KENOSHA COUNTY — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Friday signed a new law making the sexual grooming of a child a felony-level crime in the state. Parents and advocates who pushed for the change are celebrating, saying the law will make students safer and hold bad actors accountable.
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Under the new law, grooming is defined as an adult intending to "condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child" for sexual intercourse or pornography. A grooming conviction carries a sentence of 10 to 25 years in prison.
Ashlyn Witting, a parent who advocated for the change, said she believes the law will have a meaningful impact.
Watch: Advocates celebrate new law that criminalizes grooming a child
"I think it will make a very significant difference. I think that predators will maybe be a little bit more cautious," Witting said.
Witting joined protests last year after a family she knows was victimized by former Kenosha Unified School District substitute teacher Christian Enright, who sent inappropriate Snapchat messages to a middle school student.
"Nothing was being done, nothing at the legal level, nothing at the school level, nothing at the school district level," Witting said.
Enright was convicted on several disorderly conduct charges — the lowest level criminal offense in Wisconsin. That case helped motivate advocates across the region to push for stronger legislation.
Among those advocates is Michelle Peterson, an Illinois mother whose son was groomed by a male teacher at Morris High School in Morris, Illinois, in 2010, when her son was 15 and the teacher was 34.
Peterson says that teacher was the first in the country convicted of felony grooming, and she has spent years pushing for similar laws in other states, including Wisconsin.
"I like that it's a felony charge right out of the gate for a first offense. I think that's huge. You need to be able to try to deter these pedophiles and these predators from doing this to these kids," Peterson said.
Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly also weighed in, saying in a statement: "Clear statutory language strengthens awareness, improves training, and helps ensure warning signs are recognized and addressed early."
Witting said she is grateful for everyone who helped push the law across the finish line.
"I'm just really grateful for everybody. The people in the streets who were protesting in Kenosha. The people on social media," Witting said. "I think that the law is perfect in how it was written. There's no redundancy because you need to be repetitive in things like this because people just don't get it," Witting said. "I think it's going to do a lot of great for a lot of people in the future."
Evers also signed a separate bill Friday requiring school districts to establish policies governing how school staff communicate with students. Those policies have to be in effect by Sept. 1.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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