PA--Special Penn State board meeting set
For immediate release: Monday, April 6
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790, [email protected], [email protected]
The board of Penn State will hold a litigation-related special meeting this Thursday. We hope it will be a step towards closure for those who were assaulted as kids by Jerry Sandusky and for other rape and child sex abuse victims who are hurt each time Penn State backers and officials try to publicly defend school officials accused of ignoring Sandusky’s crimes.
We again urge university administrators and trustees to abandon efforts to restore the reputations of Joe Paterno and others who clearly did little or nothing to stop Sandusky from molesting kids.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have 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, [email protected], Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003, [email protected], Barbara Blaine 312-399-4747, [email protected]
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
Your tax-deductible gift to SNAP can help offset the cost of our important mission. If you are not in a position to contribute, you can still support us by sharing this letter with those who can. As we continue to fight for survivors across the globe, your donation or sharing the great work SNAP does will help us continue our work to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and prevent abuse.
Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director
Showing 3 comments
I have had it up to here with SNAP hiding behind sexual abuse victims to defame Coach Joe Paterno and (more likely than not) Gary Schultz, Graham Spanier, and Tim Curley. SNAP also attacked Sue Paterno, which is unforgivable, and makes SNAP the enemy of every member of the Penn State community who has any basic sense of honor and dignity. Just to begin with, Penn State Board of Trustees Chairman Keith Masser admitted in a court deposition that he and his colleagues not only scapegoated Paterno, but then lied about it in a March 2012 statement when they said they fired him for “failure of leadership.” The credibility and reputations of those Trustees are now in ruins. Karen Peetz, who said Paterno’s reputation was marred, resigned in disgrace, and Kenneth Frazier, another problem Trustee, is apparently not seeking reappointment. The Commonwealth Court opined that the Board was derelict in its fiduciary duty for failing to challenge the NCAA sanctions, and State Senator Yudichak said Masser and his colleagues were being guided by personal rather than Penn State agendas.
Graham Spanier is suing Penn State, and rightly so, for defamatory remarks made about him by several of the same Trustees. Maybe that is what the Board is meeting to discuss. The NCAA has had its face shoved into its own excrement by the Corman lawsuit. Discrepancies in Mike McQueary’s testimony in the Curley/Schultz hearing and the Sandusky trial suggest, meanwhile, that even Sandusky may have been railroaded. This was not a position I subscribed to until another Paterno hater directed me to McQueary’s testimony in Sandusky’s trial, which actually conflicts with what he told the Curley/Schultz hearing. That is a huge problem, and I personally made sure Sandusky’s attorney found out if he does not already know.
As for SNAP, should an organization with a track record for promoting hatred of the Catholic and Jewish religions, as opposed to individual abusive clergy members, be 501©(3) tax exempt? Are anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism legitimate charitable or educational organizational missions? http://restorepsu.blogspot.com/2014/04/snap-anti-semitic-and-anti-catholic.html for a good compilation on this matter. In any event, I hope my fellow alumni will join in exposing SNAP for what it is; an organization that uses advocacy for sexual abuse victims as a cover for promoting the worst forms of hatred and bigotry imaginable.