May 4, 2012
ROJAS LAUDS HOUSE OK OF BILLS TO
PREVENT DOMESTIC, SEXUAL VIOLENCE
State Rep. Jason Rojas praised the unanimous House passage this week of two bills he co-sponsored that aim to stem the tide of sexual and domestic violence.
House Bill 5548: An Act Concerning Domestic Violence and House Bill 5031: An Act Concerning Sexual Violence On College Campuses both go to the Senate.
“We must do everything we can to prevent domestic violence and help victims of physical and psychological abuse,” said Rojas, a member of the Speaker’s Task Force on Domestic Violence, which recommended HB 5548.
Rojas said HB 5031 also was critically necessary to help colleges and universities prevent sexual violence on campus. “Sexual violence thrives on college campuses, but this bill will help prevent the violence before it occurs and provide a response for when it does occur,” he said.
The bill protects students by requiring colleges and universities to adopt and disclose policies related to sexual assault. Improved disclosure policies required in the legislation give students the tools they need to stay safe and to make informed decisions about reporting their assaults, Rojas said.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, students decline to report sexual assaults because they fear reprisal (40 percent), they do not want other people to find out (47 percent), they don’t believe the incident is serious enough to report (65 percent), or they don’t know how to report it (14 percent).
Under the domestic violence bill, police departments would set a uniform standard, but are given flexibility to tailor implementation to fit their departments. The bill also establishes a Family Violence Model Policy Governing Council to update the model policy going forward and review relevant data. In addition, the legislation permits judges to issue restraining orders for up to one year. Currently the maximum length of a restraining order is six months.
The bill also requires that courts share protective orders with schools that victims attend, upon request of a victim. Current law requires that orders be shared with the police departments in the town where the victim lives and works and the town where the defendant lives, but it does not require that schools or campus police are notified of an order.
Rojas said that with increasing numbers of people using texting as their primary way of communicating, the task force would like to see a 911 texting system implemented statewide. Unfortunately there a number of technical barriers to implementing 911 texting, so the legislation requires the Office of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of developing a 911 texting system.