Protection orders against teens likely to be option

Mar 10, 2010 — The Columbus Dispatch

Jim Siegel

Mar. 10, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Judge Kim A. Browne looks forward to the day when she can add protection orders to her tool belt of options to deal with the ever-expanding problem of dating-related violence among teenagers.

"It's just a growing trend," said Browne, the lead Franklin County Juvenile Court judge. "These kids are getting involved with each other in an earlier time frame, and these things don't work out and they get angry."

The Ohio Senate yesterday unanimously passed House Bill 10, which would allow juvenile court judges to issue protection orders against youths under the age of 18 same as can be issued now for adults. The bill is expected to get final House approval today and head to Gov. Ted Strickland for his signature.

The measure was named the Shynerra Grant Law, for the 17-year-old Toledo teen who was shot in the head in June 2005 by an abusive ex-boyfriend who had earlier punched and broke the cheerleader's jaw. Her family, who wanted to see Grant attend Wilberforce University on a scholarship, tried to get a protection order, but Ohio law does not allow it for juveniles.

"I did not want to leave here without trying to get some type of justice for Shynerra," said Rep. Edna Brown, D-Toledo, who has been working to pass the bill for five years. "Hopefully some young lady or even young man's life may be saved because they are able to get a protection order rather than a no-contact order."

A no-contact order, Brown said, does not go far enough to keep an abusive juvenile away from his or her victim.

Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, worked on changes to the bill in the Senate so that it no longer referred to dating situations, which he said would have required courts to determine what constitutes a dating relationship.

"It's not the date, it's the hate," he said.

Seitz also wanted to make sure the bill gives juveniles who are hit with a protection order the chance to have it expunged or sealed later in life.

"The bill, I might say, is not a panacea," he said. "But this bill is a step forward."

Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said "more and more evidence points to adult domestic violence victims having a history of violent relationships that started when they were teens."

Strickland said he is "hugely supportive" of the bill. He said he was recently in Cleveland when he met Johanna Orozco, whose teenage ex-boyfriend shot her in the face with a shotgun in March 2007. She has testified in support of the bill.

"She is just but one example, I think, of why this legislation should be passed," Strickland said.

Browne said the new law would give judges, law enforcement and school officials more guidance on how to handle juvenile violence and harassment.

"Kids have been doing this forever. We've called it bullying, or boys being boys," she said. "There have never been tools to address it. Once people are aware it's formalized in statute and there are penalties for it, I think that will curb a lot of this."

Dispatch reporter Mark Niquette contributed to this story.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

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