“This is a moment,” committee chair Rep. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, said, his face lighting up. “We try hard at the Pieruccis,” responded third-term Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, while simultaneously rocking her bow-adorned baby, balancing a bottle and reaching for her 4-year-old son, who had also joined her at the Utah Capitol during the hectic final week of the legislative session. Pierucci, like a large and growing group of Utah legislators, is navigating the citizen Legislature’s whirlwind 45-day assembly all while juggling a separate career and caring for young children.
Smiles broke through the humdrum of a government operations hearing on Monday when committee members saw a fellow state lawmaker approach the mic with her 6-month-old baby.
A new bill would take victims’ perspectives into account when reintegrating student offenders back into the school setting. The bill was discussed in the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday. Rep. Ashlee Matthews, D-West Jordan, said that the bill “prioritizes the safety and the mental health of the victims of the crime — whether they are teachers, faculty members, or other students and taking all of those victims statements into account when determining when or if the student offender is reintegrated into their home school.”