By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California may soon have vastly different standards for public and private schools when it comes to sexual misconduct if a pending bill becomes law, as expected.

Senate Bill 131 would exempt public schools and their employees from lawsuits related to sexual abuse of students prior to 2009, but would leave  private schools vulnerable to the same type of lawsuits for incidents dating back as long as 40 years, Catholic San Francisco reports.

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“To add insult to injury, SB 131 even protects the actual abuser from being sued – the only claims that are revived are against private employers and nonprofit organizations,” Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, told the news site.

“It could have a serious impact on the funding or the operations of many dioceses,” he said.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, who said it’s designed to give victims more time to “realize the mental and physical damage” from abuse than current law provides, according to Catholic San Francisco.

But only victims who attended private schools. Those who were raped in public schools must not need that extra time. Right, Sen. Beall?

SB 131 is supported by the California Teachers Association and the state’s public schools and many Democrats. It’s opposed by the California Association of Education, a nonunion educator association, the California Police Activities League, the California State Alliance of YMCAs, the state’s private schools, the California Association of Joint Power Authorities, and the Pacific Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In a letter to senators in May, nonprofit council lobbyist John Norwood explained why the bill doesn’t make sense.

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“The most telling thing about SB 131 is the fact that although the sponsors claim that this is a bill ‘for victims,’ the bill callously disregards any victim who may have been abused in a public school, or by some other government employee,” Norwood wrote.

SB 131 “discriminates against more victims than it helps and is narrowly tailored to serve the interest of a few trial lawyers,” he wrote.

Breitbart.com points out how true Norwood’s statement is.

“As National Catholic Register’s Wayne Laugesen wrote in 2006, a report from the federal government said 422,000 California public school students would suffer sexual abuse before graduation, far less than the total number of Catholic school students, which was 143,000,” according to the news site.

It doesn’t take a political insider to see this is a battle between public school and private school advocates, and children who have suffered sexual abuse in public schools are getting the short end of the stick.

This bill has the potential to devastate Catholic private schools in California, which seems to be the goal.

Are the people of California blind enough to let a grossly unfair proposal like this become law? Stay tuned.