Granada Hills : Group Seeks Tougher Child Sex Abuse Laws

Attempting to steer tougher laws against child molestation through the state Legislature, a fledgling organization called Kids Safe will hold its first legislative conference about child sexual abuse issues today at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel.

Announcing the conference Wednesday were about a dozen Granada Hills residents and children’s advocates, including Nathan Winters, now 20, who was molested at age 12 by Victor Salva. After serving 15 months of a three-year jail sentence, Salva went on to direct the movie “Powder,” which was released last year under Disney’s Hollywood Pictures banner.

The purpose of Kids Safe is not to further punish sexual offenders who have served their time, said founder Jayne Murphy Shapiro of Granada Hills. Instead, the group will lobby for better notification laws and fewer plea bargains involving sexual predators, she said.

Too often, Shapiro said, “victims are not respected or even considered” when laws against sexual predators are crafted.

Shapiro founded the organization six months ago in response to the experiences of a friend whose child had been molested. After the sex offender was jailed for 18 months, Shapiro said, he moved four houses down from the victim.

Speakers at the conference will include state Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) and Maureen and Richard Kanka, who worked for passage of New Jersey’s so-called “Megan’s law,” named after their daughter Megan, who at age 7 was raped by a twice-convicted pedophile.

Being involved in advocacy helps victims of molestation become survivors, Winters said. Sexual abuse “ruins a child’s life, basically,” he said. Speaking of Salva’s 15 months of imprisonment after being convicted of child sexual abuse, Winters said, “his 15 months does not compare to my life sentence. I’ll live with this [abuse] for the rest of my life.”

For information about the conference or about Kids Safe, call (818) 363-3251.