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Georgia students may want to think twice about bullying someone online, especially if HB 310 passes. HB 310, better known as “The End to Cyberbullying Act,” will take the current law and expand it to include any form of cyber communication that would be considered bullying. Currently, the law in Georgia prohibits any form of bullying of another student only on school property, busses, bus stops and at school events. If the new provision were to become law, school officials could act even if the cyberbullying didn’t occur on school property. For example, if a student decides to send a threatening message through Facebook while at home to another student, the student who sent the harassing message can still be disciplined by school officials.
A State House Committee approved a bill cracking down on human trafficking on Wednesday. The bill, HB 200, now moves to the House Rules Committee where members will decide whether to schedule a vote. The measure places a heavy emphasis on elimination of child prostitution and punishing pimps.
The introduction of a long-awaited juvenile code rewrite in the state Senate earlier in the day added to the celebratory mood of an evening reception held in honor of Governor Nathan Deal’s nine newly appointed directors of child-focused state agencies. Many child advocacy organizations turned out for the event hosted by Voices for Georgia's Children. The Blue Room at the Georgia Freight Depot was all abuzz with the news that Sen. Bill Hamrick’s (R-30) SB 127 was likely headed to a Judiciary Committee hearing, possibly as soon as next week. “We are thrilled to know that it has been introduced,” said Emory University’s Barton Child Law and Policy Center Policy Director Kirsten Widner. The organization was actively involved in drafting the legislation.
The U.S. House funding bill passed Friday would cut juvenile justice programs by $191 million. Some $91 million of that is in earmarked programs, but it doesn’t tell the Office of Justice Programs where to trim the remaining $100 million. "It’s weird that they left that out,” said Joe Vignati, the National Juvenile Justice Specialist on the Executive Board of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice. “If—and this is a big if — this becomes law, everybody will be clamoring and saying, ‘Cut this! Cut this!’”
HR 1, the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, now moves to the Senate where the bill is expected to change significantly.
Georgia’s safe haven law is intended to save unwanted infants from abandonment but one health official says it may not work. According to Dr. Jack Birge, of the Carroll County, Ga., health board, a condition requiring parents to disclose personal information like their name, address and social security number before turning over their child is discouraging many from participating. “I think those are the circumstances that render the law potentially ineffective,” Birge told the Times-Georgian. The safe haven law allows parents to turn their newborn over to employees at hospitals and other medical facilities, without fear of prosecution. In Carroll County, no children have been turned over to officials in the last three years, however there were two children abandoned during that time, according to the Times-Georgian.
A human trafficking bill that toughens the penalty for sex traffickers and improves outcomes for victims has cleared another hurdle. The Ramsey Subcommittee of the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee pushed HB 200 forward for further consideration Thursday, after a lively hearing on the measure the day before. The bill’s sponsor House Whip Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta) opened the brief meeting – a follow up to yesterday’s considerably longer one – by highlighting some slight wording changes sub-committee members had suggested. “I think we took a good bill and made it even better,” Rep. Lindsey told sub-committee members, of the measure that includes charging those who traffic children under the age of 16 with aggravated felony. With little discussion, the subcommittee unanimously approved the motion raised by House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams (D-DeKalb) to push it through for consideration by the full committee.