The safety of Wisconsin school
children is under the magnifying
glass after the Capital Times
reported on more than 200
teachers accused of sexual
misconduct or grooming of students
since 2018.
That included teachers who were able
to reapply for a teaching license
according to the reporting.
In response come proposals for
new laws and better and more
transparent tracking of teacher
licensing, including the
reasons for revocation.
Republican State Senator Jesse James
is author of a new bill that
would make grooming a felony
and include prison time.
He joins us now and Senator, thanks
very much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
So one of the things that your bill
does is set a definition
for grooming, and I'm just gonna
read it. It is, quote,
a course of misconduct, pattern
of behavior, or series of
acts intended to condition, seduce,
or entice a child for the purpose
of sexual activity or
exploitation.
How does that definition help
to investigate, charge,
and remove educators who
are predators?
Well, I think, you know,
we're my
the the efforts on this legislation
for my office started well
beyond or well before
I should say this
story came out with
DPI and the the sexual
misconduct of the educators in
our state for the series of years
that they're investigating.
I actually had a zoom in
August with
uh, organization out of
Florida that was working
on this across our nation,
defining grooming.
Um, and then further conversation
took place just a short few weeks
ago with, um, colleagues,
um within the triple falls,
the police department, um
they shared in a specific case with
me.
So that's when the efforts really
started and then this story comes
out.
So I think the irony
involved, because this
isn't just with
educators.
This isn't about just educators.
It could be law
enforcement, it could be doctors,
it could just be general citizens
within our communities.
So I this story
breaking out just intensifies
and actually.
Brings forth the true need
of this
grooming statutory language to be
included in our statutes.
I think the sensitive crimes
that I have investigated as a law
enforcement officer, having
these additional tools and
mechanisms available for charging
is extremely valuable.
And with the amount of
times that each grooming
act, is
defined, you could have
a person that is
charged with multiple
felonies with just
the grooming statute alone.
And I think when
we get to the courts in the
charging of these cases,
I think more is better.
It brings more negotiation.
It brings more potential
compromise to not
drag these cases
out to a 12-person jury
trial. That brings on more.
Plea agreements and
having these people realize that
you're guilty.
I mean, I've had a
pretty successful career
as a sensitive crimes investigator
back in the day.
And this was never available,
but I can specifically think of
cases where it's totally applicable
because there seems to be grooming
in every single type of
child sexual assault case.
Indeed. What does grooming look like
in practice?
Oh my, you know, it
could be as simple as
being a young lady,
for example, and
you have a law enforcement officer,
somebody in a position of
trust that busts an underage
drinking party and
the officer says,
well, no, I'll give you a ride home
to your parents' house and
things happen.
It could be where
an individual.
Will literally pick
up a young lady after
school and take her
out to eat,
out to buy a new pair of shoes,
out shopping, getting her her
own private cell phone.
It could be, goodness,
it could be just, you know,
the teachers in the classroom
with
coming up and
having inappropriate touches,
the rubbing of the shoulders,
you know, massaging type things,
the text messaging that.
You know, simply saying, well, you
look really nice today and,
you know flattering comments and
stuff. Stuff that would not be
normal where if I
had my daughter in high
school and I look at her
phone and I see a text message like
that, it would definitely raise
concern.
Why has it taken so long for someone
to write a bill that
would turn into law in the state
of Wisconsin on this?
That is an awesome question.
I think.
The traditional ways of
grooming.
Are being more upscaled
with the amount of technology that's
available, the apps that are out
there, the stars
or hearts or
whatever it looks
like on technology.
This is, I'm not a technology guy
by any means, but
there's ways that these
individuals are targeting our youth,
grooming them even online,
in giving
them the gifts
or whatever how they do it on these
apps and I think that's why
it is becoming more and more
prevalent and we're seeing these
true cases even me
as a part-time officer in the last
month I've had cases
like this where I've been introduced
to these new apps that I didn't even
know what they were before so
trying to keep up with technology
today I think that is one
of the challenges.
Um, and the amount of grooming
that's going on through technology,
I think it's really intensified
and it's dramatically increased.
