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SACRAMENTO — As part of Women’s History Month, Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath honors Jacqueline “Kiki” Bispo as the 2021 Woman of the Year for Assembly District 76. In the month of March, State Legislators select a woman in their district whose contributions to her community deserve to be celebrated to be given this annual honor.

Bispo is a lifelong educator currently serving as the Family and Community Engagement Lead for Vista Unified School District. The Family and Community Engagement Network (F.A.C.E), a program concept that Bispo created, is an internationally recognized approach to student success that focuses on the role of the family, home life, and learning conditions in determining classroom outcomes for struggling students — a departure from the historically unsuccessful focus on academic performance alone.

“We know that kids who have both parents engaged in their kid’s learning and in touch with their teachers do better in school and have more opportunities later in life,” said Assemblymember Boerner Horvath. “We also know that for many working families from underserved communities, providing a struggling kid with the necessary at-home support can be near impossible. Kiki’s innovative approach brings parents into the conversation, bridging that gap and resulting in better outcomes for struggling kids. Her work empowers families and makes Vista a more equitable place for kids to learn and grow. She is truly a hero for so many parents and she deserve to be celebrated.”

SACRAMENTO — Today, AB 66, Assemblymember Boerner Horvath’s bill to allocate $2.5 million to accelerate the science behind bluff failures and start the development of an early warning notification system for California’s coastal bluff collapses, passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on an 8-1 vote.

With fatalities, injuries, and millions of dollars in property damage just in the last few years, bluff failures are a constant threat to beachgoers and coastal neighborhoods throughout California. The worst impacts of these collapses, especially the loss of life, could be avoided with a bluff collapse early warning notification system. AB 66 would task the Scripps Institution of Oceanography with creating the science on when and why bluffs fail, as well as develop how to better predict bluff failures to increase public safety.

“What happened to the three women in 2019 in Leucadia and, tragically, to other valued members of our communities up and down the state, is unacceptable and we must use science and data-driven innovation to keep our communities safer,” said Assemblymember Boerner Horvath. “Fortunately, we have a great partner in our backyard with Scripps and while AB 66 focuses on the area from Torrey Pines to Oceanside, the information we will gather will be invaluable for our state.”

SACRAMENTO — Today, AB 341, Assemblymember Boerner Horvath’s bill to strengthen a sexual assault victim’s right to privacy by requiring social media content to go through the same process as other evidence in these types of trials, passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on a unanimous, bipartisan vote.

Increasingly in sexual assault cases, decades of social media activity is being mined and admitted into evidence that is irrelevant to the case at hand, but has the result of embarrassing, shaming, or humiliating a victim, sometimes to the point of discouraging their testimony. AB 341 simply requires that social media content go through the same submission of evidence procedures as other types of evidence covered under existing Rape Shield Laws.
 
“We already have laws on the books to help ensure victims seeking justice for their attackers won’t have their entire lives subjected to public scrutiny, and those protections should be extended to their social media activity as well” said Assemblymember Boerner Horvath. “Character assassination and the rehashing of a victim’s sexual history are largely ruled irrelevant in assault cases, but Rape Shield Laws need to be updated to account for the realities of our online lives so that sexual assault victims can seek justice and keep their dignity intact.”