To help prevent the sexual abuse of students in public K-12 schools, 46 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia surveyed by GAO required background checks of applicants–such as teachers or bus drivers–seeking public school employment; however, the methods and sources varied widely. Forty-two states established professional standards or codes of conduct for school personnel, and 22 of those included information on appropriate boundaries between personnel and students. Although experts view awareness and prevention training on sexual abuse and misconduct as another key prevention tool, only 18 states reported in the survey that they require school districts to provide this training. However, two of six districts GAO visited provided training to school personnel, volunteers, and students in response to prior allegations of sexual misconduct by school personnel. These trainings covered a variety of topics, including recognizing the signs of abuse and misconduct.
According to GAO’s survey, 46 states have laws that require school personnel to report child sexual abuse and designate the agency that investigates reports (local law enforcement and/or child protective services (CPS)), and 43 establish penalties for not reporting. In addition, school districts may have their own policies, which can sometimes create challenges. For example, three of the six school districts GAO visited have policies requiring suspected sexual abuse or misconduct to be reported to school administrators. Local investigative officials reported that such policies can be confusing, as they imply reports should only be made to school officials. This can result in a failure to report to the proper law enforcement or CPS authorities and interfere with investigations. For example, in one case study GAO reviewed, administrators pled guilty to failure to report suspected sexual abuse of a student by a teacher, who was later convicted of ten counts of abuse. Further, state and local officials told GAO that because different agencies can be involved with investigating reports of alleged child sexual abuse or misconduct for different reasons, each of the agencies’ particular goals may lead to potential interference with another agency’s investigation. In three of the four states GAO visited, law enforcement and CPS had developed methods, such as memorandums of understanding, to minimize this potential conflict and share information and expertise to resolve cases.
Relevant programs at the Departments of Education (Education), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (Justice) have supported state and local efforts to address sexual abuse by school personnel through limited training, guidance on boundary setting, and funding for collaboration among entities responding to allegations. Federal internal controls state that agencies should ensure there are adequate means of communicating with and obtaining information from external stakeholders who have a significant impact on agency goals. Yet, more than 30 of the states that GAO surveyed were not aware of available federal resources. No single agency is leading this effort, and coordination among federal agencies to leverage their resources and disseminate information to assist state and local efforts is limited. Further, the prevalence of this type of abuse is not known. Although several federal agencies collect related data, none systematically identify the extent of sexual abuse by school personnel, and efforts to address this data gap are limited. Finally, Education’s regulations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) require schools to have procedures in place to protect students from sexual abuse by school personnel. However, local officials told GAO that Education’s guidance was limited and they are unsure about how to apply these requirements to cases of adult-to-student sexual abuse in K-12 settings.
Why GAO Did This Study
While all child abuse is troubling, sexual abuse by school personnel raises particular concerns because of the trust placed in schools. Federal laws prohibit sexual harassment, including sexual abuse, in federallyfunded education programs and set minimum standards for state laws on reporting suspected child abuse.
GAO was asked to review efforts to address child sexual abuse by school personnel. GAO examined: (1) states’ and school districts’ steps to help prevent such abuse, (2) their reporting requirements and approaches for investigating allegations, and (3) federal agencies’ efforts to address such abuse. GAO reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and guidance; surveyed state educational agencies in 50 states and the District of Columbia; and visited four states and six of their districts. States were selected based on actions taken in response to past allegations of abuse. GAO interviewed state agencies, school districts, local law enforcement and child protective service agencies, and experts identified through a systematic literature review.
What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that Education collaborate with HHS and Justice to compile and disseminate information to states; identify a way to track the prevalence of sexual abuse; and that Education also clarify and disseminate information on how Title IX applies to personnel-to-student sexual abuse in the K-12 setting. Education and HHS provided technical comments and Education concurred with our recommendations. Justice had no comments.
For more information, contact Kay Brown at (202) 512-7215 or brownke@gao.gov.
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Last summer, Robert Boynton was strolling through his Brooklyn neighborhood when he was struck by the grades pasted in the windows of every restaurant.
“This is weird,” he remembers thinking. “Why do I know more about the health conditions at my local restaurant than the school I spend $45,000 sending my kid to?”
It was one of the inspirations behind a decision by the Horace Mann Action Coalition, a group of alumni, to create letter grades for private schools in the New York City area based on the strength of their policies to prevent sexual abuse. Mr. Boynton helped found the group to address allegations that faculty and administrators at the elite Bronx private school sexually abused more than two dozen students from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Last May, the school apologized in a letter posted on its website for “unconscionable betrayals of trust,” acknowledging that “it is clear” that former teachers and administrators “in fact did abuse” students.
The grades are part of a revamped agenda for the coalition after it failed to raise enough money to fulfill its original goal of conducting an independent investigation of the allegations.
The new focus: building a searchable database of recent sexual-abuse allegations at private schools across the country, working with experts to create national standards for schools on how to prevent and respond to abuse, and grading New York City area private schools on how well they conform to those policies.
