Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez finally gets one right with Assembly Bill 989.
We as a community have come together and are working towards fight sexual misconduct. With the #MeToo movement, victims have begun the fight against sexual abuse. With this fight, Gonzalez has finally made a move towards what’s right.
Gonzalez first released some of the intended language for AB 989, where it states, “Establish in each County Office of Education or school district a new position for providing guidance and compliance with the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act. Local officials would also, be required to create a centralized toll-free number and website for individuals to submit complaints to that public school ombudsperson,” according to her office.
The details have been pushed off until August to be worked out, and there is still the looming question surrounding the bill of how they are going to handle the cost since it likely entails a new position. Assemblywoman Gonzalez has to work quickly to make sure her bill, which finally does something good, is made into law.
The San Diego School District and their Board have blatantly ignored the request seeing as it has been well over a year since the request was made and they have only released one teacher’s name, a name that was already known because it had become a locally famous case.
In a situation where we are criticizing the time table of how long the school district is taking to get all their sexual misconduct allegations in order, we must ask what of the time table of the bill?
Assemblywoman Gonzalez must continue pushing for her bill, as she was quick to discuss her intent with the bill after announcing her candidacy for California Secretary of State, but since then she has just pushed it off.
Thoughts are nice and can lead to tremendous change such as AB 989, but time is a crucial factor in helping victims where they can tell what happened and not just be ignored. Gonzalez must work quickly for actual change or she’ll continue to keep giving the public her empty promises.
