Burns attends panel presentation on statutes of limitations reform
Related to helping victims of child sexual abuse
Rep. Frank Burns May 18, 2016 | 3:54 PM
HARRISBURG, May 18 – Following up on his commitment to better protect children from sexual abuse in the wake of the grand jury report that implicated the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in a massive cover-up, state Rep. Frank Burns today attended an afternoon panel discussion on reforming Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations law.
Burns, D-Cambria, wanted to learn more about the severity of the issue, in Pennsylvania and nationwide. His knowledge became broader after hearing from Phil Saviano, the whistleblower who exposed the Boston clergy’s child sex abuse scandal and whose story was part of the Academy Award-winning “Spotlight” movie, and others with intimate knowledge of the issue.
“We learned a great deal about what enables these types of institutional cover-ups to occur over decades, including how intricate webs of pedophile protection are woven within institutions by those with secrets to keep,” Burns said. “It was highly enlightening – and I hope it spurs the state Senate to pass the statute of limitations reform bill for child sex abuse that’s already cleared the House.”
The panel discussion, held in a Senate hearing room, also featured insights from: George Foster, the Altoona businessman who helped expose decades of child sex abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese; moderator Marci Hamilton, a statute of limitations reform expert; Patty Dailey Lewis, executive director of the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children; and survivors of child sexual abuse from the Solebury School in Bucks County.
The event was hosted by state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, a leading advocate for child sex abuse statute of limitations reform in the legislature, whom Burns brought to speak in Ebensburg when the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese scandal became public.