Thursday, December 13, 2012

The side of the 80's not discussed

The latest institution to have issues with pedophilia scandals is Yeshiva Universities high school. Apparently, it had a couple of employees on staff with problems. Rather then prosecute these serial molesters they were encouraged to leave for other jobs.

What we are seeing from scandals with all type of organizations that the way things operated back then with child molesters was to kick the can down the road. There was the illusion that official X was doing important work and you did not want to ruin the career of X.

The abuse did not start magically in the 80's and appear out of thin air. In earlier times the people coming forward were likely seen as trouble makers. The priorities were to protect the institution at all costs and many of these scandals were likely not even investigated.

The history of the organizations charged are not summed up by their failures to respond to these problems. Many of the organizations did do much quality work in the communities they served.

Hopefully all of us grasp that kicking the can is no longer acceptable. All these allegations must be investigated by professionals and sometimes there will be false allegations. However, what is never acceptable is threatening or bribing victims as was done in the Satmar community.

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