The coalition also plans to complete a scaled-back investigation into what happened at Horace Mann School, focused on alleged administrative breakdowns.
A spokesman for Horace Mann declined to comment.
The database will catalog the seeming onslaught of cases that have emerged over the past few years at schools across the country. Details will include the years the alleged abuse took place, the number and gender of victims and abusers, and each school’s reaction once the attacks became public. The hope, said organizers, is that patterns will emerge.
“I think the database will be critical to protecting children in the future because we’ll have the facts how private schools covered up abuse, aided perpetrators and failed to protect children,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law who studies how institutions respond to sexual abuse.
“It may well be the pattern is identical to [what happened in] the yeshivas and the parochial schools and the public schools, but if it’s not we need to know that,” she said.
The database will be paired with the work of Charol Shakeshaft, a professor in the school of education at Virginia Commonwealth University, who began a project in December to create a set of national standards for schools on how to prevent sexual abuse of students by faculty and staff members.
The final guidelines, which cover hiring practices, everyday conduct and handling abuse reports, will be vetted and weighted by experts as well as by public- and private-school administrators across the country, she said. The report is expected to be completed this summer, she said.
Public schools are already subject to more stringent reporting laws in some states. As a result, “private schools need to up their game,” said Ms. Shakeshaft.
Myra McGovern, senior director of public information for the National Association of Independent Schools, said she thought a database covering both public and private institutions would be more useful. But “every little bit of work that aims to raise awareness” helps, she said, adding that wasn’t aware of any other similar efforts.
Some of Ms. Shakeshaft’s suggested guidelines include requiring teachers to leave classroom doors open if they are alone with a student, only driving students in groups for school-sanctioned trips and conducting any tutoring sessions in open spaces such as school libraries. Schools must report suspected abuse to the police—and hold on to those records.
The investigative section of the report will be written like a business-school case study and examine how the school’s response compares to the best-practice guidelines, coalition members said.
“It will be scaled down, but it still will hopefully have ultimately the same impact,” said Leslie Crocker Snyder, a former judge and sex-crimes prosecutor hired to lead the investigation.
Mr. Boynton and others expressed dismay that their original plans had been curtailed because of a lack of funds. Former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Louis Freeh spent more than $8 million on his investigation into the sexual-abuse scandal at Penn State, according to school documents. The Horace Mann Action Coalition spent about $50,000 on the initial phase of its investigation.
A campaign to raise $150,000 through Rockethub, an online crowd-funding company, had yielded $17,180 from 74 people with nine days left, as of March 1, according to the fundraising page—on top of $40,000 the organization has already raised.
As a result, the group had to scrap plans to hire experienced investigators to interview suspected abusers, former staffers and alumni across the country.
“I was disappointed we didn’t raise more money,” said Mr. Boynton, a coalition board member.
The group’s new direction, he said, is “going to be much lower key, more forward-looking and more aimed, really, at administrative malfeasance.”
Mr. Freeh also had cooperation from the school; Horace Mann declined to participate in the coalition’s investigation.
Despite their limits, alumni groups serve a vital role by putting “very persistent pressure on the institution,” Ms. Hamilton said.
“For me that is the most important element in all of this,” she said. “How do we both help the survivors from the past first and how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again, so 20 years from now a new set of alums isn’t surprised?”
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As part of its coverage of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and elsewhere, the Pioneer Press talked with Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. The following reflects the interview, edited for space and clarity.
Q. What do you think your office will see in terms of future clergy sex abuse cases?
A. We’re aware of many cases that are coming to us from police. One may be imminent. From my perspective, this is just the beginning.
Q. Some have criticized your decision not to charge officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with failure to meet mandatory reporter requirements in the Curtis Wehmeyer case. (Wehmeyer, formerly a priest at Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, was sentenced last February to five years in prison for sexually abusing two young boys and possessing child pornography.) Can you give some context for that decision, and for your plans going forward?
A. That was the first case involving archdiocese officials that was presented to our office. But the overall investigation of sexual abuse in the archdiocese and how it’s been handled is going to take a really long time. In fact, if we’re talking about this issue a year from now, I won’t be surprised. It’s that big of a task to get through.
A police agency can’t just cut and paste what’s on the Internet or from a news publication and present that to us as evidence. They need to go out and independently seek that information from all these various sources and then try to make heads or tails of all of that — corroborate it, do what investigators do. We are involved with the police to advise them as they are doing their investigation.
The public has seen a lot of coverage of sexual abuse and the archdiocese in the media. I can totally understand the anger and the frustration and the shock of hearing about all of these horrible things that have been happening in the Catholic Church. I share all of that with the public. But I have to protect the process of how we get to certain decisions in the criminal justice system. It’s not about making a conclusion before we even gather evidence. I’m hoping we can give those investigators an opportunity to work and do what they need to do.
We’ve always said this: The facts will lead the way.
