BURLINGTON, Ky. — The act of 'grooming' a minor could be made illegal if a bill proposed by Boone County Representative Marianne Proctor becomes law in the coming legislative session. She and Commonwealth Attorney Louis Kelley presented the bill to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Thursday.
Proctor told us after presenting the law change that existing law is insufficient to prevent an adult in a position of power from establishing a sexual relationship with a minor over a long period.
"Unfortunately, we've had no statutes that criminalize the act of grooming," she said.
Proctor said she drafted the bill after a friend discovered her underage daughter was involved in what Kelley described as "highly inappropriate" communications with a teacher in the Boone County School District.
Proctor declined to name the school, she said, to protect the victim.
WATCH: We sit down with Marianne Proctor and Louis Kelley about grooming bill
Kelley said there was no law that could allow law enforcement to step in until a person explicitly solicits sex from a minor or makes sexual contact with a minor.
"What we had was, in this particular situation, we had a gap. We had something that was clearly wrong, everyone felt it was wrong, and there was not an appropriate avenue to address the seriousness of it," he said.
The bill would define grooming as a person 18 or older knowingly contacting a minor under 14 years old with "the intent to entice, coerce, solicit, or prepare the minor to engage in sexual conduct." It also names a person in a position of authority or special trust engaging in the same communication as grooming, and adds the development of an "intimate or secretive relationship" as grooming by a person of trust.
Violation of the law would make grooming of a minor under 14 a class A misdemeanor and grooming of a minor under 12 a Class D felony.
Proctor said the point is not to criminalize well-intended communication between adults and minors.
"This is an intent bill. It's a high bar to prove this," she said.
The bill's text lists a number of things permissible, including communications between adults and minors about "teaching curriculum on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases," treatment by a healthcare provider, communication about potential abuse or neglect, and "any conversation with a minor that is part of a person's job-related duties."
The Boone County School District didn't respond to our request for comment submitted after closing hours on Friday.
Proctor said the bill will be introduced in the next legislative session, slated to begin in January 2026.
