A proposed bill in George would extend the statute of limitation for child sex crimes 7 years. This is a step in the right direction, but stronger action is needed.
House Bill 771, which was passed by a House Judiciary Committee, would give victims of child sexual assault and additional 7 years to file lawsuits. As the law stands now victims only have 5 years after they turn 18. Under the new law victims will have until they are 30 years old.
We are glad this small step in the right direction was taken and that lawmakers are acknowledging that many victims of child sexual abuse take years to report their abuse, due to the extreme trauma. We are sure that this law will help many younger people who were abused as kids, but it does nothing for older people.
Statute of limitations in child sex crimes only protect dangerous predators who more often than not will hurt more than one child. To help prevent future crimes removing the statute of limitations is necessary or at least offering a window.
We hope this bill will pass the full house and open the door for even better protection for children and justice for victims in the future.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 15,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website isSNAPnetwork.org)
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-28 21:29:202014-02-28 21:29:20GA bill will extend SOL for child sex abuse, victims respond
The child sex abuse royal commission will today hear the stories of women who were abused at two state-run institutions for girls in New South Wales.
The commission will hear evidence of abuse from 16 women who were sent as children to live at Parramatta Girls Training School in Sydney and Hay Institution for Girls, in the Riverina region, between 1950 and 1974.
Former residents have not been compensated for the abuse they endured as many did not make formal complaints at the time.
For its seventh public hearing, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will also look into the statute of limitations for such claims.
The reason why these stories haven’t been heard before is because we were girls that went through a situation of shame – absolute shame.
Sharyn Kennedy, who spent time at both institutions
Commission chief executive Janette Dines describes the women’s stories of rape and physical abuse at the homes as shocking.
“What we know and the commission will likely hear evidence about is that there was severe physical abuse that accompanied sexual abuse, that the conditions in the homes themselves were very poor, that there was emotional abuse, and often there was the use of pharmaceuticals to control the girls’ behaviour,” she said.
The home at Parramatta opened in 1887, while the Hay facility opened in 1961 as a place to send Parramatta residents for extra discipline or punishment. Both closed in 1974.
Former residents say it will be a relief to give evidence and speak out about physical abuse and rape that allegedly occurred at the homes.
Sharyn Kennedy, who spent time at both institutions, says the lives of many former residents were ruined as they turned to drug addiction, prostitution or suicide, but for others it is now time to speak out.
“The reason why these stories haven’t been heard before is because we were girls that went through a situation of shame – absolute shame,” she said.
“I became an entertainer, a singer, and there was no way ever that I was ever going to come out of the woodwork and tell people my story. Never.”
Shocking accounts of gang rape and physical abuse
Up to half of the girls sent to the Parramatta and Hay homes were Indigenous, and Ms Dines says this case is the first chance for a significant number of Aboriginal women to tell their stories.
“Around rape, around gang rape for example, and extreme physical abuse accompanying the sexual abuse,” she said.
Ms Kennedy was not sexually abused during her time at either facility but says she was physically abused.
She heard stories of sexual abuse allegedly carried out by male officers at Parramatta, including of girls who were taken to other sections of the institution and “shared around” the officers and their friends.
“Considering it was all run by the department of child welfare, I don’t know where the best interests of the child were in those circumstances,” Ms Kennedy said.
“I really just don’t know how people got away with that sort of thing – and they did.”
Since it began in September last year, the commission has held public hearings into the responses to shocking allegations of sexual abuse by a range of respected institutions across Australia, from the Catholic Church to the Salvation Army, Scouts Australia and the YMCA.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-26 21:55:102015-05-23 23:33:53Child sex abuse royal commission: Hearings to put spotlight on abuse at Parramatta and Hay girls homes
Please support in ensuring the safety of Pennsylvania’s students from educator sexual misconduct. Senate Bill 46, The Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation (S.E.S.A.M.E.) Act, seeks to put a stop to the practice of ‘Passing the Trash’ in Pennsylvania. One last hurdle remains for this bipartisan bill to become law, and we need help from organizations like yours to make it happen.
Please, tell leaders of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that the S.E.S.A.M.E. Act must be passed without delay, and consider joining S.E.S.A.M.E. and lawmakers at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 10:00am as we rally for the safety and welfare of our children.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-24 18:56:022014-02-24 18:56:02Action Alert in PA: Support the The Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation (S.E.S.A.M.E.) Act
Eleven youth coaches in the Philadelphia area have been charged with attempting or having sexual contact with a player over the last three years, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday.
