OPINION: Dunleavy’s bill would put children at greater risk of sexual violence

Last week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy released a bill, Senate Bill 96, which he is calling a “parental rights” bill. It is my professional opinion, having worked for the past 18 years on child safety and well-being, with specific focuses on sexual violence and child trauma, that this bill will increase Alaska’s already high rates of child sexual abuse and sexual violence against teens.

Alaska has long had the highest rate of rape in the country, according to the FBI’s Unified Crime Report. Alaska’s rates of child sexual abuse are six times the national average. The commercial sexual exploitation of children in Alaska — also known as sex trafficking — is an increasing problem. A charitable interpretation of this bill would be that Dunleavy and those who support it are unaware of the links between what he is proposing and the danger it puts children in, so I’ll explain.

First, this bill would dismantle a critical part of “Erin’s Law,” requiring parents to “opt in” their children to personal safety lessons rather than children getting lessons as the default, unless parents opt them out. The law as it stands requires schools to teach developmentally appropriate health and safety education so all children understand their rights and how to seek help for sexual abuse. It was passed by a bipartisan majority of the Legislature in recognition that children who are sexually abused are told by abusers that they deserve the abuse and can do nothing to stop it or seek safety; lawmakers understood that children need to hear messages in school that counter those of their abusers. We cannot predict which children are being abused; therefore, this education needs to be made available to all children. These lessons have always been age-appropriate. I know, because I delivered them for STAR (Standing Together Against Rape), modifying for every age group K–12. Later, I was a member of the team that reviewed all proposed Erin’s Law and Bree’s Law curriculum recommended to districts. Parents have also always been able to opt their children out.

By requiring parents to provide explicit permission before children could get these lessons, S.B. 96 would ensure a lower participation rate — both due to forgetfulness and because this change will make it much easier for parents or guardians who are sexually abusing their children to not consent to the lesson, thus denying the child the opportunity to escape their abuse.

We know from the brave stories of survivors that when children do not hear messages counter to those of abusers, they blame themselves and suffer in shame and silence, are unable to get to safety (meaning the abuse continues for longer) and often experience severe, lifelong health consequences. By requiring parents to opt in for personal safety lessons, Dunleavy is proposing a change that will deny these lifesaving safety messages to many Alaska children.

Secondly, S.B. 96 would require school personnel to seek written permission from a parent before the name or pronoun used by a public school to address or refer to the parent’s child is changed. This means that teachers would have to “out” gender non-conforming students to their parents without the students’ consent. If this is not safe; outing can result in parents abusing youth and kicking them out of their homes. Decades of data have shown that LBGTQ youth are the group most vulnerable to homelessness due to rejection by families of origin. It has also been shown that once homeless, youth are at extremely high risk of being trafficked — what the FBI calls the “commercial sexual exploitation of children.” This can range from “survival sex” (being forced to trade sex for shelter or food) to being coerced into commercial sex operations. LGBTQ youth being rejected from homes is one of the primary risk factors for commercial sexual exploitation of children. Outing a young person to unaccepting parents is invariably going to increase the risk of some being on the streets, and therefore at risk of sexual violence.

We owe it to the survivors of violence who helped shape health and safety curriculum and the survivors of sex trafficking who’ve helped us understand what put them at risk to stand up and forcefully reject this dangerous bill. Alaska lawmakers need to be preventing sexual violence against children, not cause it to increase.

Laura Norton-Cruz, LMSW, is a mother, former public school teacher and public health professional with a focus on maternal child health and intimate partner violence and sexual violence. She lives in Anchorage.

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