For immediate release: Tuesday, March 29

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747)

Colleges are spending “millions to hire lawyers, investigators, case workers, survivor advocates, peer counselors, workshop leaders and other officials to deal with increasing numbers of (sex  abuse and harassment) complaints,” reports the New York Times.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/us/colleges-beef-up-bureaucracies-to-deal-with-sexual-misconduct.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

We are thrilled by this news. What could be better for school officials to spend money on than the safety of students and staff?

The Times reports that it’s hard to calculate the cost of Title IX compliance at colleges. It’s even tougher, however, to calculate the costs of sex crimes and sexual misdeeds. Those include both “coping” costs –like medicine and therapy for deeply wounded young people – and the far more common and ultimately hurtful costs – like devastated psyches, addictions, self-destructive behaviors, shattered self-confidence and lost earnings.

In short, we’ll never know how many promising young lives are radically derailed because of rape, harassment and other sexual misconduct on college campuses. It’s long past time for school officials to work much harder to prevent sexual misdeeds and respond appropriately when they are reported.

The complexities of (sex crimes and harassment) have been “wrenching for students, faculty members and administrators,” the newspaper reports. We are sure that’s true. We’re equally sure, however, these complexities are crucial to address. And we’re grateful that, largely because of federal pressure, they are being addressed, albeit sometimes imperfectly.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)