‘A great start’: Bill based on Mundelein High School grad’s idea will help survivors of sexual assault

Stephanie Bolanos hopes to attend law school someday.

The 20-year-old Mundelein High School graduate already has gained a fine head start — a bill introduced by state Rep. Daniel Didech, based on an idea she proposed as his intern, has been signed into Illinois law.

The law, which goes into effect in January, aims to make it easier for survivors of sexual assault or abuse to report crimes.

It requires law enforcement officers to inform survivors they have the right to request to be interviewed by an officer of a particular sex or gender. It also gives survivors the option of having a support person present during the interview.

Each year, Didech, a Buffalo Grove Democrat, gives interns the opportunity to propose a bill for him to introduce in Springfield.

But it wasn’t until this year — his eighth in office — that he has seen one of those bills not only reach Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk, but also receive the governor’s endorsement.

Bolanos, who is studying political science and psychology at Ohio State University, said she reached out to Didech’s office for an internship position in 2025 after her freshman year.

She took on an internship project involving sexual assault awareness because she has known people in her life affected by it.

Drawing on her psychology background, she looked into why survivors choose not to be interviewed.

“I realized a lot of it has to do with re-traumatization, and so I was thinking about how to best solve that or make it more comfortable for them to follow through,” she said.

Giving them a choice based on gender in the interview process might help them do that, she said.

“At first,” Bolanos said, “it was a lot to take on. I’ve never written a bill proposal, but I had a really good support team,” including the office’s internship coordinator.

“Overall, it was a lot of back-and-forth,” she said. “I would draft. I would see how it landed. I saw some templates of what it could look like.”

Didech said the bill drew on models from other states.

“A lot of law enforcement agencies in Illinois have already been doing this,” Didech said. “This will just expand it to every law enforcement agency in Illinois.”

He said the law enforcement community delivered feedback, while the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault provided valuable input by suggesting the bill contain the provision for a support person.

Sarah Beuning, general counsel for the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said after seeing the bill in its initial form, the organization reached out to Didech.

“You have to tell in great detail the story of probably one of the worst things that ever happened to you, and that can be re-traumatizing,” she said. “So just to make sure there’s more support and a more trauma-informed statewide response, I think the bill will be very helpful in that way.”

She added local rape crisis centers are available 24/7. She suggested visiting the coalition’s website, icasa.org/.

“We have trained advocates throughout at every single rape crisis center. There are 31 in Illinois,” she said.

Beuning said she hopes the bill leads to more reports.

“We hope that this supportive approach will encourage those who are interested in taking that step and moving forward and being able to have their support person with them.”

Didech said he has introduced a few dozen bills through the internship process.

“This is the first one that we have had successfully pass the House, pass the Senate and be signed by the governor. So this is an exciting moment,” he said.

The recipe that made it successful, he said, was that it addressed a real problem, offered an achievable solution and followed successful models in other states.

Bolanos said it demonstrated how accessible policy work can be for constituents.

“She just seems like a wonderful young person,” Beuning said. “I look forward to seeing what else she does in her life, because she’s obviously off to a great start.”

szalusky@dailyherald.com