News Story of the Day
Prep school teacher took boys on trips for camping, skiing — and abuse
By Craig R. McCoy, April 7, 2017, The Inquirer
By his own account, Bill Kershaw’s “greatest joy and accomplishment in life was in improving the lives of young boys.”
When not teaching fifth graders, Kershaw took boys camping, canoeing, and on ski trips. He “loved introducing boys to the wonders of nature.”
After a long career at Philadelphia’s elite Chestnut Hill Academy and three other local private schools, Kershaw died a satisfied man, according to an obituary he drafted himself.
Fresno State Athletic Director Share Story Of Sexual Abuse
By Eric Luttrell, April 06, 2017, yourcentralvalley.com
Fresno State Athletic director Jim Bartko is sharing his own story of childhood sexual abuse. Bartko is speaking at a "sexual assault awareness month" event. It's his first public appearance since he spoke with the media back in january.
Bartko sat down with Eyewitness News before he took the stage. He told us he'll be talking about his guilt, and what suppressing those feelings did to him. Bartko did seek help, something he says, he'll be urging the students to do.Bartko's own story has already resonated with many. He says, he still gets letters from around the country.
Archbishop wants child sex abuse lawsuits filed against him dismissed
By Krystal Paco, April 05, 2017, Kuam News
It was almost a year ago the first survivors of clergy sex abuse went public. They are former Agat altar boys Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, and Joseph "Sonny" Quinata who reportedly told his mother on his death bed he was sexually abused by beloved priest Archbishop Anthony Apuron.
Their stories sparked a change in local law that provided an avenue for other survivors to sue their predators. The same law is under fire by Apuron's legal counsel who this week filed her motion for dismissal in the federal court.
Greeley authorities and advocates discuss Colorado’s statute of limitations on rape
Tommy Simmons, Greeley Tribune, April 1, 2017
Even though the 19-year-old Greeley woman did everything she could to report the rape correctly, two men police believe sexually assaulted her will never be convicted of that crime under Colorado's current laws.
Hours after the men left her in a dark alleyway in the 1500 block of 8th Avenue in the early morning hours of July 31, 1984, she was speaking with a Greeley police detective. Not long after that, she underwent a medical exam, and a nurse collected the DNA evidence. In the days that followed, she walked police through the alleys and side streets, where the two men had threatened to kill her if she didn't submit to them.
Victims have been courageous; time for others to do the samef
By Chip Minemyer, April 2, 2017, The Tribune-Democrat
Penn State’s former leaders have been found guilty of endangering children, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has been forced to adopt new policies and the Pennsylvania Legislature is wrestling over the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.
As we enter April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month, major institutions are in turmoil because of past sins – while the quest for justice for those who suffered at the hands of priests, coaches and other trusted adults remains a struggle.
If only someone in power had showed the courage and compassion years ago to say: “This stops now.”
Suffer the Little Children: Church Cruelty in Ireland
TUAM, Ireland — Last year, during the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising that led to Irish independence, the writer Colm Toibin pointed to the fatal mistake the British made when putting down the rebellion. It was not just the swift execution of the movement’s leaders, which historians often point to as a defining moment, but the burial of their bodies in quicklime without coffins.
“Anyone Irish will understand that whatever you do, don’t do that,” he said, adding that it “mattered in Ireland in a way that it might not have mattered in some other country.”
Abuse survivor urges politicians to introduce child protection measures
A survivor whose voice will be one of the last to be heard in the child abuse royal commission has urged political leaders to cast aside religious loyalties and urgently introduce strong child protection measures.
On Friday, the public hearings of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse will come to an end.
‘No one is really saying he’s guilty,’ says victim after ex-Mormon bishop allowed to go free following sex crime convictions
By Jessica Miller, March 28, 2017, The Salt Lake Tribune
Moments after a jury found him guilty of nearly a dozen sex abuse-related crimes, Keith Robert Vallejo walked out of the Provo courthouse last month a free man.
Despite requests from a prosecutor to have him jailed until his April sentencing date, a Utah County judge instead allowed the former Mormon bishop to remain free on bail, and to go home to his wife and eight children.
Civil trial alleging St. Louis archbishop knew priest was dangerous to begin in Lincoln County
By Joel Currier, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 27, 2017
TROY, MO. • Jury selection is set for Monday in a civil trial in which a Lincoln County teenager and her family have accused St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson of knowing a priest was a danger to children before the cleric was charged with molesting the teen in 2012.
Jurors will be selected Monday from a pool of about 110 Lincoln County residents, with opening statements set to follow in the trial presided over by St. Louis Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer.
‘A matter of principle’
Gazette
Sponsors and supporters of the Child Victims Act hope this is the year for justice
Longtime sponsor out of office, but governor is now calling to extend statutes of limitation for child victims of sexual abuse
Advocates for the Child Victims Act are once again calling on state legislators to reform the statutes of limitation on justice sought by child sex abuse victims.
Outspoken reformers such as Bridie Farrell, an Olympic speedskater and advocate for sexually assaulted children in New York, shared her own story of abuse, which shocked the sports world a few years ago.