The paper said that its investigation found that eight of the coaches have admitted the crimes, two others are awaiting trial, and one killed himself. The coaches who have faced the allegations ranged in age from 24 to 52. Ten are men and one is a woman.
Experts said the number of arrests in such cases has increased, partly because of a heightened awareness after the sexual abuse prosecution of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach. But they say the rate of assaults has likely remained the same.
Mike Matta, a guidance counselor and head football coach at Downingtown East, told the Inquirer that “I see people hanging around our practices, and I ask, `Who is that?’ Ten years, ago I wouldn’t have asked.”
Kate Staley of the Penn State Justice Center for Research said schools and parents seem to be waking up to the potential for such abuse.
Other experts said a key danger sign is a coach who singles out a player for special attention.
“It always starts with an overt interest in a child singled out from the rest of the group,” said Tammy Lerner, vice president of the Bryn Mawr-based Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse.
http://i2.wp.com/sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-24-at-12.18.31-PM.png?fit=619%2C551551619SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2014-02-24 17:19:492014-02-24 17:19:4911 Pa. Coaches Charged With Abuse in Last 3 Years
It’s no surprise that public reports of adult sexual abuse of children draw out victims who may have hidden the assaults for decades, experts say.
“Despite the fact this is so widespread in our society, no one talks about this,” said Julia Hochstadt, a therapist and licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Manhattan who specializes in working with child sex-abuse victims. “Acknowledg(ing) that something did, in fact, happen to them … sets the stage for people to come forward and talk about something that did happen to them, even 50 years ago.”
Recent reports that trusted adults had sexually abused their charges at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge and the Hackley School in Tarrytown back in the 1960s and 1970s are the latest revelations in what is becoming an avalanche of sex-abuse exposure.
Sexual victims of religious leaders, teachers and club leaders are coming forward long after the statutes of limitations have run out on legal remedies to demand that institutions at least acknowledge that they were preyed upon.
What drives any victim to denounce their attacker is personal, but the sudden onslaught of accusations could be driven by the change in people’s attitudes about sexual abuse itself, psychologists said. Research over the past half century has looked at the long-term consequences of child sexual abuse and there are now legal consequences for ignoring any type of abuse, from domestic violence to child rape.
“I think that (views) about sexuality in general have changed in the past 50 to 60 years,” Hochstadt said. “When I read the (Hackley) story, I was particularly impressed by the language the school was using … validating what had happened.”
On Thursday, Hackley sent a letter to parents and alumni revealing that several students had been abused by a school employee, now dead, back in the 1960s.
Hackley is a different school now than it was in the 1960s and ’70s. Author Alec Wilkinson, who graduated in 1970, remembers it as a haven from the confusion and unhappiness of his adolescence. He was a day student, he said, and removed from whatever was going on with the boarding school side of things. The revelations of abuse surprised him, he said.
“It was a haven for a number of delightfully odd and eccentric people, students and faculty,” he recalled. “It was a refuge when I was there. It was … the four best years of my life.”
At the Waldorf school, a former student revealed in a memoir last year that she’d been abused by a teacher there years ago, prompting another former student to come forward with a similar experience involving the same teacher. Hackley’s letter followed an investigation begun after former students came forward, the school said.
Radio talk show hostess Alexa Servodidio, a clinical social worker and therapist with offices in Mamaroneck, said the type of abuse, the duration, the relationship between abuser and abused and what support victims get if they come forward all determine how well they react long term to the abuse, but that certain things generally ring true in child sex-abuse victims over time.
Many have trust issues and difficulties setting boundaries. Many have relationship problems, either because they are too trusting or too suspicious, too emotional or too closed off, she said.
“The rawness of the emotion in dealing with how toxic and painful these can be doesn’t diminish with time,” Hochstadt said. “If someone finds themselves able to deal with what happened to them, and you have the proper support, it’s possible to mitigate those feelings and actions. The goal of this kind of work is giving people a safe space to process the awful things that have happened to them and give validation that it was an awful thing that happened and they did nothing to deserve this.”