Q. After you declined to charge archdiocese officials, a document from Archbishop John Nienstedt surfaced that disclosed he was aware of the allegation against Wehmeyer on June 18, 2012 — at least two days before archdiocese officials reported it to police. The law requires an allegation be reported within 24 hours. Do you know whether police are doing further investigation? Is it possible charges are still forthcoming?
A. Based upon the information presented to our office at the time, we declined the case for insufficient evidence. That (Nienstedt) document was not in our investigative file. We’ve asked the police to review it. I have insisted they submit a supplemental report, and it will come here to my office.
Q. When do you expect that?
A. I don’t know. I would encourage anybody with information about the timing of the report to share that information with the police. In general, it’s not unusual for us to charge a case we previously declined — if we get further information.
Q. Why have you not convened a grand jury to investigate the priest abuse scandal?
A. It would be very inappropriate to convene an investigative grand jury when there’s an active police investigation right now. Convening a grand jury would undermine that process. On an issue like this, I really believe what this community needs and deserves is transparency and accountability. Our law in Minnesota is very clear: If the grand jury declines to charge, then everything that happened in the process is secret. The public won’t know who testified, who refused to testify, what information came out. And I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with that in this particular situation. In other states, when an investigative grand jury issues a “no bill” (no charges), they can do a grand jury report. That is not allowed in Minnesota.
Q. Why hasn’t your office filed search warrants for archdiocese offices?
A. We don’t have the power to file search warrants. That’s a police tool. I have no doubt that police will use those when appropriate.
Q. We hear a lot about civil lawsuits involving offenders and church officials. How are criminal prosecutions different?
A. There is a great difference in the burden of proof required. Attorneys for plaintiffs in civil cases have to make sure their case is not “frivolous.” That’s the standard for them. The standard we have to meet as criminal prosecutors is: We shouldn’t be proceeding in a case where we don’t believe that there’s sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. It would be unethical to do that.
Civil cases are ultimately decided on the “preponderance of the evidence,” meaning a jury’s decision is based on whether the plaintiff’s claim is true “more likely than not.” A criminal case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and all 12 jurors must agree to that.
In my role as a chief prosecutor, I have to put a systematic framework around the process to make sure we do things based on what the law is, and not based on emotion or public sentiment.
Q. Does your Catholic background color your prosecutorial decisions in any way?
A. We’ve never hesitated to prosecute people in the church. Prime examples are Curtis Wehmeyer and Christopher Wenthe (convicted in 2011 of having an illegal sexual relationship with an adult parishioner). If people need to be held accountable, and are within the reach of the law, they should be. The suggestion that I would treat Catholic officials differently from others — I think that’s incredibly unfair. But I think I’ve developed very thick skin.
Child sexual abuse impacts 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys before their 18th birthday. Yet, prosecutors say only 1 in 10 actually speak up, but in many cases, not until they are older and well past the statute of limitations for legal action against their abusers.
However, a House Judiciary Committee has passed a new bill, HB 771, which would give victims more time to seek action.
Under current law, child sex abuse victims in the Peach State can only take action against their abusers up to five years after age 18.
If the new bill passes, victims would be able to bring action against his or her abuser up until they reach the age of 30.
“Once a child has been sexually abused they are given a life sentence. The question then becomes how does a victim get justice in a civil action before the statute runs out? This bill can bring necessary reform for victims to obtain justice in a civil action,” said Rep. Jason Spencer of Woodbine.
Now that the bill has made its way through the house committee process, it has the potential to be called for a floor vote by the full House.
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Every law begins with someone’s personal experience, and criminal laws stem from some of the most painful ones. The Iowa Legislature this year is considering two bills related to crimes against children. But the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate view the two through somewhat different lenses.
H.F. 2253, inspired by the abduction and killing of Kathlynn Shepard, would elevate the severity of kidnapping a child of 15 or younger and remove the ability of someone convicted of violent or sexual acts against children to earn time off for good behavior. The man who abducted Shepard and later killed himself was a convicted sex offender who had been released early from prison.
S.F. 2109 would increase the statute of limitations for filing sex abuse charges to 25 years after child victims become adults, or three years after a DNA identification. Civil suits could be brought up to 25 years after the victim discovered a relationship between the abuse and the injury. It’s inspired by the experiences of Des Moines’ John Johnson, who was one of seven 14- and 15-year-old boys allegedly abused after being plied with alcohol by a pastor.
Iowa’s statute of limitations is 10 years after the accuser turns 18. In civil suits, it can be four years after repressed memories surface.
But Johnson, 44, said he had repressed most memories until his sons, now 9 and 15, hit puberty. He started having nightmares involving the church and became fiercely protective of his kids. Memories can be delayed, and children may not make the connections until a triggering event late in life.
Thirty-four states have eliminated statutes of limitation for certain sex crimes, according to a Cardozo School of Law professor. But the Iowa bill faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled House, where two years ago, it didn’t even get onto the floor for debate.
