Prep School Ex-Students Call for 2nd Probe Into Abuse Claims

Apart from the seriousness of the issue at hand, we are again dealing with something that really begs a larger question: Where does liability begin and end for protecting a victim, when you neither condone nor encourage nor in any way participate in a crime? Is the school liable to those down the line, for having sent the perpetrators on elsewhere?

Was Joe Paterno or the whole Penn football program guilty?

The Catholic Church did not sanction child abuse. It happened and was handled poorly, repeatedly, but during an era when things were not communicated so openly, before main stream media or round the clock cable news.

Folks find it easier to go after institutions so step back and think of it in a more personal way. How about the family of the child molester in Cleveland who kept 3 girls imprisoned for a decade? Are they to blame because they did not report wrongdoing? SHOULD they have suspected something?

Say there is someone in the next street over from where you live and that person seems like a real creeper. You have seen them cruising the neighborhood slowly in a van with no windows. You have seen lights on way into the night. You have seen them hanging out alone at the community playground. Eventually this person moves out of the neighborhood. Do you breathe a sigh of relief and go on with your life? or do you go to the next community and put the word out to be on watch?

Say the person was tried and convicted and had served their time. Now they move away and they prey on victims in their new community. Should YOU be sued?

I am not making the best arguments here nor am I writing clearly-chasing a few deadlines and shouldn’t even be on CC. Before you react, try to get the point I was trying to make, even if I did not do so eloquently. Once again, where and when does the liability end?

Short answer, yes, the schools are liable. There have been many similar cases in recent years. This is not a theoretical issue for debate.

Search for “Rhode Island child abuse settlements.” http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20141121/news/311219992

In 2002, the Rhode Island diocese reached a $13.5 million settlement with victims (36 lawsuits.) The abuses, from the newspaper’s timeline, seem to fall in the same rough period of time, 70s to 80s.

The Catholic Church has been hit with many lawsuits, due to child abuse. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/settlements/

The courts have found them liable for not reporting abusers.

There are penalties for mandated reporters who do not report child abuse.

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/report.pdf(I left in the sections which apply to Rhode Island. More information at the link.)

In Massachusetts, the District Attorney (in 2004) indicted Groton School’s entire board for failure to report one student’s claim.