Assemblyman Reed Gusciora bill prompted by Steinert teacher sex case advances
TRENTON >> There will be no hall pass for teachers who engage in sex with high school students regardless of age if Assemblyman Reed Gusciora has his way.
On Monday, the 15th district assemblyman’s bill to criminalize teachers having sex with students under the age of 20 cleared a first hurdle by unanimously passing through a judiciary committee.
“It’s common sense,” Gusciora (D-Mercer/Hunterdon) said Wednesday in a phone interview. “High school teachers should not be having sex with their students no matter what age they are. It’s just inappropriate.”
The legislation was sparked by a case at Steinert High School last May involving then-English teacher Andrea Donio allegedly engaging in sexual relations with a female student.
Township police investigated the incident but did not file any charges against Donio, then-44, because they could not determine if the alleged sexual relations occurred before the victim was 18, a parent of a Steinert student close to the victim’s family previously told
New Jersey has no laws on the books to prohibit teachers from engaging in sexual acts with students 18 and older.
The bill would close that loophole as similar legislation has in 10 other states including Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington.
Gusciora previously said his legislation would “take the guesswork out of law enforcement.”
“In this situation, they just can’t prove when the relationship started whether it occurred before or after the student turned 18,” Gusciora said last year of the Steinert case.
Under Gusciora’s proposed bill, a teaching staff member would be guilty of sexual assault if “sexual penetration with a victim who is 18 years old or older and less than 20 years old, if the victim is a student in a school where the actor is a teaching staff member, substitute teacher, school bus driver, other school employee, contracted service provider or volunteer and has supervisory or disciplinary power over the victim,” a press release about the bill stated.
The maximum punishment of committing the second-degree sexual assault is five to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $150,000.
The bill is being cosponsored by Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson).
“We see countless cases of inappropriate student-teacher relationships nowadays, perhaps due to the fact that technology and social media have bridged the personal space that once existed between students and teachers,” Mukherji said in a statement. “Regardless, even when a high school student reaches the age of 18, a teacher’s supervisory and disciplinary power makes any sexual relationship inherently coercive and inappropriate. This bill will make that explicitly clear.”
Gusciora said the reception by his peers to the legislation has been good.
“People weren’t even aware that this is a loophole that needed closing,” he explained.
As for Donio, she resigned from her teaching position on Nov. 1 following a suspension with pay since May 14.