When the actions of Johnson’s pastor were first exposed, he says, the church’s senior pastor persuaded everyone he would handle the situation — which meant dispatching the pastor to an out-of-state mental hospital and offering to counsel the boys individually. Johnson’s parents never pressed for criminal charges because they were “brainwashed” and he didn’t want to testify, Johnson says. Then it turned out there had been a police report against the pastor from another state that was hushed up. Eventually the man took a plea deal for misdemeanor sexual assault, but “he never even completed the probation or community service.”
Johnson was blocked from suing under the repressed-memory provision because a report showed he had been interviewed by police at age 15 or 16 — an event he doesn’t even remember. He says he has since suffered from anxiety, depression, guilt and an inability to concentrate. “When I was 16, I didn’t know I had any of these damages,” he said. Though he’s had therapy, “I can’t afford the amount of therapy it would take to figure all this out.”
This bill wouldn’t help Johnson. But he’s sharing his story in hopes that some sex offenders who are still harming children might be stopped. “Predators don’t get better; they get worse,” he said.
But Rep. Chip Baltimore, a Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, is disparaging of survivors seeking to reopen cases much later. “That person running around while you were just biding your time should have been brought forward sooner,” Baltimore said. Such attitudes make adult survivors reluctant to lobby for bills. Johnson contacted four others who said that doing so was too much for them.
On the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Steven Sodders, the Democrat managing S.F. 2109, spoke about a national epidemic of child sex abuse and said 90 percent of child victims never report since the vast majority are incapable of doing so before the statute expires. Sex abuse can alter a child’s physical, emotional, social and cognitive development, he said. But it can take years or decades to recognize the consequences. “Shame on you,” Sodders said to those in the insurance or financial industries who oppose the bill over civil liability claims.
Baltimore supports the Shepard legislation, which passed the House. As for S.F. 2109, he said he’d assign it to a Judiciary subcommittee and then decide whether to move it on. He shares the Iowa Civil Liberties Union’s concern that evidence could be compromised over time. He worries about churches’ and schools’ liability, and people’s reputations.
Lobbyists can usually be expected to line up with their constituencies. But when S.F. 2109 was discussed in a Senate judiciary subcommittee meeting with Johnson present, something unexpected happened. Someone who’d come to lobby against it was overcome with emotion and had to leave, wishing Johnson well. That person’s position was later listed as undecided.
If anyone needed proof of how ubiquitous or long lasting the impact of sex abuse could be, it was in that room. The bill unanimously passed the Senate.
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Written by LAURAN NEERGAARD
Thursday, 27 February 2014
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ashley Foster said she was 13 years old when her cousin began molesting her, and the alleged abuse went on for years before she told police – only then it was too late to press charges.
Foster told a Senate committee on Tuesday that when she was 20, with the support of family and after several months of counseling, she decided to go to police. She said authorities wanted to pursue the case, but charges against people in Florida who molest children aged 12 or older have to be brought within three years of the alleged abuse. In Foster’s case, she missed that opportunity by two months.
“They had all the evidence they needed but yet they still couldn’t do anything,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “That shocked me at first, and then I was really upset and I was like, ‘That’s not right, he needs to be put away.’”
After listening to her testimony, the committee unanimously voted to approve a bill (SB 494) that would remove the statute of limitations for bringing molestation charges against people who abuse children under the age of 16. There is no statute of limitation for similar crimes against children younger than 12.
The bill makes an exception in the cases of older children if the molestation is committed by another child who is within four years of the victim’s age.
“I want to thank you for having the courage for coming here today, and I’m so sorry that you’re never going to have justice in your case,” said Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Orange Park. “But I hope you have at least a small amount of peace in knowing that by you standing up here and doing what you’re doing, that there’s going to be justice for people in the state of Florida that are in similar situations in the future.”
Foster first worked with Rep. Mark Pafford, who said he met late last year with Foster, Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg and representatives of the Boynton Beach Police Department, who investigated the case. “At 22 years old, she’s extremely brave to put this out there,” said Pafford, D-West Palm Beach.
The Senate bill is sponsored by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers. It has one more committee stop before it can be considered by the full Senate. After the meeting, Foster said she was relieved and happy to see progress. It was the first time she’s testified before lawmakers.
“It’s no longer about me with trying to get my cousin prosecuted. It’s about other people and just letting this bill help others even though it might not help me,” she said. “There’s other victims out there. I don’t know who they are, but hopefully this gives them the courage to come out and say something.”
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Federal Agencies Can Better Support State Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Abuse by School Personnel
/in Federal /by SOL ReformFederal Agencies Can
Better Support State
Efforts to Prevent and
Respond to Sexual
Abuse by School
Personnel
View PDF of study: (coming soon)
What GAO Found
To help prevent the sexual abuse of students in public K-12 schools, 46 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia surveyed by GAO required background checks of applicants–such as teachers or bus drivers–seeking public school employment; however, the methods and sources varied widely. Forty-two states established professional standards or codes of conduct for school personnel, and 22 of those included information on appropriate boundaries between personnel and students. Although experts view awareness and prevention training on sexual abuse and misconduct as another key prevention tool, only 18 states reported in the survey that they require school districts to provide this training. However, two of six districts GAO visited provided training to school personnel, volunteers, and students in response to prior allegations of sexual misconduct by school personnel. These trainings covered a variety of topics, including recognizing the signs of abuse and misconduct.
