Teachers and doctors who don’t report suspected child abuse could be charged with criminal offenses under a bill the Maryland Senate passed Friday.
Opponents said the bill, approved by a 35-10 vote, went too far. Under current law, failing to report abuse can only be punished by the professional licensing boards of doctors, teachers and nurses.
“It’s scary,” 23-year teaching veteran Debra Leonard of Frederick County said of the bill.
The bill would make such failure a misdemeanor subject to a fine of up to $1,000.
The bill is designed to encourage teachers, health care and social workers to notify child-welfare workers in local departments of social services, rather than disregarding their suspicions because it is too much trouble to make a report.
The measure’s lead sponsor, Sen. Delores Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat, said the law already protects those who report child abuse from any civil or criminal liability if no abuse is actually found.
“There is nothing for a person to lose if you go ahead and make a good-faith report,” Kelley told her colleagues during floor debate. “Why not err on the side of the children?”
Sen. Bobby Zirkin, another Baltimore County Democrat, said the intentions of the bill were good, but the bill makes criminals out of people who might not have known there was abuse.
Under the new penalties, “they’re going to report everything,” Zirkin said. “The Department of Social Services will not have the resources to investigate all the frivolous reports.”
Senate Republican Leader David Brinkley said there are currently “very few” cases that go unreported. And that under the bill Maryland would “have people that are very fearful” about being prosecuted, and because of that, inundate the child welfare system with reports.
Some educators worried that detecting abuse was not simple and that the bill could put well-intentioned teachers at risk.
“Clearly, every teacher I know already does this. But it’s scary to think I could be charged with a misdemeanor,” Leonard said.
Examiner staff writer Leah Fabel contributed to this report.
