To Protect or Not to Protect. These Are Our Children. Another disgusted rant.

Okay, this is a bit odd, weird, and a mixed message to me. We are all aware of the Casey Anthony case, where she was found "Not Guilty" over the death of her daughter, Caylee.

There is a petition out there to sign "Caylee's Law", which, in a nutshell is to make it a felony for a parent NOT to report a child missing within 24 hours, and a child dead - accidental or otherwise - within an hour of finding out.

I signed it, because as a child advocate, I do this sort of thing, but, as a parent, I have to question WHY we need a law like this, when to NOT report is already gross neglect on the parent's part of the bargain. But, in the case of certain mothers, like Casey, obviously it's needed because some mothers just plain have no sense about protecting their own children, whether it's lack of it, or just don't care...

Anyway, after signing the petition, to which Senator Van Wanggaard got this letter on my behalf -

To: Sen.Wanggaard

Subject: Create Caylee's Law, Not Reporting Child's Disappearance Should Be a
Felony

Sen. Van Wanggaard

State Capitol, Room 319 South

2 East Main Street

Madison
WI 53702

Greetings,

On July 5, 2011, at 1:15 pm CST, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of
first degree murder in the death of her daughter Caylee Anthony. The only
charges she now faces are four counts of falsifying police reports, each of
which only carries a 1 year prison term. Since she has been in jail since
August 2008, she will be out of jail ENTIRELY too soon.

I'm writing to propose that a new law be put into effect making it a
felony for a parent, legal guardian, or caretaker to not notify law enforcement
of the disappearance of a child within 24 hours, so proper steps can be taken
to find that child before it's too late.

This way there will be no more cases like Casey Anthony's in the
courts, and no more innocent children will have to go without justice.

The case of Caylee Anthony was tragic, and there is no reason for
another case like this one to hit the courts. Let's do what is necessary to
prevent another case like this from happening.

Note: this email was sent as part of a petition started on Change.org,
viewable at www.change.org/petitions/create-caylees-law.

To respond, email responses@change.org and include a link to this
petition.

Lika Saliscente

Here is the response.

Dear Lika,

Thank you for sharing your opinion that Wisconsin should enact Caylee’s Law,
stiffening penalties for failure to report a missing child or the death of a
child. I value your opinion, and I appreciate that you took the time to share
your opinion with me.

Several of my colleagues
have expressed interest in drafting a version of Caylee’s Law, and
Representative Samantha Kerkman (R-Powers
Lake) is leading the way
in the Assembly. Any child abuse case is a tragedy, and we must protect our
children.

It is important to note
that Wisconsin law already provides safeguards
against incidents similar to the Casey Anthony case. Wisconsin Statute 948.21
states that, “Any person who
is responsible for a child's welfare who, through his or her actions or failure
to take action, intentionally contributes to the neglect of the child is guilty
of…a Class D felony if death is a consequence.” There are
additional state statutes that address hiding a corpse (Class F felony) and
providing false information in the case of kidnapped or missing persons (Class
H felony).

Again, thank you for
contacting me on this issue. Should any legislation come before me in the Senate,
I will keep your concerns in mind. Please feel free to contact me if you have
questions or concerns on this, or any other, issue.

Regards,

Van Wanggaard

Wisconsin
State Senator

21st Senate District—Serving
Racine County

Okay, so. Very good. He supports this, and knows the state laws that are already in existence concerning this issue, and is interested in our children's safe keeping.

So he says, "Any child abuse case is a tragedy, and we must protect our children". Yet this very same person told me ON THE PHONE while talking to him about April's Law that he "disagrees with Cory Mason's draft" because it didn't include a high school sweethearts clause...

Well, HELLO! When do high school sweethearts kidnap each other for the purposes of rape, sexually molest and possibly kill? Since when do high school sweethearts now construe a situation of an adult preying on a child, when most often there are, on average only 3 years between the two people at hand?

I am a little bit disgusted here, is because here a national case gets such high exposure, and a stand alone signature w/o comment gets this type of support for Caylee's Law (which I expect parents to follow even without this in place), yet, as a constituent who spent 3 years working on April's Law to protect our children from sex predators on and offline, with phone calls, emails, etc, and he won't support it because of a high school sweetheart clause?

I am really having a hard time digesting this, because, parents are supposed to be responsible for our children, and this should be a given to begin with, and he supports it... Yet with all my research that I've sent him of cases, right here in Racine of adults preying on children, teachers abusing students, etc... and he won't support that. So, what, it's okay to sexually abuse our children, but, if we cross the line and kill them, that's when it's wrong?

I'm just absolutely disgusted... I apologize for the lettering, but, I couldn't expand the email exchange. Please don't mind while my gaskets are blowing.