According to GAO’s survey, 46 states have laws that require school personnel to report child sexual abuse and designate the agency that investigates reports (local law enforcement and/or child protective services (CPS)), and 43 establish penalties for not reporting. In addition, school districts may have their own policies, which can sometimes create challenges. For example, three of the six school districts GAO visited have policies requiring suspected sexual abuse or misconduct to be reported to school administrators. Local investigative officials reported that such policies can be confusing, as they imply reports should only be made to school officials. This can result in a failure to report to the proper law enforcement or CPS authorities and interfere with investigations. For example, in one case study GAO reviewed, administrators pled guilty to failure to report suspected sexual abuse of a student by a teacher, who was later convicted of ten counts of abuse. Further, state and local officials told GAO that because different agencies can be involved with investigating reports of alleged child sexual abuse or misconduct for different reasons, each of the agencies’ particular goals may lead to potential interference with another agency’s investigation. In three of the four states GAO visited, law enforcement and CPS had developed methods, such as memorandums of understanding, to minimize this potential conflict and share information and expertise to resolve cases.
Relevant programs at the Departments of Education (Education), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (Justice) have supported state and local efforts to address sexual abuse by school personnel through limited training, guidance on boundary setting, and funding for collaboration among entities responding to allegations. Federal internal controls state that agencies should ensure there are adequate means of communicating with and obtaining information from external stakeholders who have a significant impact on agency goals. Yet, more than 30 of the states that GAO surveyed were not aware of available federal resources. No single agency is leading this effort, and coordination among federal agencies to leverage their resources and disseminate information to assist state and local efforts is limited. Further, the prevalence of this type of abuse is not known. Although several federal agencies collect related data, none systematically identify the extent of sexual abuse by school personnel, and efforts to address this data gap are limited. Finally, Education’s regulations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) require schools to have procedures in place to protect students from sexual abuse by school personnel. However, local officials told GAO that Education’s guidance was limited and they are unsure about how to apply these requirements to cases of adult-to-student sexual abuse in K-12 settings.
Why GAO Did This Study
While all child abuse is troubling, sexual abuse by school personnel raises particular concerns because of the trust placed in schools. Federal laws prohibit sexual harassment, including sexual abuse, in federallyfunded education programs and set minimum standards for state laws on reporting suspected child abuse.
GAO was asked to review efforts to address child sexual abuse by school personnel. GAO examined: (1) states’ and school districts’ steps to help prevent such abuse, (2) their reporting requirements and approaches for investigating allegations, and (3) federal agencies’ efforts to address such abuse. GAO reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and guidance; surveyed state educational agencies in 50 states and the District of Columbia; and visited four states and six of their districts. States were selected based on actions taken in response to past allegations of abuse. GAO interviewed state agencies, school districts, local law enforcement and child protective service agencies, and experts identified through a systematic literature review.
What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that Education collaborate with HHS and Justice to compile and disseminate information to states; identify a way to track the prevalence of sexual abuse; and that Education also clarify and disseminate information on how Title IX applies to personnel-to-student sexual abuse in the K-12 setting. Education and HHS provided technical comments and Education concurred with our recommendations. Justice had no comments.
Letter Grades for Preventing Sexual Abuse
/in New York /by SOL ReformLetter Grades for Preventing Sexual Abuse
Horace Mann Alumni Group Will Rate Private Schools
By- SOPHIA HOLLANDER
Last summer, Robert Boynton was strolling through his Brooklyn neighborhood when he was struck by the grades pasted in the windows of every restaurant.
“This is weird,” he remembers thinking. “Why do I know more about the health conditions at my local restaurant than the school I spend $45,000 sending my kid to?”
Last May, the school apologized in a letter posted on its website for “unconscionable betrayals of trust,” acknowledging that “it is clear” that former teachers and administrators “in fact did abuse” students.
The grades are part of a revamped agenda for the coalition after it failed to raise enough money to fulfill its original goal of conducting an independent investigation of the allegations.
The new focus: building a searchable database of recent sexual-abuse allegations at private schools across the country, working with experts to create national standards for schools on how to prevent and respond to abuse, and grading New York City area private schools on how well they conform to those policies.
The coalition also plans to complete a scaled-back investigation into what happened at Horace Mann School, focused on alleged administrative breakdowns.
A spokesman for Horace Mann declined to comment.
The database will catalog the seeming onslaught of cases that have emerged over the past few years at schools across the country. Details will include the years the alleged abuse took place, the number and gender of victims and abusers, and each school’s reaction once the attacks became public. The hope, said organizers, is that patterns will emerge.
