Senator Jacqueline Collins stood alongside her legislative colleagues and advocates today to call on Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign a law creating a new council dedicated to the research and investigation of the social and economic factors that hold back women and girls in society.

“The Illinois Council on Women and Girls will study the things that hold back half of our population from achieving their full potential, and it will periodically report on ways we could tear down the barriers that hold back our sisters and daughters,” Collins said, addressing reporters at a press conference at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. “In doing so, it will start the conversations that result in change. I urge Rauner to be part of the change we want to see in the world and to sign House Bill 5544.”

Submitted to the governor June 19, the legislation, which passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support, must be acted upon within the next two weeks. Collins and partner organizations Women’s March Chicago, Cause the Effect, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, Equality IL, CNOW, YWCA- Metro Chicago, Chicago Foundation for Women, United State of Women, Women Employed, Men4Choice, Northwestern Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, HerStory Chicago and the Chicago Center for Arts and Technology all urged Gov. Rauner to sign the legislation rather than allow it to languish for two weeks before automatically becoming law.

“This is really the start of our activism, using social media to convey to the governor that he needs to sign the bill,” Collins said.

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Jacqueline Collins is urging the governor to sign her legislation adding synthetic cannabinoids to the Controlled Substances Act.

The Illinois Department of Public Health yesterday announced more cases of severe bleeding among individuals using synthetic cannabinoids. According to the agency, more than 160 people in Illinois have experienced similar symptoms, and four people have died.

“The use of synthetic cannabinoids is a legitimate public health concern,” Collins (D-Chicago) said. “Many young people are using them, and we are hearing reports that some strands contain dangerous ingredients like rat poison. We need to make all forms of this drug illegal so that law enforcement can begin to properly address this epidemic.”

Senate Bill 2341 bans the possession, manufacture and sale of synthetic cannabinoids. It passed both the House and the Senate without opposition and awaits the governor’s signature.

June 20, 2018 - Chicago Tribune | Original article

By Juan Perez Jr., David Jackson and Jennifer Smith Richards Chicago Tribune

Two young women gave powerful testimony to state legislators Wednesday that they had been abused by Chicago teachers they trusted, then victimized by the way school officials treated them after they came forward.

Angry lawmakers thanked them for their courage, then turned on Chicago Public Schools officials, hitting them repeatedly over the district’s failure to protect students.

Speaking to an audience of at least 20 legislators and dozens of observers, former Walter Payton College Prep student Morgan Aranda said she lost her “sense of wonder and excitement” about school after she reported being groped and kissed at age 14 by one of her teachers. School and district officials repeatedly questioned her about the alleged abuse.

“I’m here to shed light on the re-traumatizing, intimidating interrogations, the questions of my dignity, of my intent, of my character” after reporting abuse, Aranda said, pausing at times to wipe tears away. Payton administrators and Chicago Public Schools investigators, she said, subjected her to a humiliating investigation that undermined her story.

“I was pulled from class to sit alone in a room with an old man who asked not how I felt or what they could do to make me feel safe in my school again — but what I was wearing when I had been assaulted,” said Aranda, now 22. “Do you know what it’s like to be made to feel like a criminal, when you are in fact the victim?”

Tamara Reed, who was an eighth-grader at Black Magnet Elementary when a substitute teacher sent her sexually explicit texts and solicited sex from her, spoke about the way school administrators suggested she was at fault for the abuse and the lasting pain the experience has caused.

“I will never be the same again because of what has been done to me. I struggle to connect with people and to trust them. I constantly wonder if the people around me mean well or mean me harm,” said Reed, also faltering at times as she became emotional.

As the young women told their stories, some state lawmakers shook their heads in disbelief, dabbed their own tears and expressed exasperation at the way the students were treated.

State Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, reserved chairs for district CEO Jackson and Chicago Board of Education President Frank Clark, but neither was there to testify. Instead, Jackson sent her top safety administrator, a personnel official and the district’s deputy general counsel.

To read the entire story, visit the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Tribune - June 7, 2018

By Gary Marx, David Jackson, Juan Perez Jr. and Jennifer Smith Richards | Original story

Illinois lawmakers this week introduced a set of legislative proposals and began planning hearings in response to the Chicago Public Schools sexual abuse scandal.

A bill proposal filed Tuesday listed child protection shortfalls highlighted in a Tribune investigative series and outlined more than a dozen changes to state law. Those measures would swiftly revoke the licenses of educators found by districts to have sexually abused children and would make such disciplinary action more transparent to the public.

The proposed legislation also would make it a crime for school employees to have sexual contact with a student regardless of the student’s age. Under current law, sex with a student is legal if he or she is older than 17 and no force is involved.

Separately, state legislators called for a joint Senate and House hearing within the next two weeks.

“We should seize this moment and stop deferring justice. To fail to do so is to fail in our duty to protect and educate our children,” Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said Wednesday.

Read more: In The News: CPS sex abuse findings result in proposals to change Illinois law