Wait, I thought this was exclusively a Catholic problem!? I’m sure we’ll be seeing hundreds of news articles about this, a few movies, and dozens of books on the subject. Oh wait, the elites like public schools so…never mind.
Van Helsing writes:
To evaluate the performance of Comrade Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings, let’s circumvent the establishment media’s Obamunist whitewash and listen to what the British media has to say:
Convicted paedophiles are finding it easy to get jobs in schools because teachers are failing to stop them and hushing up cases of abuse, an official report has found.
December 22, 2010 at 7:08 pm
@Matthew: Kudos for clarifying well.
December 23, 2010 at 1:38 am
Hi Everyone.
There are plenty of studies out there that show how Public schools use their public relations arms to obfuscate the abuse perpetrated by employees. You can look them up, but, like others I don't have a lot of time to link them here.
When I last taught in a public high school, I was standing one day next to the principal during lunch. He wax poetic about how sexy one of the students was. I was shocked. Have those thoughts…maybe. Express them out loud… never. But this man retired with accolades and went on to be a regent of the state university system.
When I quit, mid semester, it was because I knew I could no longer keep my students safe. A month later, a student died outside the doors of my classroom.
This is a quiet town, or was back in the 90's when this happened.
Many may think that individual tales are not representative of the big picture, but you are criminally mistaken.
The hundreds or thousands of victims from abuse from the Catholic Church, are minuscule when compared to the millions of abused children who come out of public schools.
I'm sorry, but that is the truth.
Still I tell you, this is a news media cover-up. Not a Catholic Church payback.
December 23, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Dear TotallyUnhipMom,
Why do we constantly need to beat our chests and re-acknowledge the established fact that it is NOT ok for priests to molest pre-teens and teens (most victims were teens)? We all know that. However, the secular media, in its anti-Catholic vindictiveness, has made this abuse to appear as though it is both an exclusively Catholic problem and extremely rampant in the Church. It is neither, and for purposes of re-education one has to point out this incorrect generalisation. People need to be aware that children are more likely to be abused at home or in the company of a close family friend or at school than at church. This also helps protect children from possible future abuse by people most likely to abuse them – i.e. not Catholic priests but teachers, family members and close friends of the family. Surely you don't want anti-Catholic hate indirectly lead to more abuse as parents' attention is taken away from other sources of abuse? Thank you.
December 23, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Dear Doug,
You said: "I don’t know of anyone who has claimed that child sexual abuse, exploitation or seduction of adolescents is strictly or even mainly a Catholic problem."
I know many people who associate Catholic priests with pedophiles, even though most cases were of homosexual sex between a forceful priest and a post pubertal male. Cases of genuine pedophilia involving pre-pubescent kids including girls also occurred but most were not true pedophilia. When the secular media sensationalizes these abuses but gives no attention to other cases of abuse in other settings the unwashed masses out there will associate priests with child molesters and ultimately all Catholics with child abuse. Yes it happens, I get it all the time in online forums. It's also not a pure American phenomenon either.
Note that I am not defending any molesters of children or young adults. I am pointing out my own experience of the fallout of this affair. I believe it could have been handled better by all parties, including the media. Thank you.