“I think the database will be critical to protecting children in the future because we’ll have the facts how private schools covered up abuse, aided perpetrators and failed to protect children,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law who studies how institutions respond to sexual abuse.
“It may well be the pattern is identical to [what happened in] the yeshivas and the parochial schools and the public schools, but if it’s not we need to know that,” she said.
The database will be paired with the work of Charol Shakeshaft, a professor in the school of education at Virginia Commonwealth University, who began a project in December to create a set of national standards for schools on how to prevent sexual abuse of students by faculty and staff members.
The final guidelines, which cover hiring practices, everyday conduct and handling abuse reports, will be vetted and weighted by experts as well as by public- and private-school administrators across the country, she said. The report is expected to be completed this summer, she said.
Public schools are already subject to more stringent reporting laws in some states. As a result, “private schools need to up their game,” said Ms. Shakeshaft.
Myra McGovern, senior director of public information for the National Association of Independent Schools, said she thought a database covering both public and private institutions would be more useful. But “every little bit of work that aims to raise awareness” helps, she said, adding that wasn’t aware of any other similar efforts.
Some of Ms. Shakeshaft’s suggested guidelines include requiring teachers to leave classroom doors open if they are alone with a student, only driving students in groups for school-sanctioned trips and conducting any tutoring sessions in open spaces such as school libraries. Schools must report suspected abuse to the police—and hold on to those records.
The investigative section of the report will be written like a business-school case study and examine how the school’s response compares to the best-practice guidelines, coalition members said.
“It will be scaled down, but it still will hopefully have ultimately the same impact,” said Leslie Crocker Snyder, a former judge and sex-crimes prosecutor hired to lead the investigation.
Mr. Boynton and others expressed dismay that their original plans had been curtailed because of a lack of funds. Former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Louis Freeh spent more than $8 million on his investigation into the sexual-abuse scandal at Penn State, according to school documents. The Horace Mann Action Coalition spent about $50,000 on the initial phase of its investigation.
A campaign to raise $150,000 through Rockethub, an online crowd-funding company, had yielded $17,180 from 74 people with nine days left, as of March 1, according to the fundraising page—on top of $40,000 the organization has already raised.
As a result, the group had to scrap plans to hire experienced investigators to interview suspected abusers, former staffers and alumni across the country.
“I was disappointed we didn’t raise more money,” said Mr. Boynton, a coalition board member.
The group’s new direction, he said, is “going to be much lower key, more forward-looking and more aimed, really, at administrative malfeasance.”
Mr. Freeh also had cooperation from the school; Horace Mann declined to participate in the coalition’s investigation.
Despite their limits, alumni groups serve a vital role by putting “very persistent pressure on the institution,” Ms. Hamilton said.
“For me that is the most important element in all of this,” she said. “How do we both help the survivors from the past first and how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again, so 20 years from now a new set of alums isn’t surprised?”
Write to Sophia Hollander at sophia.hollander@wsj.com
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/
Ramsey County prosecutor: Priest abuse cases ‘just the beginning’
/in Minnesota, MN Post Window /by SOL ReformRamsey County prosecutor: Priest abuse cases ‘just the beginning’
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
As part of its coverage of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and elsewhere, the Pioneer Press talked with Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. The following reflects the interview, edited for space and clarity.
Q. What do you think your office will see in terms of future clergy sex abuse cases?
A. We’re aware of many cases that are coming to us from police. One may be imminent. From my perspective, this is just the beginning.
Q. Some have criticized your decision not to charge officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with failure to meet mandatory reporter requirements in the Curtis Wehmeyer case. (Wehmeyer, formerly a priest at Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, was sentenced last February to five years in prison for sexually abusing two young boys and possessing child pornography.) Can you give some context for that decision, and for your plans going forward?
A. That was the first case involving archdiocese officials that was presented to our office. But the overall investigation of sexual abuse in the archdiocese and how it’s been handled is going to take a really long time. In fact, if we’re talking about this issue a year from now, I won’t be surprised. It’s that big of a task to get through.
A police agency can’t just cut and paste what’s on the Internet or from a news publication and present that to us as evidence. They need to go out and independently seek that information from all these various sources and then try to make heads or tails of all of that — corroborate it, do what investigators do. We are involved with the police to advise them as they are doing their investigation.
The public has seen a lot of coverage of sexual abuse and the archdiocese in the media. I can totally understand the anger and the frustration and the shock of hearing about all of these horrible things that have been happening in the Catholic Church. I share all of that with the public. But I have to protect the process of how we get to certain decisions in the criminal justice system. It’s not about making a conclusion before we even gather evidence. I’m hoping we can give those investigators an opportunity to work and do what they need to do.
We’ve always said this: The facts will lead the way.
Q. After you declined to charge archdiocese officials, a document from Archbishop John Nienstedt surfaced that disclosed he was aware of the allegation against Wehmeyer on June 18, 2012 — at least two days before archdiocese officials reported it to police. The law requires an allegation be reported within 24 hours. Do you know whether police are doing further investigation? Is it possible charges are still forthcoming?