GA bill will extend SOL for child sex abuse, victims respond
/in Georgia /by SOL ReformGA bill will extend SOL for child sex abuse, victims respond
For immediate release: Friday, February 28, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)
A proposed bill in George would extend the statute of limitation for child sex crimes 7 years. This is a step in the right direction, but stronger action is needed.
http://www.wsav.com/story/
House Bill 771, which was passed by a House Judiciary Committee, would give victims of child sexual assault and additional 7 years to file lawsuits. As the law stands now victims only have 5 years after they turn 18. Under the new law victims will have until they are 30 years old.
We are glad this small step in the right direction was taken and that lawmakers are acknowledging that many victims of child sexual abuse take years to report their abuse, due to the extreme trauma. We are sure that this law will help many younger people who were abused as kids, but it does nothing for older people.
Statute of limitations in child sex crimes only protect dangerous predators who more often than not will hurt more than one child. To help prevent future crimes removing the statute of limitations is necessary or at least offering a window.
We hope this bill will pass the full house and open the door for even better protection for children and justice for victims in the future.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 15,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website isSNAPnetwork.org)
Contact – David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)
Child sex abuse royal commission: Hearings to put spotlight on abuse at Parramatta and Hay girls homes
/in International /by SOL ReformChild sex abuse royal commission: Hearings to put spotlight on abuse at Parramatta and Hay girls homes
Updated Thu 27 Feb 2014, 10:23am AEDT
The child sex abuse royal commission will today hear the stories of women who were abused at two state-run institutions for girls in New South Wales.
The commission will hear evidence of abuse from 16 women who were sent as children to live at Parramatta Girls Training School in Sydney and Hay Institution for Girls, in the Riverina region, between 1950 and 1974.
Former residents have not been compensated for the abuse they endured as many did not make formal complaints at the time.
For its seventh public hearing, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will also look into the statute of limitations for such claims.
Commission chief executive Janette Dines describes the women’s stories of rape and physical abuse at the homes as shocking.
“What we know and the commission will likely hear evidence about is that there was severe physical abuse that accompanied sexual abuse, that the conditions in the homes themselves were very poor, that there was emotional abuse, and often there was the use of pharmaceuticals to control the girls’ behaviour,” she said.
The home at Parramatta opened in 1887, while the Hay facility opened in 1961 as a place to send Parramatta residents for extra discipline or punishment. Both closed in 1974.
Former residents say it will be a relief to give evidence and speak out about physical abuse and rape that allegedly occurred at the homes.
Sharyn Kennedy, who spent time at both institutions, says the lives of many former residents were ruined as they turned to drug addiction, prostitution or suicide, but for others it is now time to speak out.
“The reason why these stories haven’t been heard before is because we were girls that went through a situation of shame – absolute shame,” she said.
“I became an entertainer, a singer, and there was no way ever that I was ever going to come out of the woodwork and tell people my story. Never.”
Shocking accounts of gang rape and physical abuse
Up to half of the girls sent to the Parramatta and Hay homes were Indigenous, and Ms Dines says this case is the first chance for a significant number of Aboriginal women to tell their stories.
“Around rape, around gang rape for example, and extreme physical abuse accompanying the sexual abuse,” she said.
Ms Kennedy was not sexually abused during her time at either facility but says she was physically abused.
She heard stories of sexual abuse allegedly carried out by male officers at Parramatta, including of girls who were taken to other sections of the institution and “shared around” the officers and their friends.
“Considering it was all run by the department of child welfare, I don’t know where the best interests of the child were in those circumstances,” Ms Kennedy said.
“I really just don’t know how people got away with that sort of thing – and they did.”
Since it began in September last year, the commission has held public hearings into the responses to shocking allegations of sexual abuse by a range of respected institutions across Australia, from the Catholic Church to the Salvation Army, Scouts Australia and the YMCA.
May 3 event!
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformAction Alert in PA: Support the The Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation (S.E.S.A.M.E.) Act
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformPlease support in ensuring the safety of Pennsylvania’s students from educator sexual misconduct. Senate Bill 46, The Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation (S.E.S.A.M.E.) Act, seeks to put a stop to the practice of ‘Passing the Trash’ in Pennsylvania. One last hurdle remains for this bipartisan bill to become law, and we need help from organizations like yours to make it happen.
Please, tell leaders of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that the S.E.S.A.M.E. Act must be passed without delay, and consider joining S.E.S.A.M.E. and lawmakers at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 10:00am as we rally for the safety and welfare of our children.
Contact Your Rep: http://sol-reform.com/news/pennsylvania/#rep
And, please help us disseminate this message by sharing it with your social media contacts/followers and your members in Pennsylvania.
