Image Credit: Senator Mark Pody / Facebook & Canva.
Article by Paula Gomes, Tennessee Conservative News –
Conservative State Senator Mark Pody is working to create legislation that will keep known child abusers without sexual offenses away from children, by putting them on a registry like child sex offenders.
Tennessee law has a loophole in that it does not restrict those who are guilty of such heinous crimes from being around children across the board.
The push to change the law comes after a 4-month-old baby girl named Nevaeh died after sustaining severe head injuries in North Nashville last week.
Bobby Conner Jr., the boyfriend of the infant’s mother, was arrested for allegedly hurting the child whose injuries were so critical that she had to be placed on life support at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Conner is a repeat convicted child abuser.
Nevaeh’s father, Edward Wagner, hopes the law will be named after his daughter.
According to Wagner, he alerted the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) about Conner spending time with Nevaeh but learned that criminal history by itself may not give the department legal grounds to restrict access to a child.
There is currently no public registry for people who are convicted of physically abusing a child unlike qualifying sex offenders who face restrictions.
Sources:
WCYB.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