A. Based upon the information presented to our office at the time, we declined the case for insufficient evidence. That (Nienstedt) document was not in our investigative file. We’ve asked the police to review it. I have insisted they submit a supplemental report, and it will come here to my office.
Q. When do you expect that?
A. I don’t know. I would encourage anybody with information about the timing of the report to share that information with the police. In general, it’s not unusual for us to charge a case we previously declined — if we get further information.
Q. Why have you not convened a grand jury to investigate the priest abuse scandal?
A. It would be very inappropriate to convene an investigative grand jury when there’s an active police investigation right now. Convening a grand jury would undermine that process. On an issue like this, I really believe what this community needs and deserves is transparency and accountability. Our law in Minnesota is very clear: If the grand jury declines to charge, then everything that happened in the process is secret. The public won’t know who testified, who refused to testify, what information came out. And I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with that in this particular situation. In other states, when an investigative grand jury issues a “no bill” (no charges), they can do a grand jury report. That is not allowed in Minnesota.
Q. Why hasn’t your office filed search warrants for archdiocese offices?
A. We don’t have the power to file search warrants. That’s a police tool. I have no doubt that police will use those when appropriate.
Q. We hear a lot about civil lawsuits involving offenders and church officials. How are criminal prosecutions different?
A. There is a great difference in the burden of proof required. Attorneys for plaintiffs in civil cases have to make sure their case is not “frivolous.” That’s the standard for them. The standard we have to meet as criminal prosecutors is: We shouldn’t be proceeding in a case where we don’t believe that there’s sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. It would be unethical to do that.
Civil cases are ultimately decided on the “preponderance of the evidence,” meaning a jury’s decision is based on whether the plaintiff’s claim is true “more likely than not.” A criminal case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and all 12 jurors must agree to that.
In my role as a chief prosecutor, I have to put a systematic framework around the process to make sure we do things based on what the law is, and not based on emotion or public sentiment.
Q. Does your Catholic background color your prosecutorial decisions in any way?
A. We’ve never hesitated to prosecute people in the church. Prime examples are Curtis Wehmeyer and Christopher Wenthe (convicted in 2011 of having an illegal sexual relationship with an adult parishioner). If people need to be held accountable, and are within the reach of the law, they should be. The suggestion that I would treat Catholic officials differently from others — I think that’s incredibly unfair. But I think I’ve developed very thick skin.
Q. Are you still active in the Catholic Church?
A. I am not a regular churchgoer.
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.
New Bill Aimed at Child Sex Abuse Cases in GA
/in Georgia /by SOL ReformNew Bill Aimed at Child Sex Abuse Cases in GA
Posted: Feb 28, 2014 12:50 AM ESTUpdated: Feb 28, 2014 1:13 AM EST
Child sexual abuse impacts 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys before their 18th birthday. Yet, prosecutors say only 1 in 10 actually speak up, but in many cases, not until they are older and well past the statute of limitations for legal action against their abusers.
However, a House Judiciary Committee has passed a new bill, HB 771, which would give victims more time to seek action.
Under current law, child sex abuse victims in the Peach State can only take action against their abusers up to five years after age 18.
If the new bill passes, victims would be able to bring action against his or her abuser up until they reach the age of 30.
“Once a child has been sexually abused they are given a life sentence. The question then becomes how does a victim get justice in a civil action before the statute runs out? This bill can bring necessary reform for victims to obtain justice in a civil action,” said Rep. Jason Spencer of Woodbine.
Now that the bill has made its way through the house committee process, it has the potential to be called for a floor vote by the full House.
Basu: Debate the bill, but don’t doubt impact of sex abuse
/in Iowa /by SOL ReformBasu: Debate the bill, but don’t doubt impact of sex abuse
Every law begins with someone’s personal experience, and criminal laws stem from some of the most painful ones. The Iowa Legislature this year is considering two bills related to crimes against children. But the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate view the two through somewhat different lenses.
H.F. 2253, inspired by the abduction and killing of Kathlynn Shepard, would elevate the severity of kidnapping a child of 15 or younger and remove the ability of someone convicted of violent or sexual acts against children to earn time off for good behavior. The man who abducted Shepard and later killed himself was a convicted sex offender who had been released early from prison.
S.F. 2109 would increase the statute of limitations for filing sex abuse charges to 25 years after child victims become adults, or three years after a DNA identification. Civil suits could be brought up to 25 years after the victim discovered a relationship between the abuse and the injury. It’s inspired by the experiences of Des Moines’ John Johnson, who was one of seven 14- and 15-year-old boys allegedly abused after being plied with alcohol by a pastor.
Iowa’s statute of limitations is 10 years after the accuser turns 18. In civil suits, it can be four years after repressed memories surface.
But Johnson, 44, said he had repressed most memories until his sons, now 9 and 15, hit puberty. He started having nightmares involving the church and became fiercely protective of his kids. Memories can be delayed, and children may not make the connections until a triggering event late in life.
