The two bills are the result of recommendations from the Kansas Child Protection Symposium sponsored by Governor Bill Graves, Attorney General Stovall, Chief Justice Kay McFarland and Secretary Chronister in September 1997. The bills will be introduced this week in the House Judiciary Committee.
Nothing is more important than taking care of our children.
The two bills the Symposium recommends are absolutely in sync with that goal. Under current law, it isn't enough to hit a child across the face so hard as to leave a hand print to convict an adult for abusing a child under the current Abuse of a Child statute. Under current law, it isn't enough to repeatedly hit a child across the buttocks so as to leave multiple bruises. Under current law, it isn't enough to leave cuts on the child's skin or to cause them to be undernourished. The proposed legislation specifies that bruises, contusions, lacerations, failure to thrive and malnutrition are evidence of physically injuring a child, a misdemeanor.