NY State is Among the Worst in America for How it Treats Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse — Let Assembly and Senate Leaders Know They Can Change that by Acting Now on the Child Victims Act
Dear Friends:
I am writing to share an essay posted today by the distinguished Cardozo Law School Professor, Marci Hamilton, calling for legislative action on the Child Victims Act of NY (A2872/S63). See the text below and in the PDF that is attached.
New York State is one of the very worst in all of America for how it treats survivors of childhood sexual abuse. We currently rank at the bottom of all 50 states (along with Mississippi, Alabama and Michigan) for restrictive and archaic statutes of limitations that deny victims access to justice and permit pedophiles to remain hidden to continue to molest future generations of children.
After you read Professor Hamilton’s blog post, I ask you to write today to our legislative leaders to insist they bring the Child Victim’ s Act to a vote in the Assembly and the State Senate.
TELL THE ASSEMBLY YOU WANT A VOTE ON CVA NOW: The State Assembly has adopted the Child Victims Act four times in previous sessions. There are 62 sponsors of A2872, more than ever. Please tell Speaker Carl Hastie that A2872 deserves an Assembly floor vote now. Write to:
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
Legislative Office Building, Room 932, Albany, New York 12248
TELL SENATE LEADERS YOU WANT THEM TO ACT ON CVA; The State Senate Codes Committee has scheduled a meeting on June 2nd. Write ask that the committee vote to Senator Brad Hoylman’s bill, S63, to the floor for a vote: Write to:
Senator John Flanagan, Senate Majority Leader
Room 330, State Capitol Building, Albany, NY 12247
These leaders need to know you think action on the Child Victims Act is important in this session. New York State ranks among the very worst in all of America for how it treats victims of childhood sexual abuse and you need to tell them this is outrageous. I am grateful to all those who have already reached out to legislative leaders about CVA in the past few days. But, if you haven’t already, it is important that you reach out now, today, and speak up on behalf of CVA in this session. Please keep me posted on your outreach, letters and media contacts so we can share it with others who support the bill. Contact me atmarkeym@assembly.state.ny.us.
Sincerely, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey
ATTACHMENT: “New York Could Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sexual Abuse” – Professor Marci Hamilton, May 29, 2015
New York Could Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sex Abuse
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015 — There is a glimmer of hope that the New York legislature will take up the issue of child protection by considering the Child Victims Act, A2872 and S63, the first week in June. New York—alongside Alabama, Michigan, and Mississippi–ranks among theworst four states in the United States for access to justice for child sex abuse victims. In other words, New York closes its courts to victims sooner than 46 other states.
The Child Victims Act—originally introduced a decade ago–does only one thing, though it is monumentally important, by eliminating the criminal and civil child sex abuse statute of limitations (SOL) and reviving expired civil SOLs. The silent victims get their day in court (if they want) and the public is informed about the hidden child abusers in the state. Georgia also was among the worst of the worst until it enacted the Hidden Predator Act this year.
New York should strive to join the upper echelon of states that have given victims real opportunities for justice, like California, Delaware, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Not a single one of those states has experienced the sky falling or an explosion in lawsuits or other calamities. But victims in those states have been sent the message that it was not their fault and their state is interested in their welfare. The opposite message has been delivered in New York.
Assemblywoman Marge Markey has worked tirelessly for the last decade to improve the victims’ lot in New York, and the New York Assembly has a decent record on trying to improve the statutes of limitations for child sex abuse. The Assembly passed earlier versions of the Child Victims Act by large margins in 2005, January 2006, June 2006, 2007, and 2008. When the Senate would not even hold hearings or raise the bill in a committee, then-House Majority Leader Sheldon Silver started to refuse backing another vote until the Senate did something.
Five years ago, on June 2, 2010, now-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as Chairman of the Senate Codes, held the one and only vote in committee in the New York Senate so far. I gave him props for opening the discussion in the Senate, where Republicans have been rabidly opposed to letting victims get to court, but in truth it was an exercise in frustration.
Committee members Senators Andrew Lanza and John Flanagancarried on about how religious they are and how they would not want to “hurt” the Catholic Church. Their lack of concern for their abused constituents was stunning. Listening to them, it was apparent that they did not know that most victims are victims of incest and that many predators have over 100 victims over the course of their lives and never age out of abusing kids. In other words, the Church is irrelevant to most abuse and predators are grooming their next victims while the members of the New York legislature fiddle. Or maybe they didn’t care?
In the intervening five years, the CVA has not received any more attention in the Senate, and the Assembly has continued to wait. 2015 appears to be different, however, with the possibility that Senate CodesChairman Michael Nozzolio will bring the bill up for discussion in committee June 2, exactly five years since Schneiderman did. So what has happened in the meantime?
First, victims like Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell have bravely come forward about their abuse in New York.
Second, the Horace Mann Action Coalition refused to let the prestigious Horace Mann School get away with strong-arming its victims and silencing the truth of its cover up of serial pedophiles. Their reportissued this week tells the story of the cover up, the consequences, and prescribes the best means for all private schools to protect children. One of those recommendations: open the SOLs.
Third, the person most heavily invested in blocking New York’s SOL reform—Cardinal Timothy Dolan—was tarred this year when the Seventh Circuit ruled that the $55 million he moved from the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s bank accounts into a so-called cemetery trust to cheat abuse victims could be fraudulent. He also lobbied hard against SOL reform in Wisconsin before moving to New York, so his pathway is strewn with actions that favor the predators over child safety.
Fourth, the Duggar story teaches them that abuse is not limited to institutions. Abuse also thrives in the darkness of family secrets, and in fact incest victims constitute the largest number of victims. Finally, even Georgia is making “progressive” New York look bad.
New York legislators have a simple choice next week: child predators or New York’s children. Let’s let a decade be the maximum timetable for the passage of SOL reform in New York.
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 Reform2015-05-30 02:04:022015-05-30 02:05:07A message from Assemblywoman Margaret Markey
J. Dennis Hastert, who served for eight years as speaker of the House of Representatives, was paying a former student hundreds of thousands of dollars to not say publicly that Mr. Hastert had sexually abused him decades ago, according to two people briefed on the evidence uncovered in an F.B.I. investigation.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced the indictment of Mr. Hastert, 73, on allegations that he made cash withdrawals, totaling $1.7 million, to evade detection by banks. Federal authorities also charged him with lying to them about the purpose of the withdrawals.
The man — who was not identified in court papers — told the F.B.I. that he had been inappropriately touched by Mr. Hastert when the former speaker was a high school teacher and wrestling coach, the two people said Friday. The people briefed on the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a federal investigation.
It was not clear when the suspected behavior, which was first reported by The Los Angeles Times, occurred. Mr. Hastert was a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Ill., from 1965 to 1981, and the indictment said the recipient of the payments was from Yorkville and had known Mr. Hastert for decades.
It was also unclear whether the authorities considered pursuing charges against the man on suspicion of extorting payments from Mr. Hastert in exchange for keeping silent. Such a prosecution would likely have required Mr. Hastert to allege that he was the victim of an extortion. But the indictment said Mr. Hastert denied to the F.B.I. that he was making payments to the individual, saying he withdrew the cash because he no longer trusted the banking system.
Mr. Hastert, a Republican who had a highly lucrative career as a lobbyist since leaving Congress in 2007, could not be reached for comment at his office in Washington. A spokeswoman for the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois said Friday that there was no lawyer of record on file for Mr. Hastert.
The allegations against a man who was once one of the most powerful people in Washington has stunned lobbyists, lawmakers and veteran Capitol Hill staff members who worked alongside him as he rose to become second in line to the presidency in 1999.
“The Denny I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the country,” House Speaker John A. Boehner said in a statement late Friday evening. “I’m shocked and saddened to learn of these reports.”
The indictment also surprised Mr. Hastert’s former students and high school teachers back home in Illinois. Several of them said Friday that they were struggling to make sense of the federal charges against him.
“They are all stunned at the news,” said George Dyche of Aurora, Ill., a coach who competed against Mr. Hastert’s team for years, and worked closely with him to develop the Illinois state wrestling association. “They all say, ‘Are they talking about our Denny?’ ”
In Yorkville, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, Mr. Hastert is a larger-than-life figure, not just because he rose to be speaker of the House, but because the wrestling team he coached at tiny Yorkville High School won the state championship in 1976 — a triumph still listed as a historical event on the town’s official website.
A statement released Friday by the Yorkville Community Unit School District said it had “no knowledge of Mr. Hastert’s alleged misconduct, nor has any individual contacted the district to report any such misconduct. If requested to do so, the district plans to cooperate fully with the U.S. attorney’s investigation into this matter.”
In the lobby of Yorkville High School, where final exams were underway on Friday, Ron Kiesewetter, the principal, referred all questions to office of the school district superintendent.
In his years at Yorkville High School, Mr. Hastert taught a range of topics — history, economics, sociology and speech — but he seemed best known at the school for his efforts to build the wrestling team, the Yorkville Foxes, over more than 15 years.
In Mr. Hastert’s 2004 memoir, “Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics,” Mr. Hastert acknowledged the wrestling squad of 1976, a championship team, on a dedications page.
“While many of our teams did well, you were the very best,” he wrote, addressing the Yorkville Foxes of 1976. “For me, winning the state championship was among the finest moments of my life. So many of the fine athletes I had the good fortune to coach are today raising and coaching boys and girls of their own. They’re mentoring the next generation. For me, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Mr. Hastert also worked with the Boy Scouts for 16 years, according to an address he gave in 2008 to a Boy Scout group at Pikes Peak in Colorado.
“We did a lot of neat things,” he said to the group, including taking high-school-aged boys on trips to the Bahamas, the Grand Canyon and float trips on the Green River in Utah. “I saw those kids develop and meet challenges and change,” he said.
Yearbooks from Mr. Hastert’s tenure at the high school said he also was an adviser to the Yorkville Explorer Post 540, and had traveled in the late 1960s with the Explorers to the Bahamas for a week, as well as on a canoe trip to Canada.
“He is now planning a trip for the future around the world,” the Mi-Y-Hi of 1970, the school’s yearbook, said.
In 1979, the yearbook noted the wrestling team’s successful season — a record of 16-6 — and Mr. Hastert’s having finished his 14th year as coach, ending up “one meet short of 200 varsity wins.”
Mr. Dyche said Mr. Hastert helped build the sport in his home state, was president of the wrestling association and started a state wrestling newspaper called The Word in the 1970s. Mr. Hastert still regularly attends Big 10 Conference collegiate wrestling championships, said Mr. Dyche, who said he saw him there this year.
“He was a quiet guy in the corner, not a yelling, screaming coach, very pragmatic, cool under fire,” Mr. Dyche said. “I would go up after losing to him and say: ‘Damn it, you did it again. I know what your kids are going to do, but my kids still couldn’t stop them.’ ”
Mr. Dyche said Mr. Hastert “ruled his program with a calm but firm hand. He was extremely successful and respected.” And he said he was stunned by the allegations.
“Of all the people in the world, it’s not the Denny Hastert I know,” Mr. Dyche said. “He was a man of character, a pillar in the community.”
Mr. Hastert was already an affluent man during his service in the House, largely from land holding, according to financial disclosure forms.
He owned land in Kendall County, Ill., a farm in Wisconsin, and a home and property in Plano, Ill., worth between $3 million and $15 million, along with savings and investment accounts worth as much as $310,000. His cash income while in office consisted of a congressional salary of $212,100 and an Illinois pension of $34,000.
His pay soared after he left Congress and opened his own lobbying firm. He also worked for Dickstein Shapiro, where he lobbied for Lorillard Tobacco, Peabody Energy, Bridgepoint Education and an Illinois real estate developer.
The indictment said that in 2010, after several meetings, Mr. Hastert agreed to pay the unidentified man $3.5 million “in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against” him. The authorities alleged that Mr. Hastert structured the cash withdrawals, totaling $1.7 million so far, in increments designed to avoid bank reporting requirements.
Kim Nerheim, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office, said Friday that Mr. Hastert’s case had been assigned to Judge Thomas M. Durkin of Federal District Court, who will schedule an arraignment for the former speaker, perhaps as early as next week.
Preliminary bail in Mr. Hastert’s case was set at $4,500, according to court documents.
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 Reform2015-05-30 01:33:372015-05-30 01:33:37Michael d. Shear and Michael S. Schmidt, Hastert Case Is Said to Be Linked to Decades-Old Sexual Abuse, NY Times
The war against child sex abuse received an infusion of weapons and power when the Boston Globe revealed the pattern of the cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy in 2001. With horror, the world witnessed secondhand the bishops shuffling pedophiles among parishes and fresh child victims. That same pattern has emerged in state after state, like Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia District Attorneys Lynne Abraham and Seth Williams put together thorough documentation in 2005 and 2011 Grand Jury Reports, and Minnesota, where statute of limitations reform has opened the door to the justice system that in turn has revealed the specifics of the cover-up. The unfolding story has also been told in Australia and Ireland.
These revelations painted a paradigm of adults letting children be abused by other adults. I call it “adult preferentialism.” As adults, we are persuaded that our interests (e.g., reputations and jobs and relationships) are much more important than the needs of children. We worry about the long-lasting effects on our reputations, but expect the kids to “get over it.” It is shocking when revealed, but that paradigm has played itself out in one venue after another since 2001, including (1) multiples of religious organizations from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the ultra-Orthodox Jews, and (2) sports programs from Penn State football to Olympic swimming andspeedskating.
Then elite private schools like Poly Prep and Horace Mann came into the spotlight, as well as public schools. Horace Mann is in the news this week because a coalition of alumnae and experts like Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, Charol Shakeshaft, and I banded together to find a way to make sure the serial abuse at Horace Mann and the institution’s hardhearted response did not happen at any other private schools. The Horace Mann Action Coalition issued a scathing report this week, replete with important guidelines for private schools.
The Irony Underlying All of these Revelations About Child Sex Abuse: Most Abuse Happens in the Home
While we learned about, discussed, and reacted to the abuse in all of these “safe” venues, the abuse that occurs the most remained unspoken: Incest. There was a time when all sex abuse discussions were taboo; that taboo has persisted with respect to family-on-family abuse. Incest is the last frontier for child sex abuse.
These victims are in many ways the most vulnerable, because they rely for the very roof over their heads and the food on their tables on family members who are either perpetrating the abuse or not rescuing them from it. Not to mention the love of family: We have a cultural expectation (for realists, a hope) that children are in safe, loving homes. That is obviously not true when a parent or both are alcoholics or drug addicts. But when the issue is child sex abuse, it usually remains undercover, often quite literally. The child does not understand this is not a normal childhood, suffers shame and humiliation, and the abuse persists right in front of the people closest to the victim.
The Duggar Moment of Public Education on the Reality of Incest
This week, the Duggar family of TLC reality show infamy became the vehicle for the public to start focusing on sibling (and other familial) incest. The Duggars are part of the Christian Patriarchy movement, which counsels that men are the heads of the household, birth control is prohibited, and women should bear as many children as their bodies can stand. In addition, they deliver pious instructions to their young people that suitors may not engage in intimacy—of any kind. (A “side hug”, however, is not considered intimate.)
In this context, Josh Duggar sexually abused five of his sisters. While that is bad enough, that was not the sole issue the public needs to examine. In addition, his father, Jim Bob, covered it up, and the family faith counseled the traditional, religious, and victim-shaming response to such crimes: Forgive and forget.
The hypocrisy of the Duggars’ no-intimacy-before-marriage message after Jim Bob and Michelle knew that their son had sexually abused his sisters in their home is breathtaking. I feel abidingly sad for these girls. The Duggar parents said show after show that girls who have intimate relations with boys before marriage are dirty and unattractive. It reminds me of the abused girls in ultra-Orthodox Jewish homes, where girls have been treated like damaged goods because they were abused. In both communities, girls are trained to believe that marriage is the highest goal, and purity is a pre-requisite to the best marriage. What is a girl to believe in that context?
Moreover, the “forgive and forget” theme is precisely the wrong message to victims, and to young perpetrators like Josh. Studies show that appropriate treatment of an abuser before he or she reaches age 18 radically increases the odds that the abuser will never do it again. The same is not true for youthful abusers who do not receive this treatment.
This was not the first brush this movement has had with sex abuse recently. LeaderBill Gothard was involved in sexual harassment misconduct that involved underage girls and had to step down. Rule of thumb: Male-dominated institutions where men are unaccountable (e.g., Catholic bishops, ultra-Orthodox rabbis, the prophets of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, and men in the Christian Patriarchy movement) mean more suffering for women and less safety for children.
From a public education perspective, the important moment in the Duggar scandal is this: It is the first time that major national media publicity has spotlighted revelations that a brother sexually abused multiple girls in his own family. This time, the focus has lasted long enough for the millions of family victims to hear that their abuse and suffering need not be secret forever. Finally, the public has been shown the reality that abuse happens in families, that they cover it up, that public declarations of “purity” can be false, and that the victims can remain voiceless and faceless as they have with the Duggars. I hope that this reality does not sit well with the public.
Every Victim Who Speaks Can and Often Does Embolden Another
One constant in these ongoing revelations and public education about child sex abuse has been that when one victim stands up or when the public learns about abuse in a new setting, other victims are often emboldened to step into the light from the shadow of shame and humiliation. They hear and see that we as a society blame the perpetrator and institution, not them. They deserve our sympathy and support, not the judgment they have unconsciously expected. In short, it was not their fault. They were kids.
While the Duggar girls have every right to choose when to speak about their abuse, if ever, other survivors are taking this moment to speak up. Accordingly, it is good to see the #CallThemOut social media movement; survivors are increasingly refusing to keep secret the abusers in the inner circles of their families and classrooms.
I expect that the Duggar disclosures will stir many among the millions of incest victims in the United States to step up. When they do, they may well protect the next generation of children, because the child abuser who starts with one family member not infrequently moves on to another, as Josh Duggar apparently did. This can go on sometimes for generations. Adult abusers don’t age out of their abusive tendencies, and they rarely disclose if they can avoid it.
Sadly, the justice system did nothing to redress what Josh Duggar did, in part due to the inadequacies of the Arkansas statute of limitations. A court has destroyed the records, and the report was made too late for prosecutors to go forward, according to them. Instead, the Duggar family profited from the secrets kept while Americans were misled into thinking that their “purity” was real.
What good can come of the Duggar story? We can’t help victims we cannot see. The paradigm of covering up abuse in religious and educational institutions can now be seen in the family. The public needed to hear this message, as well as the message that being righteously religious does not guarantee child safety.
I hope that many more will now be able to see the incest victims silently situated in their abuse and find ways to help them. It is on each and every one of us to ensure the safety of children across all faiths, cultures, jurisdictions, and, yes, even families.
Full article here: https://verdict.justia.com/2015/05/28/the-front-against-child-sex-abuse-expands-to-the-family-josh-duggar-the-duggars-and-what-every-family-should-know-about-incest
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 Reform2015-05-29 03:28:442015-05-29 03:28:44Marci Hamilton, The Front Against Child Sex Abuse Expands to the Family: Josh Duggar, the Duggars, and What Every Family Should Know About Incest, Verdic Justia
There is a glimmer of hope that the New York legislature will take up the issue of child protection by considering the Child Victims Act, A2872 and S63, the first week in June. New York—alongside Alabama, Michigan, and Mississippi–ranks among the worst four states in the United States for access to justice for child sex abuse victims. In other words, New York closes its courts to victims sooner than 46 other states.
The Child Victims Act—originally introduced a decade ago–does only one thing, though it is monumentally important, by eliminating the criminal and civil child sex abuse statute of limitations (SOL) and reviving expired civil SOLs. The silent victims get their day in court (if they want) and the public is informed about the hidden child abusers in the state. Georgia also was among the worst of the worst until it enacted the Hidden Predator Act this year. New Yorkshould strive to join the upper echelon of states that have given victims real opportunities for justice, like California, Delaware, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Not a single one of those states has experienced the sky falling or an explosion in lawsuits or other calamities. But victims in those states have been sent the message that it was not their fault and their state is interested in their welfare. The opposite message has been delivered in New York.
Assemblywoman Marge Markey has worked tirelessly for the last decade to improve the victims’ lot in New York, and the New York Assembly has a decent record on trying to improve the statutes of limitations for child sex abuse. The Assembly passed earlier versions of the Child Victims Act by large margins in 2005, January 2006, June 2006, 2007, and 2008. When the Senate would not even hold hearings or raise the bill in a committee, then-House Majority Leader Sheldon Silver started to refuse backing another vote until the Senate did something.
Five years ago, on June 2, 2010, now-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as Chairman of the Senate Codes, held the one and only vote in committee in the New York Senate so far. I gave him props for opening the discussion in the Senate, where Republicans have been rabidly opposed to letting victims get to court, but in truth it was an exercise in frustration. Committee members Senators Andrew Lanza and John Flanagan carried on about how religious they are and how they would not want to “hurt” the Catholic Church. Their lack of concern for their abused constituents was stunning. Listening to them, it was apparent that they did not know that most victims are victims of incest and that many predators have over 100 victims over the course of their lives and never age out of abusing kids. In other words, the Church is irrelevant to most abuse and predators are grooming their next victims while the members of the New York legislature fiddle. Or maybe they didn’t care?
In the intervening five years, the CVA has not received any more attention in the Senate, and the Assembly has continued to wait. 2015 appears to be different, however, with the possibility that Senate Codes Chairman Michael Nozzolio will bring the bill up for discussion in committee June 2, exactly five years since Schneiderman did. So what has happened in the meantime?
First, victims like Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell have bravely come forward about their abuse in New York. Second, the Horace Mann Action Coalition refused to let the prestigious Horace Mann School get away with strong-arming its victims and silencing the truth of its cover up of serial pedophiles. Their report issued this week tells the story of the cover up, the consequences, and prescribes the best means for all private schools to protect children. One of those recommendations: open the SOLs. Third, the person most heavily invested in blocking New York’s SOL reform—Cardinal Timothy Dolan—was tarred this year when the Seventh Circuit ruled that the $55 million he moved from the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s bank accounts into a so-called cemetery trust to cheat abuse victims could be fraudulent. He also lobbied hard against SOL reform in Wisconsin before moving to New York, so his pathway is strewn with actions that favor the predators over child safety. Fourth, the Duggar story teaches them that abuse is not limited to institutions. Abuse also thrives in the darkness of family secrets, and in factincestvictims constitute the largest number of victims. Finally, even Georgia is making “progressive” New York look bad.
New York legislators have a simple choice next week: child predators or New York’s children. Let’s let a decade be the maximum timetable for the passage of SOL reform in New York.
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 Reform2015-05-29 03:13:082015-05-29 03:13:08Marci Hamilton, Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sex Abuse, Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
I watch the Duggar’s show, 19 Kids and Counting. A lot. A year ago, after the birth of my second child in two years, I watched marathons of the show in the wee hours of the morning while feeding my newborn son. Knowing that Michelle Duggar had done this 19 times was strangely comforting during a period when I was completely overwhelmed with two babies of my own.
I also come from a conservative, religious family that has spent some time in the spotlight. I am part of a family classical music group, The 5 Browns. We’ve performed concerts all over the world, been interviewed on pretty much every news magazine format and entertainment television show you can think of and participated in hundreds of interviews for print magazines and newspapers all over the world. That’s the kind of thing it takes to become only mildly “famous.” And I cringe just using the word because it feels false. The Duggar’s fame, on the other hand, has really blown up in the last few years. Several times a week they are all over People Magazine and other celebrity news outlets. As I followed the show, I thought this was an extremely precarious situation for them to be in. They projected themselves as the Christian ideal and I suspected something was terribly off.
The 5 Browns (from left to right: Melody, Gregory, Deondra, Desirae, Ryan)
The 5 Browns (from left to right: Melody, Gregory, Deondra, Desirae, Ryan)
Four years ago my family’s private life blew up in our faces and all over the media. My two sisters and I had been sexually abused by our father when we were children and teenagers. When we initially decided to prosecute we wanted it to be done as quietly as possible. My parents presented themselves, my siblings and I as the perfect Mormon family. We suspected it wouldn’t go well for us if news of the abuse somehow became public. Then my dad, with my mom as passenger, drove off a nearly 500 foot cliff in a Utah canyon. They both survived but what followed was a media firestorm that lasted until my father pleaded guilty to the sex abuse charges 6 weeks later.
I don’t know exactly what the Duggars are going through but I can take a pretty good guess. Within hours of the media hearing about my parent’s accident, press outlets had connected the dots, were requesting the sex-abuse police reports, and were piecing together who the victims were. In the days and weeks that followed my siblings and I had every national news outlet hounding our publicist and us, personally, for interviews. We each had cameras at the front doors of our homes. I remember hiding in my house with all the blinds shut wondering how I could ever go out in the real world again. I grew up in a culture that obsessively valued chastity and moral pureness. I remember feeling such shame and embarrassment that everyone I knew would know about this. I have no doubt the Duggar girls are feeling something similar. At this moment they probably just want it all to go away. But it won’t. Just as the abuse (that they want forgotten so badly they requested the police reports to be expunged) will never truly go away. Trying to forget these types of crimes won’t actually heal a victim. Christian culture pressures victims to “forgive” before being allowed the years it takes to work through the pain of sexual abuse. I know because I lived through that type of pressure. But I broke through the expectations of conservative christian culture and fought back.
Right now Josh Duggar and the Duggar parents are publicly trying to minimize the abuse by inferring that it was the folly of youth. Sexual abuse is a crime, whether the perpetrator is 14, 40 or 90 years old. One wouldn’t expect age or time to exonerate a murderer yet the public frequently excuses sex abuse and rape of a child as being “so long ago.” Frequently, some uneducated people think sex abuse victims should just be over it by now. Well, times are changing. Those statutes of limitations that have let Josh Duggar live in the world as a free man will soon be eliminated. Several states have begun eliminating the statute of limitations in sex abuse cases. Utah is one of those states. My sisters and I prosecuted in Utah and my father was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison. The Foundation for Survivors of Abuse is making progress and working hard to ensure that every victim in every state will have the option to prosecute.
I feel for the Duggar girls. They have lived, and will continue to live, with a lot of pain, expectation and pressure. The press exposure will completely exacerbate all of the above. What they are going through with media exposure right now is 200x what my siblings and I went through, and I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. Living in such a conservative, isolating environment will make true healing complicated. But they are girls and women of character. Maybe someday, years from now, they will take a true accounting of what they’ve been through. They will realize that what they’ve been through is neither good or bad but TRUE. Maybe they can claim the truth one day. If I could give them any advice right now I would tell them to hold their heads high. You have nothing to be ashamed of – HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH.
Full article here: http://survivingabuse.org/blog-post/2015/5/26/what-the-duggars-are-going-through
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 Reform2015-05-29 03:05:442015-05-29 03:05:44Desirae Brown, I Know Much of What the Duggars are Going Through, Surviving Abuse
In June 2012, the New York Times revealed four decades of sexual abuse at the Horace Mann School. Subsequent investigation revealed how a secretive administration turned a blind eye to reports of abuse from the earliest days. Students and parents who came forward were ignored or intimidated. Known serial abusers were kept on for decades or quietly shuffled off to teach elsewhere.
Though the abuse has likely ceased, the silence that abetted it continues. The school has refused to investigate these horrific events. Because of the statute of limitations, no criminal prosecution is possible. In their stead, a group of alumni have taken it upon themselves to organize this independent investigation.
Our goal is not to rehash or accuse, but simply to understand how more than twenty abusers operated for decades with little fear of reprisal. What were the policies and practices that, intentionally or not, shielded and enabled them? Most importantly, what can this tragedy teach us about making other schools safe?
Though what happened at Horace Mann cannot be undone, we hope the lessons gleaned from our investigation and oultined in our report can make schools and students everywhere safer.
THE REPORT
This report is the only comprehensive account of a half-century of abuse and coverup at the Horace Mann School. It was commissioned so that the causes could be understood rather than the acts simply lamented.
We encourage you to read the sections that are of greatest interest and relevance to you, paying particular attention to how the Findings, Recommendations and Best Practices sections relate to schools where you may be a parent, alumnus, student, faculty or staff.
Sexual Abuse at Horace Mann:
An investigation into sexual abuse at the Horace Mann School
with recommendations for how independent schools can protect our children.
Introduction
I. Report Narrative
The main section of the report is a case study, which we hope will be used as a teaching tool in educational administration and leadership programs. It is intended not only as a comprehensive record but as the basis for discussions about educational policy, leadership and ethics. The section was written by Laura Winig, who has written many such studies for the Kennedy School of Government and other institutions.
II. Comparative Analysis
A survey of recent incidents at comparable independent schools, prepared by Suzanne Leinwand under the direction of Cardozo Law Professor Marci Hamilton.
III. Best Practices for Prevention of Sexual Abuse
A distillation of widely accepted policies to protect students. It is based on the research by Professor Charol Shakeshaft of Virginia Commonwealth University, an expert in student sex abuse prevention.
IV. Findings & Recommendations
Prepared by Lead Investigator Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, this section delineates the results of the investigation and makes recommendations for improving the safety of students at all schools.
V. Appendices
The Appendices contain additional information about student sexual abuse at Horace Mann and other similar schools, including a List of Reports of Abuse received by the Horace Mann Administration.
A message from Assemblywoman Margaret Markey
/in New York /by SOL ReformNY State is Among the Worst in America for How it Treats Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse — Let Assembly and Senate Leaders Know They Can Change that by Acting Now on the Child Victims Act
Dear Friends:
I am writing to share an essay posted today by the distinguished Cardozo Law School Professor, Marci Hamilton, calling for legislative action on the Child Victims Act of NY (A2872/S63). See the text below and in the PDF that is attached.
New York State is one of the very worst in all of America for how it treats survivors of childhood sexual abuse. We currently rank at the bottom of all 50 states (along with Mississippi, Alabama and Michigan) for restrictive and archaic statutes of limitations that deny victims access to justice and permit pedophiles to remain hidden to continue to molest future generations of children.
After you read Professor Hamilton’s blog post, I ask you to write today to our legislative leaders to insist they bring the Child Victim’ s Act to a vote in the Assembly and the State Senate.
TELL THE ASSEMBLY YOU WANT A VOTE ON CVA NOW: The State Assembly has adopted the Child Victims Act four times in previous sessions. There are 62 sponsors of A2872, more than ever. Please tell Speaker Carl Hastie that A2872 deserves an Assembly floor vote now. Write to:
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
Legislative Office Building, Room 932, Albany, New York 12248
Speaker@assembly.state.ny.us
TELL SENATE LEADERS YOU WANT THEM TO ACT ON CVA; The State Senate Codes Committee has scheduled a meeting on June 2nd. Write ask that the committee vote to Senator Brad Hoylman’s bill, S63, to the floor for a vote: Write to:
Senator John Flanagan, Senate Majority Leader
Room 330, State Capitol Building, Albany, NY 12247
Flanagan@nysenate.gov
Senator Michael F. Nozzolio, Senate Codes Committee Chair
Capitol, 188 State Street, Room 503, Albany, NY 12247
Nozzolio@nysenate.gov
These leaders need to know you think action on the Child Victims Act is important in this session. New York State ranks among the very worst in all of America for how it treats victims of childhood sexual abuse and you need to tell them this is outrageous. I am grateful to all those who have already reached out to legislative leaders about CVA in the past few days. But, if you haven’t already, it is important that you reach out now, today, and speak up on behalf of CVA in this session. Please keep me posted on your outreach, letters and media contacts so we can share it with others who support the bill. Contact me atmarkeym@assembly.state.ny.us.
Sincerely, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey
ATTACHMENT: “New York Could Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sexual Abuse” – Professor Marci Hamilton, May 29, 2015
New York Could Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sex Abuse
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015 — There is a glimmer of hope that the New York legislature will take up the issue of child protection by considering the Child Victims Act, A2872 and S63, the first week in June. New York—alongside Alabama, Michigan, and Mississippi–ranks among theworst four states in the United States for access to justice for child sex abuse victims. In other words, New York closes its courts to victims sooner than 46 other states.
The Child Victims Act—originally introduced a decade ago–does only one thing, though it is monumentally important, by eliminating the criminal and civil child sex abuse statute of limitations (SOL) and reviving expired civil SOLs. The silent victims get their day in court (if they want) and the public is informed about the hidden child abusers in the state. Georgia also was among the worst of the worst until it enacted the Hidden Predator Act this year.
New York should strive to join the upper echelon of states that have given victims real opportunities for justice, like California, Delaware, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Not a single one of those states has experienced the sky falling or an explosion in lawsuits or other calamities. But victims in those states have been sent the message that it was not their fault and their state is interested in their welfare. The opposite message has been delivered in New York.
Assemblywoman Marge Markey has worked tirelessly for the last decade to improve the victims’ lot in New York, and the New York Assembly has a decent record on trying to improve the statutes of limitations for child sex abuse. The Assembly passed earlier versions of the Child Victims Act by large margins in 2005, January 2006, June 2006, 2007, and 2008. When the Senate would not even hold hearings or raise the bill in a committee, then-House Majority Leader Sheldon Silver started to refuse backing another vote until the Senate did something.
Five years ago, on June 2, 2010, now-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as Chairman of the Senate Codes, held the one and only vote in committee in the New York Senate so far. I gave him props for opening the discussion in the Senate, where Republicans have been rabidly opposed to letting victims get to court, but in truth it was an exercise in frustration.
Committee members Senators Andrew Lanza and John Flanagancarried on about how religious they are and how they would not want to “hurt” the Catholic Church. Their lack of concern for their abused constituents was stunning. Listening to them, it was apparent that they did not know that most victims are victims of incest and that many predators have over 100 victims over the course of their lives and never age out of abusing kids. In other words, the Church is irrelevant to most abuse and predators are grooming their next victims while the members of the New York legislature fiddle. Or maybe they didn’t care?
In the intervening five years, the CVA has not received any more attention in the Senate, and the Assembly has continued to wait. 2015 appears to be different, however, with the possibility that Senate CodesChairman Michael Nozzolio will bring the bill up for discussion in committee June 2, exactly five years since Schneiderman did. So what has happened in the meantime?
First, victims like Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell have bravely come forward about their abuse in New York.
Second, the Horace Mann Action Coalition refused to let the prestigious Horace Mann School get away with strong-arming its victims and silencing the truth of its cover up of serial pedophiles. Their reportissued this week tells the story of the cover up, the consequences, and prescribes the best means for all private schools to protect children. One of those recommendations: open the SOLs.
Third, the person most heavily invested in blocking New York’s SOL reform—Cardinal Timothy Dolan—was tarred this year when the Seventh Circuit ruled that the $55 million he moved from the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s bank accounts into a so-called cemetery trust to cheat abuse victims could be fraudulent. He also lobbied hard against SOL reform in Wisconsin before moving to New York, so his pathway is strewn with actions that favor the predators over child safety.
Fourth, the Duggar story teaches them that abuse is not limited to institutions. Abuse also thrives in the darkness of family secrets, and in fact incest victims constitute the largest number of victims. Finally, even Georgia is making “progressive” New York look bad.
New York legislators have a simple choice next week: child predators or New York’s children. Let’s let a decade be the maximum timetable for the passage of SOL reform in New York.
http://hamilton-griffin.com/new-york-could-rise-this-year-out-of-last-place-in-the-protection-of-children-from-child-sex-abuse/
Contact These Legislative Leaders 5-29-15 – Legislature Could Provide Hope for NY Child Sex Abuse Victims
Michael d. Shear and Michael S. Schmidt, Hastert Case Is Said to Be Linked to Decades-Old Sexual Abuse, NY Times
/in Illinois /by SOL ReformMarci Hamilton, The Front Against Child Sex Abuse Expands to the Family: Josh Duggar, the Duggars, and What Every Family Should Know About Incest, Verdic Justia
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformThe war against child sex abuse received an infusion of weapons and power when the Boston Globe revealed the pattern of the cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy in 2001. With horror, the world witnessed secondhand the bishops shuffling pedophiles among parishes and fresh child victims. That same pattern has emerged in state after state, like Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia District Attorneys Lynne Abraham and Seth Williams put together thorough documentation in 2005 and 2011 Grand Jury Reports, and Minnesota, where statute of limitations reform has opened the door to the justice system that in turn has revealed the specifics of the cover-up. The unfolding story has also been told in Australia and Ireland.
These revelations painted a paradigm of adults letting children be abused by other adults. I call it “adult preferentialism.” As adults, we are persuaded that our interests (e.g., reputations and jobs and relationships) are much more important than the needs of children. We worry about the long-lasting effects on our reputations, but expect the kids to “get over it.” It is shocking when revealed, but that paradigm has played itself out in one venue after another since 2001, including (1) multiples of religious organizations from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the ultra-Orthodox Jews, and (2) sports programs from Penn State football to Olympic swimming andspeedskating.
Then elite private schools like Poly Prep and Horace Mann came into the spotlight, as well as public schools. Horace Mann is in the news this week because a coalition of alumnae and experts like Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, Charol Shakeshaft, and I banded together to find a way to make sure the serial abuse at Horace Mann and the institution’s hardhearted response did not happen at any other private schools. The Horace Mann Action Coalition issued a scathing report this week, replete with important guidelines for private schools.
The Irony Underlying All of these Revelations About Child Sex Abuse: Most Abuse Happens in the Home
While we learned about, discussed, and reacted to the abuse in all of these “safe” venues, the abuse that occurs the most remained unspoken: Incest. There was a time when all sex abuse discussions were taboo; that taboo has persisted with respect to family-on-family abuse. Incest is the last frontier for child sex abuse.
These victims are in many ways the most vulnerable, because they rely for the very roof over their heads and the food on their tables on family members who are either perpetrating the abuse or not rescuing them from it. Not to mention the love of family: We have a cultural expectation (for realists, a hope) that children are in safe, loving homes. That is obviously not true when a parent or both are alcoholics or drug addicts. But when the issue is child sex abuse, it usually remains undercover, often quite literally. The child does not understand this is not a normal childhood, suffers shame and humiliation, and the abuse persists right in front of the people closest to the victim.
The Duggar Moment of Public Education on the Reality of Incest
This week, the Duggar family of TLC reality show infamy became the vehicle for the public to start focusing on sibling (and other familial) incest. The Duggars are part of the Christian Patriarchy movement, which counsels that men are the heads of the household, birth control is prohibited, and women should bear as many children as their bodies can stand. In addition, they deliver pious instructions to their young people that suitors may not engage in intimacy—of any kind. (A “side hug”, however, is not considered intimate.)
In this context, Josh Duggar sexually abused five of his sisters. While that is bad enough, that was not the sole issue the public needs to examine. In addition, his father, Jim Bob, covered it up, and the family faith counseled the traditional, religious, and victim-shaming response to such crimes: Forgive and forget.
The hypocrisy of the Duggars’ no-intimacy-before-marriage message after Jim Bob and Michelle knew that their son had sexually abused his sisters in their home is breathtaking. I feel abidingly sad for these girls. The Duggar parents said show after show that girls who have intimate relations with boys before marriage are dirty and unattractive. It reminds me of the abused girls in ultra-Orthodox Jewish homes, where girls have been treated like damaged goods because they were abused. In both communities, girls are trained to believe that marriage is the highest goal, and purity is a pre-requisite to the best marriage. What is a girl to believe in that context?
Moreover, the “forgive and forget” theme is precisely the wrong message to victims, and to young perpetrators like Josh. Studies show that appropriate treatment of an abuser before he or she reaches age 18 radically increases the odds that the abuser will never do it again. The same is not true for youthful abusers who do not receive this treatment.
This was not the first brush this movement has had with sex abuse recently. LeaderBill Gothard was involved in sexual harassment misconduct that involved underage girls and had to step down. Rule of thumb: Male-dominated institutions where men are unaccountable (e.g., Catholic bishops, ultra-Orthodox rabbis, the prophets of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, and men in the Christian Patriarchy movement) mean more suffering for women and less safety for children.
From a public education perspective, the important moment in the Duggar scandal is this: It is the first time that major national media publicity has spotlighted revelations that a brother sexually abused multiple girls in his own family. This time, the focus has lasted long enough for the millions of family victims to hear that their abuse and suffering need not be secret forever. Finally, the public has been shown the reality that abuse happens in families, that they cover it up, that public declarations of “purity” can be false, and that the victims can remain voiceless and faceless as they have with the Duggars. I hope that this reality does not sit well with the public.
Every Victim Who Speaks Can and Often Does Embolden Another
One constant in these ongoing revelations and public education about child sex abuse has been that when one victim stands up or when the public learns about abuse in a new setting, other victims are often emboldened to step into the light from the shadow of shame and humiliation. They hear and see that we as a society blame the perpetrator and institution, not them. They deserve our sympathy and support, not the judgment they have unconsciously expected. In short, it was not their fault. They were kids.
While the Duggar girls have every right to choose when to speak about their abuse, if ever, other survivors are taking this moment to speak up. Accordingly, it is good to see the #CallThemOut social media movement; survivors are increasingly refusing to keep secret the abusers in the inner circles of their families and classrooms.
I expect that the Duggar disclosures will stir many among the millions of incest victims in the United States to step up. When they do, they may well protect the next generation of children, because the child abuser who starts with one family member not infrequently moves on to another, as Josh Duggar apparently did. This can go on sometimes for generations. Adult abusers don’t age out of their abusive tendencies, and they rarely disclose if they can avoid it.
Sadly, the justice system did nothing to redress what Josh Duggar did, in part due to the inadequacies of the Arkansas statute of limitations. A court has destroyed the records, and the report was made too late for prosecutors to go forward, according to them. Instead, the Duggar family profited from the secrets kept while Americans were misled into thinking that their “purity” was real.
What good can come of the Duggar story? We can’t help victims we cannot see. The paradigm of covering up abuse in religious and educational institutions can now be seen in the family. The public needed to hear this message, as well as the message that being righteously religious does not guarantee child safety.
I hope that many more will now be able to see the incest victims silently situated in their abuse and find ways to help them. It is on each and every one of us to ensure the safety of children across all faiths, cultures, jurisdictions, and, yes, even families.
Full article here: https://verdict.justia.com/2015/05/28/the-front-against-child-sex-abuse-expands-to-the-family-josh-duggar-the-duggars-and-what-every-family-should-know-about-incest
Marci Hamilton, Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sex Abuse, Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
/in New York /by SOL ReformThere is a glimmer of hope that the New York legislature will take up the issue of child protection by considering the Child Victims Act, A2872 and S63, the first week in June. New York—alongside Alabama, Michigan, and Mississippi–ranks among the worst four states in the United States for access to justice for child sex abuse victims. In other words, New York closes its courts to victims sooner than 46 other states.
The Child Victims Act—originally introduced a decade ago–does only one thing, though it is monumentally important, by eliminating the criminal and civil child sex abuse statute of limitations (SOL) and reviving expired civil SOLs. The silent victims get their day in court (if they want) and the public is informed about the hidden child abusers in the state. Georgia also was among the worst of the worst until it enacted the Hidden Predator Act this year. New York should strive to join the upper echelon of states that have given victims real opportunities for justice, like California, Delaware, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Not a single one of those states has experienced the sky falling or an explosion in lawsuits or other calamities. But victims in those states have been sent the message that it was not their fault and their state is interested in their welfare. The opposite message has been delivered in New York.
Assemblywoman Marge Markey has worked tirelessly for the last decade to improve the victims’ lot in New York, and the New York Assembly has a decent record on trying to improve the statutes of limitations for child sex abuse. The Assembly passed earlier versions of the Child Victims Act by large margins in 2005, January 2006, June 2006, 2007, and 2008. When the Senate would not even hold hearings or raise the bill in a committee, then-House Majority Leader Sheldon Silver started to refuse backing another vote until the Senate did something.
Five years ago, on June 2, 2010, now-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as Chairman of the Senate Codes, held the one and only vote in committee in the New York Senate so far. I gave him props for opening the discussion in the Senate, where Republicans have been rabidly opposed to letting victims get to court, but in truth it was an exercise in frustration. Committee members Senators Andrew Lanza and John Flanagan carried on about how religious they are and how they would not want to “hurt” the Catholic Church. Their lack of concern for their abused constituents was stunning. Listening to them, it was apparent that they did not know that most victims are victims of incest and that many predators have over 100 victims over the course of their lives and never age out of abusing kids. In other words, the Church is irrelevant to most abuse and predators are grooming their next victims while the members of the New York legislature fiddle. Or maybe they didn’t care?
In the intervening five years, the CVA has not received any more attention in the Senate, and the Assembly has continued to wait. 2015 appears to be different, however, with the possibility that Senate Codes Chairman Michael Nozzolio will bring the bill up for discussion in committee June 2, exactly five years since Schneiderman did. So what has happened in the meantime?
First, victims like Olympic speedskater Bridie Farrell have bravely come forward about their abuse in New York. Second, the Horace Mann Action Coalition refused to let the prestigious Horace Mann School get away with strong-arming its victims and silencing the truth of its cover up of serial pedophiles. Their report issued this week tells the story of the cover up, the consequences, and prescribes the best means for all private schools to protect children. One of those recommendations: open the SOLs. Third, the person most heavily invested in blocking New York’s SOL reform—Cardinal Timothy Dolan—was tarred this year when the Seventh Circuit ruled that the $55 million he moved from the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s bank accounts into a so-called cemetery trust to cheat abuse victims could be fraudulent. He also lobbied hard against SOL reform in Wisconsin before moving to New York, so his pathway is strewn with actions that favor the predators over child safety. Fourth, the Duggar story teaches them that abuse is not limited to institutions. Abuse also thrives in the darkness of family secrets, and in factincest victims constitute the largest number of victims. Finally, even Georgia is making “progressive” New York look bad.
New York legislators have a simple choice next week: child predators or New York’s children. Let’s let a decade be the maximum timetable for the passage of SOL reform in New York.
New York Could Rise This Year Out of Last Place in the Protection of Children from Child Sex Abuse _ Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
Desirae Brown, I Know Much of What the Duggars are Going Through, Surviving Abuse
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformI Know Much of What the Duggars are Going Through
Making Schools Safe
/in Uncategorized /by SOL Reform