Thirty-four states have eliminated statutes of limitation for certain sex crimes, according to a Cardozo School of Law professor. But the Iowa bill faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled House, where two years ago, it didn’t even get onto the floor for debate.
When the actions of Johnson’s pastor were first exposed, he says, the church’s senior pastor persuaded everyone he would handle the situation — which meant dispatching the pastor to an out-of-state mental hospital and offering to counsel the boys individually. Johnson’s parents never pressed for criminal charges because they were “brainwashed” and he didn’t want to testify, Johnson says. Then it turned out there had been a police report against the pastor from another state that was hushed up. Eventually the man took a plea deal for misdemeanor sexual assault, but “he never even completed the probation or community service.”
Johnson was blocked from suing under the repressed-memory provision because a report showed he had been interviewed by police at age 15 or 16 — an event he doesn’t even remember. He says he has since suffered from anxiety, depression, guilt and an inability to concentrate. “When I was 16, I didn’t know I had any of these damages,” he said. Though he’s had therapy, “I can’t afford the amount of therapy it would take to figure all this out.”
This bill wouldn’t help Johnson. But he’s sharing his story in hopes that some sex offenders who are still harming children might be stopped. “Predators don’t get better; they get worse,” he said.
But Rep. Chip Baltimore, a Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, is disparaging of survivors seeking to reopen cases much later. “That person running around while you were just biding your time should have been brought forward sooner,” Baltimore said. Such attitudes make adult survivors reluctant to lobby for bills. Johnson contacted four others who said that doing so was too much for them.
On the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Steven Sodders, the Democrat managing S.F. 2109, spoke about a national epidemic of child sex abuse and said 90 percent of child victims never report since the vast majority are incapable of doing so before the statute expires. Sex abuse can alter a child’s physical, emotional, social and cognitive development, he said. But it can take years or decades to recognize the consequences. “Shame on you,” Sodders said to those in the insurance or financial industries who oppose the bill over civil liability claims.
Baltimore supports the Shepard legislation, which passed the House. As for S.F. 2109, he said he’d assign it to a Judiciary subcommittee and then decide whether to move it on. He shares the Iowa Civil Liberties Union’s concern that evidence could be compromised over time. He worries about churches’ and schools’ liability, and people’s reputations.
Lobbyists can usually be expected to line up with their constituencies. But when S.F. 2109 was discussed in a Senate judiciary subcommittee meeting with Johnson present, something unexpected happened. Someone who’d come to lobby against it was overcome with emotion and had to leave, wishing Johnson well. That person’s position was later listed as undecided.
If anyone needed proof of how ubiquitous or long lasting the impact of sex abuse could be, it was in that room. The bill unanimously passed the Senate.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20140228/BASU/302280057/?odyssey=nav%7Chead
CHILD SEX ABUSE SURVIVOR FIGHTS FOR FUTURE VICTIMS
/in Florida, Uncategorized /by SOL ReformCHILD SEX ABUSE SURVIVOR FIGHTS FOR FUTURE VICTIMS
Written by LAURAN NEERGAARD
Thursday, 27 February 2014
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ashley Foster said she was 13 years old when her cousin began molesting her, and the alleged abuse went on for years before she told police – only then it was too late to press charges.
Foster told a Senate committee on Tuesday that when she was 20, with the support of family and after several months of counseling, she decided to go to police. She said authorities wanted to pursue the case, but charges against people in Florida who molest children aged 12 or older have to be brought within three years of the alleged abuse. In Foster’s case, she missed that opportunity by two months.
“They had all the evidence they needed but yet they still couldn’t do anything,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “That shocked me at first, and then I was really upset and I was like, ‘That’s not right, he needs to be put away.’”
After listening to her testimony, the committee unanimously voted to approve a bill (SB 494) that would remove the statute of limitations for bringing molestation charges against people who abuse children under the age of 16. There is no statute of limitation for similar crimes against children younger than 12.
The bill makes an exception in the cases of older children if the molestation is committed by another child who is within four years of the victim’s age.
“I want to thank you for having the courage for coming here today, and I’m so sorry that you’re never going to have justice in your case,” said Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Orange Park. “But I hope you have at least a small amount of peace in knowing that by you standing up here and doing what you’re doing, that there’s going to be justice for people in the state of Florida that are in similar situations in the future.”
Foster first worked with Rep. Mark Pafford, who said he met late last year with Foster, Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg and representatives of the Boynton Beach Police Department, who investigated the case. “At 22 years old, she’s extremely brave to put this out there,” said Pafford, D-West Palm Beach.
The Senate bill is sponsored by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers. It has one more committee stop before it can be considered by the full Senate. After the meeting, Foster said she was relieved and happy to see progress. It was the first time she’s testified before lawmakers.
“It’s no longer about me with trying to get my cousin prosecuted. It’s about other people and just letting this bill help others even though it might not help me,” she said. “There’s other victims out there. I don’t know who they are, but hopefully this gives them the courage to come out and say something.”