Zirkin Returns to Old Committee to Testify Against [Delegate CT] Wilson’s Child Sex Abuse Bill #SB134 -“Biggest mistake of my life,” Wilson told Maryland Matters this week, likening the experience to “negotiating with the devil.”

Former Senate Judicial Proceedings chairman Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) returned to his former committee this week to testify against a high-profile bill that’s a follow-up to a measure he once championed.

The woman who replaced Zirkin in the Senate last year, Sen. Shelly L. Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), has joined Del. CT Wilson (D-Charles) in his fight to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors to launch civil suits. The bill was up in the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where Hettleman serves, on Tuesday...

...This legislation is something that Wilson has fought for for years — at times with Zirkin’s help.

In 2017, Wilson successfully sponsored legislation to extend the ability of childhood sexual abuse survivors to pursue civil lawsuits against their offenders from seven years after their 18th birthday to 20 years. 

Additionally, if a perpetrator was convicted in a criminal suit at any time, their victims were allotted a three-year lookback period to sue.

To achieve this, Wilson said that he, former Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.’s Office and former House Judiciary Committee chair Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George’s) entered into negotiations with the Catholic church to amend the bill. 

“Biggest mistake of my life,” Wilson told Maryland Matters this week, likening the experience to “negotiating with the devil.”..

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/05/zirkin-returns-to-old-committee-to-testify-against-wilsons-child-sex-abuse-bill/?fbclid=IwAR2R66Jm34HptVbvw_Md0HAj_hcy3rt2gmnBQwZM3nUkV0x2sk0CsvX1z-w

Maryland political titan Mike Miller resigns from state Senate as cancer worsens

 Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a towering political force in Maryland for five decades, resigned from the state Senate Wednesday, saying his health was failing and he no longer had the strength to serve.

Miller (D-Calvert), 78, was elected to the Senate in 1974 and served as Senate president for 33 years, longer than any one else in the country...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/mike-miller-cancer-resign/2020/12/23/5baf9174-4526-11eb-975c-d17b8815a66d_story.html

Netflix "The Keepers" Survivor Teresa Lancaster to MD Delegates: "Should this bill pass, legislators would be putting their stamp of approval on a dangerous excuse for failing to report. They would be undermining current law, which has protected children for 26 years. This would be an inexcusable, backward step."

Testimony in Opposition to SB 568/HB 787, Crimes--Child Abuse and Neglect--Failure to Report

March 27, 2019

My name is Teresa Lancaster. I am an attorney and a survivor who was featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary, The Keepers, currently on Netflix. I am also an activist and advocate for victims of sexual abuse.

I strongly oppose this bill. The proposed "actual knowledge" standard is so high that had it been in place during the Maskell scandal, no one could have been subject to prosecution for failing to report, had they suspected or even known about the terrible crimes that had occurred at Archbishop Keough High School when Maskell was there. Moreover, in accordance with the "actual knowledge" language, they would have been required to have seen for themselves the multiple rapes and the horrendous sexual abuse that took place in his office and failed to notify authorities before any prosecution could even be considered. It is clear in the child abuse literature that sexual abuse is not perpetrated in public. Consequently, I respectfully cannot understand, after all the scandals that have come to light, how supporters of this bill could claim that it would encourage reporting child abuse.

SB 568/HB 787 has been amended to make it worse. All this change would do is to undermine reporting based on suspected child abuse, which is the current standard in civil law. Legislators should ask themselves why no other state has such a standard in its reporting law.

I must emphasize that the part of the bill I find most offensive is Subsection C, because it undercuts an Attorney General opinion, 78 Md. Op. Atty. Gen. 189 [Dec.3, 1993]. This opinion finally required that the Archdiocese report to the authorities in my case, as well as the notorious Merzbacher case. Section C is a slap in the face to all the survivors of both of these scandals. Should this bill pass, legislators would be putting their stamp of approval on a dangerous excuse for failing to report. They would be undermining current law, which has protected children for 26 years. This would be an inexcusable, backward step.

Committee members must therefore, for the reasons above, look to their consciences and reject SB568/HB787.

