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	The Child Victims Act Should Not Be Allowed to Languish in a Senate Committee. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 17, 2010 http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/91088684.html State Sen. Lena Taylor said she is "hopeful" that the Legislature will pass a bill that would make it easier for victims of childhood sexual assault to sue their abusers for damages. Sorry, but after all this time and all of the pain experienced by victims, hopeful isn't good enough, nor is a compromise proposal that was being floated this week. Taylor owes the victims more; at the very least, she owes them a vote. The bill as it now stands should be moved out of her Judiciary Committee and to the Senate floor for a vote. Victims and other citizens deserve to know where their legislators stand. The proposed Child Victims Act would eliminate the statute of limitations on future childhood sexual abuse. Victims now can sue until they reach 35. The bill also would open a three-year window for victims of past abuse in which the statute of limitations has expired. Proponents, including victims and statewide police and district attorneys associations, have supported the measure. Victims have testified four times in the past two years before legislative committees, according to a press release from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Yet the measure has never been brought to a vote. The measure is needed to bring justice to victims, many of whom wait years to voice their allegations. That need was never shown more clearly than in the recent national and international headlines involving the abuse of some 200 deaf boys by Father Lawrence Murphy at St. John's School for the Deaf over several decades. Opponents, including insurers and Catholic and Protestant church officials, say it's unconstitutional, that it treats private organizations differently from government agencies, which under sovereign immunity have a $50,000 cap on liability in such cases, and that it could bankrupt faith communities. While we're sympathetic to those arguments, we believe the demand for justice for victims trumps them. A proposed compromise designed to make the measure more palatable for key lawmakers would maintain a statute of limitations but stretch it to age 45. But the pain doesn't go away after age 45. The better route is to eliminate the statute of limitations altogether. Above all, Taylor needs to bring this bill forward in the waning days of this session to ensure that victims get the vote - and perhaps the justice - they deserve.
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