“A school bus driver who works with children every single day rapes a young girl and admits it, then is allowed to walk away without spending a single day in jail or having to register as a sex offender. This is a travesty of justice. No one should be allowed to rape children and get away with it.
The judge who handed down this sentence should be sanctioned for failing an innocent child and letting a predator walk free. We cannot allow this to continue to happen to our children. We cannot seek to end child sexual abuse without calling out the very systems that protect abusers today. Everyone involved in seeking freedom for a man who admitted to raping a child needs to answer one question: why was his record more important than the life of a child?”
Lauren Book, M.S. ED, founder and CEO of Lauren’s Kids, is an internationally-recognized child protection advocate, best-selling author and Florida State Senator who works every day to protect childhood. She is also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, suffered at the hands of a trusted caretaker from the time she was 10 until the age of 16. Armed with the knowledge that 95 percent of sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness, Lauren has worked to turn her horrific personal experience into a vehicle to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help other survivors heal.
An official 501(c)(3) since 2007, Lauren’s Kids educates adults and children about sexual abuse prevention through in-school curricula, ADDY and EMMY Award-winning public awareness campaigns and speaking engagements around the country and the world. The organization provides more than 8 million direct mail education and awareness materials statewide. The foundation has helped advocate for the passage of nearly two dozen laws to support survivors and protect children from predators. For more information, please visit laurenskids.org.
