A panel of the Michigan House heard testimony Tuesday from a sexual assault victim and her mother in hopes of creating a bill that would prohibit someone who has committed a sexual assault to attend school with his/her victim.
The House Law and Justice Committee heard from Gianna Duva, a victim of sexual assault at Brighton High School and Ashley Duva, Gianna's mother. Gianna was one of three victims of the same boy who raped the girls and after a 45-day sentence, he was allowed to go back to school.
Mya Zaplitny was also at the hearing. She was sexually assaulted by the same boy when she was 12. "What we went through was terrible. All the pain and all the stress we went through was terrible. I'm proud of them (referring to the other girls) and I don't want other girls to have to go through that. I want to fix it for them so we don't have to go through what we went through."
House Bill (HB) 5530 would prohibit an individual convicted of criminal sexual assault to enroll in the same school their victim attends.
HB 5531 expands the mandatory expulsion law to include those who commit criminal sexual assault against another student in the same district they are enrolled in.
And HB 5532 expands the state's personal protection order (PPO) laws to require school buildings be included in a PPO.
The house bills 5530, 5531 and 5532 were sponsored by State Reps. Lana Theis and Sylvia Santana.
The committee met Tuesday, February 20 at 9 a.m. at the House Office Building in Lansing.
