Senator works on bills to protect children from pedophiles

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(The Center Square) – Sen. Janae Shamp is on a mission for 2026.

The Arizona legislator said she wants to “make pedophiles’ lives hell” and is not backing off.

“There are many different layers to how sex offenders are processed,” Shamp, R-Surprise, told The Center Square. “There's things that happen pretrial. There's plea deals that are made. Probation gets involved, and then once probation comes into it, what level of sex offender they are is then generated. So I've been working to make sure that everyone that is a sex offender, whether they're level 1, 2, or 3, are actually on the registry.”

The state senator has also been working to ensure that if someone commits a dangerous crime against a child, he or she will be punished.

In recent legislative sessions, Shamp was successful in getting several major child protection bills signed into law. These include Senate Bills 1232, 1236 and 1404.

SB 1232 classifies sexual conduct with a minor 12 or younger resulting in serious physical injury as a Class 1 felony, punishable by natural life imprisonment.

SB 1236 requires that additional Level 1 sex offenders convicted of dangerous crimes against children be listed publicly on the state sex offender website.

SB 1404 requires schools to be notified when a parent at that school is a registered sex offender convicted of DCAC.

Reform proposals from Shamp include strengthening mandatory consequences for repeated probation violations and increasing oversight of probation and treatment providers. Shamp will also explore a requirement for immediate intervention for high-risk assessments, in addition to improvements for notification systems used for schools and parents.

“We took 17 statutes. There's actually 26, but 17 really big statutes that involve sexual assault and perverse acts against children, and we elevated the punishment,” said Shamp. “So what I'm looking to do this next session is to build upon that to help protect these kids, and I've been working with the probation department, with the courts, and I've been working lots of stakeholder meetings talking about how we can keep what happened just a month or so ago from ever happening again.”

It was in November 2025 that a student at Orangewood Elementary School in Phoenix was sexually assaulted in a classroom.

Phoenix police and court documents said 25-year-old Abel Gblah followed the student into the building. Authorities add that Gblah told the student he was a doctor.

“Because there had been a tardy student, the door was unlocked, and a pedophile was able to get into the school,” Shamp told The Center Square. “This man has been convicted of human smuggling on the border. He's been convicted of raping a 16-year-old autistic girl with cerebral palsy. And here he is living two miles from the elementary school that he went to school at, so he knows the lay of the land.”

 Gblah also “failed to go to 22 of his mandated counseling classes” or appointments, Shamp said.

“He has violated probation many, many times, and they had sent him to jail for 30 days, and four days after he was released is when he raped this little girl,” said Shamp. “That's not OK.”

According to Shamp, people want to blame the school, but the senator does not see it that way.

“One employee made a mistake in not getting a door locked after a tardy student had gone through,” said Shamp. “The breakdown of the entire system of probation should not then be placed on the shoulders of one employee of an elementary school, so, to me, it’s probation reform that we need.”

While investigating the allegations around Gblah, Shamp said she learned “there is a superseding indictment for him because he is illegally in the United States.”

That, said Shamp, is more reason for reform.

“The fact that he was here, he was able to go to that school, and then he was involved in our justice system to the point where Arizona taxpayers are paying for probation, we fund the probation department through our taxes, the probation department, that is criminal,” said Shamp. “That means reforms as well.”

Arizona’s legislative session begins Jan. 12.

Shamp said she believes she will have bipartisan support and is “praying that the governor will sign the measure.”

“The main bill and reform for probation is not going to have anything to do with the illegal status,” said Shamp. “That will be a separate situation, but reforming and what we’re talking about doing with probation is going to be very focused on dangerous crimes against children, and the bills that I have done over the last three sessions and now coming into this one will be the same.”