday.
It sought to extend the timeline limits from 18 months to five years.
The legislation, sposnored by Aurora Democrat state Sen. Rhonda Fields, was postponed indefinitely in the Republican-controlled Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, often called the “kill committee,” despite striking a deal with the Catholic Church and support from the District Attorney’s Council.
“When you don’t report, that’s a crime,” Fields told the Aurora Sentinel. “That’s why this bill was important to me.”
Her legislation comes in the aftermath of the multiple cases of sexual assault by former teacher Brian Vasquez at Prairie Middle School in Aurora. Vasquez is accused of a years-long string of sexual assaults on students as young as 14. According to testimony at a hearing late last year, he confessed multiple sex crimes to Aurora police. He was arrested in August and faces 37 counts related to sexual contact and sexual communications between him and the girls.
Two school administrators, Prairie Principal David Gonzales, Assistant Principal Adrienne “A.J.” MacIntosh and former counselor Cheryl Somers-Wegienka are all facing misdemeanor charge of failure to report accusations against Vasquez made by one of his alleged victims.
Arapahoe County prosecutors said when MacIntosh was told by a 14-year-old girl at the school about Vasquez having a relationship with her, MacIntosh launched her own investigation and declined to pass the information along to law enforcement. School administrators eventually suspended the girl for what they deemed were false allegations. First, however, they made her apologize to Vasquez, and give him a hug.
The Colorado Education Association opposed the legislation, though they did not testify on the bill earlier this month. When asked for comment they said they had nothing more to add.
Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg said before the committee vote he felt the bill did nothing to protect kids. “All it does is change the timeline,” he said.
But others disagreed with that stance.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler took to Twitter Tuesday to call the current law “ineffective and weak.”
“Right now the status quo says a teacher, group of teachers, healthcare professionals, clergy or whoever these mandatory reporters are, if they get together and keep a secret for whatever reason for 18 months and one day, they are completely off the hook for failing to tell law enforcement about sexual abuse of a child. Even if they see the abuse occurring, even if the child comes to them and tells them about it,” he said in a video posted to the district attorney’s office account.
DA @GeorgeBrauchler talks about Senate Bill 58 pic.twitter.com/S2tQNO2egH
— DA Office of 18th (@DA18th) February 14, 2018
Brauchler, also a Republican candidate for Colorado Attorney General, went on to say he didn’t believe the law in its current form doesn’t keep children safe. Earlier in the month he testified in favor of the bill, as did a representative from the Denver District Attorney’s Office and several victim advocate organizations.
Fields said there was some worry from certain activist groups that the bill didn’t go far enough with five years, but agreed it was a start they were willing to work with.