And I think, um,
we need to try and stay up with the
times.
Uh, you, you can definitely,
if I always try to think of it as a
12 person jury, if
a reasonable person could conclude
that this is weird,
uh, not normal
behavior, it is actually.
Um misconduct by a
reasonable person's
conclusion um i
think that's going to help define uh
the grooming element when it goes
to a jury trial it's just taking
us time to get caught up and i i
wish i would have thought about this
when i first came into office
because i was a sensitive crimes
investigator and i just i didn't
think about it i'm just going to be
honest with you i didn't think about
until more recently
with the sexual extortion that's
been taking place everything.
I mean, with Brayden Bone and
DC Everest High School there,
that young man, there was grooming
that was taking place and in a
matter of six hours, the young man
died by suicide.
So I
think that's the whole part of it is
the intensifying increase
that we're seeing in these types of
cases and the impact that it's
having on our children.
We need to address it.
Do you think given the gravity
of this, the state will
throw its weight behind this and
funding to tightening up
not just like the
statute around grooming,
but having to do with revocations
of educators' licenses
and, you know, making that
process more transparent?
Well, I think people that
are in positions of trust,
obviously if law enforcement
officers did this, if doctors did
this if nurses did this if teachers
do this, I think their license
should be taken. They should be
terminated immediately.
I think there will be
strong support for this.
The governor has already expressed
his support for this and
I think that having this
extra tool available for
specific crime of grooming is
going to be highly beneficial for
any type of case to help
hopefully deviate
or have these
individuals that like to prey on our
children, think twice
about it.
Should every, knowing what you
know and what you
do and have done
in your career, should every
parent be worried that their
children could be groomed
and become victims of
abuse?
I would agree with that.
This could happen to anybody.
And it just simply,
it depends on the state of mind,
how well, how educated your children
are, um,
how involved you are in your truck,
in your child's life.
Because, um the,
the technology we had, like,
um with my daughter,
we let her have a cell phone at a
younger age and, um.
The technology that's out there.
We had a cell phone contract with.
So her phone was subjected to
inspection at any time.
And when kids do
foolish things, adults do foolish
things.
And when it
is so readily available
today, the temptations that exist,
I think that
we need to do everything
possible to protect
our children that
are vulnerable at times.
And they think that this
is the wave of the future.
The amount of
images that I have seen
that are not appropriate for
anyone to
have anybody under the age of 18,
it's considered child pornography.
And we need to get more education
out there.
We need to give our families
educated. We need get our youth
educated as far as what's
safe, what's not safe.
And that kind of coincides with
Aaron's Law when we have that
education available in
our schools, K through 12,
to have some type of education
for personal body
and security education
in truly giving
our kids a voice to say, ooh,
I feel uncomfortable.
This doesn't feel right.
They should be able to have
discussions with whatever situation,
whether it's with law enforcement,
their doctors, the teachers,
church personnel, any volunteers
they work with.
This goes across every organization
in America has been impacted
by some type of
sexual misconduct.
And I say that
encompasses a lot of things,
but it could up to include, you
know, sexual
assault of a child and stuff like
that. But even the minimum sexual
misconduct, I think people
need to be held accountable
at a higher standard in
society, especially those adults
that prey on our children.
And and this uh...
Bill uh...
Soon-to-be law apparently will
will help with that uh...
Senator jesse james thanks very much
Thank you very much.
I appreciate the conversation today.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, it's sad that we even got to
this point in the world, but
the technology that's available,
I have seen so
many disturbing images and
just the...
The our youth being
so vulnerable to
take nude images of themselves
and just the
craziness of all that is really
truly eye-opening.
And I mean, if I
see it in the small populated
village of 1500 people,
I can only imagine what's going on
in the larger cities where
Um, there's a higher population.
I mean, it doesn't matter where you
live, rural, urban, there
is going to be people impacted.
I personally know of people that
have been impacted by this.
Um, and, um,
you know, even in my, my own,
own life, I, I just
think that's why I have a passion
for trying to
protect our children.
Indeed. Well, thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
All right. Have a great day.
You too.
You too, bye bye.