February 20, 2008
· Instead of punishing child molesters, they're simply moved from place to place without anyone getting a heads up. · It takes almost a year-and-a-half to investigate claims of abuse. · If the accused is guilty of touching a minor or accessing porn on a computer, he can continue working provided he sees a shrink. · Even molesters who admit to their crimes are given a second chance. · Those empowered to do the investigation are mandated to seek rehabilitation for the offender. · The investigators are not commissioned from the outside, rather they are all staffed from the inside. · Deals are routinely cut for accused molesters in secret, protecting the identity of the molester from the community. · The accused molesters not only walk, they walk away with cash settlements, health insurance and letters of recommendation—just so long as they agree to get lost. Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows: "The above is taken from a splendid two-part series on the problem of child sexual abuse in the Oregon public schools; it was published on February 17 and 18 in The Oregonian. The same problem—molestation, secret deals, inside investigations, rehab—exists nationwide. Oh, yes, so does the phenomenon of 'passing the trash' to other school districts. "So where's the outcry? If this were the Catholic Church, there would be calls for resignations and punitive measures. It only goes to show that kids don't matter—what matters is the identity of the alleged abuser. "True to form, when a Republican lawmaker in Oregon wanted to suspend rules to deal with this immediately, he was denounced by the Democrats. By the way, of the $53,000 given by the Oregon Education Association to legislators since November 2006, over 90 percent went to the Democrats. Not until the public schools model themselves on Catholic reforms will this problem be checked." Kiera M. McCaffrey
Director of Communications
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
450 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10123
212-371-3191
212-371-3394 (fax)
