Please support House Bill 44

To the editor:

Yes, Sen. Mike Dunleavy, Charlie Huggins, and Cathy Giessel, we are watching and listening and reading newspapers and comments on bills put out there. This letter is for all Alaskans who care about children of any age. Please support House Bill 44. The Alaska Safe Children’s Act merges “Bree’s Law” with “Erin’s Law.”

Breanna Moore was a victim of a violent boyfriend who shot and killed her June 26, 2014. “Erin’s Law” is based on a bill created and passed in several other states by Erin Merryn, who was a victim of sexual abuse when she was a child.

I could have written that sexual abuse article myself, as I too was abused for four years along with my younger sister in the late 1950s. It is painful for me to revisit these memories even now as a 75-year-old grandmother and great-grandmother. We need to protect our children, period. Even my grandson was abused in the 1980s. He still struggles, even now. He used drugs, drank and acted out to forget.

It wasn’t his fault and it wasn’t my fault either when I was 7, 8, 9, and 10 years old. He did nothing wrong. I didn’t either.

My abuse ended when we finally moved away from the pedophile. As children, we are told to obey adults and yet I was afraid to tell an adult. This was hidden under the rug, so to speak.

I went to the Legislative Office in Anchorage June 1 to ask Dunleavy, Giessel and Huggins, why they inserted 12 unrelated issues into HB 44 to substantively change the bill.

One was Senate Bill 89, which allows parents to opt out of sex-ed for their students. The additions changed the whole point of “The Alaska Safe Children’s Act.”

Dunleavy looked me in the eye and boldly lied to me, he said he never inserted anything in it and tried to blame it on other things. Twice he told me this and twice I told him, “I don’t believe you.”

The person next to Dunleavy tried to justify his statements; he didn’t. When I said again, “I don’t believe you,” he got up and walked out!

I never got the chance to talk to Huggins, but I will. I’m not done yet. I called his office before that; they hung up on me.

Sen. Dunleavy, you are not a very kind, caring, compassionate person. Take out your 12 pages of changes to the bill and pass it in its originally form.

Betty Brickel

Wasilla