For more information on S.E.S.A.M.E. and Senate Bill 46, please visit http://www.sesamenet.org/
11 Pa. Coaches Charged With Abuse in Last 3 Years
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL Reform11 Pa. Coaches Charged With Abuse in Last 3 Years
Eleven youth coaches in the Philadelphia area have been charged with attempting or having sexual contact with a player over the last three years, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday.
The paper said that its investigation found that eight of the coaches have admitted the crimes, two others are awaiting trial, and one killed himself. The coaches who have faced the allegations ranged in age from 24 to 52. Ten are men and one is a woman.
Experts said the number of arrests in such cases has increased, partly because of a heightened awareness after the sexual abuse prosecution of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach. But they say the rate of assaults has likely remained the same.
Mike Matta, a guidance counselor and head football coach at Downingtown East, told the Inquirer that “I see people hanging around our practices, and I ask, `Who is that?’ Ten years, ago I wouldn’t have asked.”
Kate Staley of the Penn State Justice Center for Research said schools and parents seem to be waking up to the potential for such abuse.
Other experts said a key danger sign is a coach who singles out a player for special attention.
“It always starts with an overt interest in a child singled out from the rest of the group,” said Tammy Lerner, vice president of the Bryn Mawr-based Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse.
Copyright Associated Press
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.
Hackley sex-abuse case: Psychologists reflect on decades-old revelations
/in New York /by SOL ReformHackley sex-abuse case: Psychologists reflect on decades-old revelations
It’s no surprise that public reports of adult sexual abuse of children draw out victims who may have hidden the assaults for decades, experts say.
“Despite the fact this is so widespread in our society, no one talks about this,” said Julia Hochstadt, a therapist and licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Manhattan who specializes in working with child sex-abuse victims. “Acknowledg(ing) that something did, in fact, happen to them … sets the stage for people to come forward and talk about something that did happen to them, even 50 years ago.”
Recent reports that trusted adults had sexually abused their charges at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge and the Hackley School in Tarrytown back in the 1960s and 1970s are the latest revelations in what is becoming an avalanche of sex-abuse exposure.
Sexual victims of religious leaders, teachers and club leaders are coming forward long after the statutes of limitations have run out on legal remedies to demand that institutions at least acknowledge that they were preyed upon.
What drives any victim to denounce their attacker is personal, but the sudden onslaught of accusations could be driven by the change in people’s attitudes about sexual abuse itself, psychologists said. Research over the past half century has looked at the long-term consequences of child sexual abuse and there are now legal consequences for ignoring any type of abuse, from domestic violence to child rape.
“I think that (views) about sexuality in general have changed in the past 50 to 60 years,” Hochstadt said. “When I read the (Hackley) story, I was particularly impressed by the language the school was using … validating what had happened.”
On Thursday, Hackley sent a letter to parents and alumni revealing that several students had been abused by a school employee, now dead, back in the 1960s.
Hackley is a different school now than it was in the 1960s and ’70s. Author Alec Wilkinson, who graduated in 1970, remembers it as a haven from the confusion and unhappiness of his adolescence. He was a day student, he said, and removed from whatever was going on with the boarding school side of things. The revelations of abuse surprised him, he said.
“It was a haven for a number of delightfully odd and eccentric people, students and faculty,” he recalled. “It was a refuge when I was there. It was … the four best years of my life.”
At the Waldorf school, a former student revealed in a memoir last year that she’d been abused by a teacher there years ago, prompting another former student to come forward with a similar experience involving the same teacher. Hackley’s letter followed an investigation begun after former students came forward, the school said.
Radio talk show hostess Alexa Servodidio, a clinical social worker and therapist with offices in Mamaroneck, said the type of abuse, the duration, the relationship between abuser and abused and what support victims get if they come forward all determine how well they react long term to the abuse, but that certain things generally ring true in child sex-abuse victims over time.
Many have trust issues and difficulties setting boundaries. Many have relationship problems, either because they are too trusting or too suspicious, too emotional or too closed off, she said.
“The rawness of the emotion in dealing with how toxic and painful these can be doesn’t diminish with time,” Hochstadt said. “If someone finds themselves able to deal with what happened to them, and you have the proper support, it’s possible to mitigate those feelings and actions. The goal of this kind of work is giving people a safe space to process the awful things that have happened to them and give validation that it was an awful thing that happened and they did nothing to deserve this.”