Thank you for considering my views.

Lancaster Testimony (1) by on Scribd

Jane Doe and Jane Roe Call for an End to Maryland Statute of Limitations on Abuse Claims

March 17, 2019:

https://www.wmar2news.com/homepage-showcase/jane-doe-and-jane-roe-call-for-end-to-statute-of-limitations-on-abuse-claims?fbclid=IwAR0vin3mQI-gVNEHYyY4_wnYuN-D1RRW7QrYieic_MCCeADcDwc4KhSjWWk

A new day in the Maryland Senate

If someone were to hang a sign on the doors of the Maryland Senate, it might read “exciting opportunities available, inquire within.”

Going into the primary election, almost a dozen seats in the Senate already were open as some of the most experienced members, and in many cases trusted allies of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. declined to seek re-election.

And then came Tuesday.

“This was a tectonic shift,” Sen. Cheryl Kagan, D-Montgomery, said afterwards. “It’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen overnight — except that it happened overnight.”

That seismic shift included the loss of most of Miller’s remaining leadership team. Still in place are only one of four major committee chairs — Sen. Robert A. “Bobby” Zirkin, D-Baltimore County and chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee — and two vice chairs.

The results also raise questions about Baltimore’s strength as it leaves Sen. William “Bill” Ferguson as both the dean and youngest member of the city Senate delegation.

The changes will force Miller to build relationships with new members of his caucus, including those who unseated key allies and friends. The longest-serving Senate president in the country and in the history of the state has already started meeting with members, but some observers say those meetings are “the normal blocking and tackling” done by the Senate leader following an election...

https://thedailyrecord.com/2018/07/01/a-new-day-in-the-maryland-senate/

Archdiocese of Baltimore is still declining to make documents public related to the late priest at the center of “The Keepers” Netflix documentary.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is still declining to make documents public related to the late priest at the center of “The Keepers” Netflix documentary.

The Baltimore Sun reports the archdiocese has responded to the organizer of a petition, saying it took the request “very seriously.”

Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine wrote the request wouldn’t provide the clarity and closure petitioners are seeking.

The petition requests records on A. Joseph Maskell, a chaplain and counselor at a high school during the 1960s and 1970s. Multiple people have accused him of sexual abuse...

http://thedailyrecord.com/2017/09/18/maryland-the-keepers-online-petition/

Screens and Kids: Through the Looking Glass The MD General Assembly...

Screens and Kids: Through the Looking Glass The MD General Assembly...:

Through the Looking Glass The MD General Assembly and Classroom Screen Safety: 
A study of disturbing nonsense

For student health advocates across the state and across the country, watching the developments surrounding the nation's first classroom digital device safety legislation during the recent Maryland General Assembly was a surreal, Alice in Wonderland kind of experience.

Just the idea that parents would have to take their case to the state legislature, to protect their children from serious harm caused by their teachers and schools is a bizarre concept. Aren't teachers supposed to be caring, nurturing people who protect children? And yet, their silence is deafening, even after learning of the myopia, retinal damage, sleeplessness, muscle pain, eye strain, anxiety, depression and addiction associated with daily use of digital devices in school.

Perhaps they are silenced by a craven shadow government, the Maryland State Department of Education, that consumes the lion's share of any budget, and then arrogantly dismisses the people who pay their salaries, while utterly disregarding the medical needs of the growing children, whom they are paid to serve.

A culture of fear 

Bloated and self-satisfied, state and local school boards and the crony political groups who shape them dole out mandates without a single thought to the health of our kids, and then intimidate any staff member or teacher who doesn't get onboard, according to what teachers say privately. 

http://www.screensandkids.us/2017/04/through-looking-glass-md-general.html?spref=bl

Sen. Mike Miller Aide will Now Lobby Annapolis for MCPS BOE

On Monday we reported that Board of Education staff member Laura Steinberg was gone. Here is the resume of Ms. Steinberg's replacement.

The Montgomery County Board of Education will now have a former staffer from Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr.'s office as their in house lobbyist in Annapolis.