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Erin's Law Proposed for Alaska

Erin Merryn

A bill has been filed for consideration by the Alaska Legislature that would require school districts to develop sexual abuse and assault awareness programs. The 2nd session of the Alaska Legislature gets started later this month and when lawmakers get back to work they will have several new pieces of legislation to consider. Representative Geran Tarr from Anchorage has pre-filed one of those bills. The Democrat is pushing for the adoption of “Erin’s Law” in Alaska. The law is the brainchild of child sexual abuse survivor Erin Merryn (Murr-in) who has been working to get every state in the nation to require school districts to develop a curriculum to teach kids about child sexual abuse. So far 5 states have adopted and implemented “Erin’s Law” including Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Maine and Michigan. Representative Tarr’s bill is House Bill 233. She confirms the language of the bill allows school districts to develop their own age-appropriate sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention programs. The bill also requires mandatory training for school district employees. The bill calls for the curriculum and training to include warning signs of sexual abuse and actions that a child may take to prevent and report sexual abuse. Tarr suggests that “Erin’s Law” meshes well with the state-wide “Choose Respect” campaign championed by Alaska Governor Sean Parnell. The “Erin’s Law” bill will be officially introduced when the 2nd session of the 28th Alaska Legislature gets started on January 21st.