So this Penn State/Clearwater, KS/Kingman, KS/Hesston, KS, and numerous other instances of children being abused makes me sick, like almost physically ill. The people that do these things to children are mentally ill--and that illness is an equal opportunity employer. It can affect any race, creed, color, nationality, political status, income, family status, etc. It just doesn't happen in "big towns" with "those people"...it happens everywhere--just like the flu. And how do we prevent it, or stop it? I don't know.
I heard in one country that there was a national registry of anyone that worked with children. Nurses, teachers, Sunday School teachers, ministers, soccer coaches, Scout leaders, you name they all had to be registered with a higher power--and had to renew. Hmmm. I like this idea for several reasons. First, lets say someone does something inappropriate with a church group, that incident isn't reported to the police, but they are escorted from their church group. That same person then goes and becomes a soccer coach....hmmm. There's something wrong with the current system. If a person is kicked out of one youth organization that should carry over to other organizations, not just leaving the possibility of still working with other youth.
How would this work? I don't know, like a nursing license maybe? You would have to apply and maybe even take a class. And hey--you know what--if you had a problem with it, then you shouldn't be working with youth anyway. I think its a great idea---now if I could only find a financier--don't the Gates have some extra millions they could donate? LOL
Most states do have registries but, unfortunately for kids, the offenders are not added to the registry until after they are caught. And if someone keeps it hidden, as in the case of Penn State and the Catholic Church priest scandal, then the perpetrators are never added to the registry. Another factor is that oftentimes we end up feeling sorry for the criminal if they are in a position of authority and overlook the pain of the victim. A good case of this is Joe Paterno. There are multiple articles saying how bad they feel about him and his reputation, blah, blah, blah. This totally ignores the victims. I feel very strongly that getting John Paul II on the road to canonization totally ignores the child sex abuse victims--the same victims he knew about and overlooked because he didn't want the scandal. If I was one of those victims, I would be furious. As it is, the general population are elated that he is going to be declared a saint instead of focusing on this scandal that he didn't do anything to stop. I realize saints are not perfect but there is a difference between sins that don't hurt anyone and sins of knowing someone is seriously hurt and looking the other way. Gee whiz, can you tell I'm on a roll?
ReplyDelete