North Egypt News

Senator Terri Bryant stated, "This morning, I joined State Representative Amy Elik to urge the Senate to take up House Bill 4241." Bryant, who emerged victorious over challenger Wesley Kash in the primary election, further explained that House Bill 4241 "protects high school students age 18 and older from sexual abuse by an educator."

"This morning, I joined State Representative Amy Elik to urge the Senate to take up House Bill 4241," said Bryant, State Senator, according to Facebook. "This legislation protects high school students age 18 and older from sexual abuse by an educator. Our kids can't afford to wait any longer for this issue to be addressed. . With the passage of House Bill 4241, we can tell every individual within our state that suffered this abuse that their lawmakers heard their cries for help and acted."

Bryant and Representative Amy Elik held a press conference advocating for the Senate's consideration of the bill sponsored by Elik. In a video attached to her Facebook post from this press conference, Bryant discussed Elik’s bill and her own similar proposal in the Senate. She said, "House Bill 4241 addresses the concern of teachers who have custodial care, whether its age 0 to 18, they also have custodial care over those who are 18 to 21 years old. So, high school students, a situation where teachers can affect grades, which can affect scholarships and so the custodial care they have over those students, it can be a great amount of power. I was originally brought into the loop on this topic when my Youth Advisory Council met this past year, and they really wanted some very strong language."

Screenshot of Sen. Terri Bryant's May 16 Facebook post | Sen. Terri Bryant's Facebook page

According to legislative records, House Bill 4241 was filed by Rep. Elik in November 2023. It was moved to the Senate on April 24 and as of May 16 has been referred to the Assignments committee. The bill defines authority figure, educator, school, and student. It also "provides that a person commits abuse by an educator or authority figure if that person is an educator or authority figure at the school (rather than holds a position of trust, authority or supervision in relation to a student in a school), the student is at least 18 years of age but under 23 years of age..."

Bryant continued her remarks in the video saying: "In fact, they wanted teachers to lose their pensions. They wanted felony conviction, and so I got to looking at the fact that there wasn’t anything for that age group, 18 to 21. I was shocked, as a mother of now grown children and as a grandmother of one who is high school and five who will be going to high school, to find out that there’s actually no criminal charge for someone who affects a sexual relationship with a student who is under their custodial care."

According to her official biography, Bryant has represented Illinois' 58th District since 2021. Prior to this role, she spent seven years in the Illinois House of Representatives. She worked at the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) from 1994 to 2014. Currently, she serves as Minority Spokesperson for the Energy and Public Utilities and the Behavioral and Mental Health committees. She is also a member of the Senate Higher Education Working Group, and the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding.