I blogged recently on a proposed law in Colorado that would lift the statute of limitations for filing sex abuse claims, but only for private institutions, like the Church, leaving public institutions, like schools exempt.
The Denver archdiocese isn’t taking this lying down and has uncovered a previously unknown list of reports of sexual misconduct by Colorado teachers. The list includes 85 reports since 1997. While many had teaching licenses revoked or denied, there was no further punishment for perverts who “prey on grade-schoolers, plying them with love notes ... Teachers who download pornography on their desktop computers while students sit before them…Teachers who encourage students to meet them surreptitiously after school, on out-of-town trips, and who give them marijuana or alcohol in exchange for sex.”
Bishops ignoring and abetting perversions of abusive priests is bad and no one’s trying to excuse that, but the establishment in Colorado is trying to single out the Church as a bad guy, while quietly hiding its own records of sliding things under the rug, while simultaneously exempting itself from civil or criminal liability.
A lot of very powerful and expensive lawyers want this legislation passed so they can file more lawsuits against the archdiocese and force more big settlements, potentially in cases of dubious merit from decades ago where the accused is long dead. This isn’t just about justice for victims. Not when there’s this much money flowing.
A sad situation prevails in Massachusetts. While teachers are required to report incidents of suspicion of sexual abuse, when minor children access a clinic that is under the jurisdiction of the Mass. Dept. of Public Health(MDPH), which includes public school clinics, if the child tests positive for the HIV infection, the MDPH HIV/AIDS Bureau gaurantees the child that no one will be told, including the child’s parents and any legal authority. Since Kevin Cranston, now the Director of the HIV/AIDS Bureau, had stated in Bay Windows:“HIV in youth on rise” July 24,2003,
(http://www.baywindows.com/news/446895.html)
that “young gay men are at particular risk for contracting HIV when they seek out partners in the adult gay community. The higher rate of HIV infection among older gay men in Massachusetts, many of whom Cranston says are experiencing “prevention fatigue” and are less careful about practicing safer sex, puts youth at great risk when they choose adult partners.”
Just think of all the ‘adult partners’ who are never reported and are free to engage in sex acts with youth in Massachusetts! And, of course, if H1641 and S102 bills go through, the children will be told that same-sex sex acts are normal and healthy. The Mass. Teachers’Association(MTA) has been testifying in full support of these bills.