The Victory Of 'Lost Innocence'

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Today I have had the best news ever!

For those of you who may not have followed my ardent support for my hero Professor Larry Lessig, in his quest to fight for the justice of the abused alumni of The American Boychoir School, in my two articles 'Run Silent Run Deep' back in August, and the latest 'Lost Innocence', I will attempt to give you some background, but if you have time, I would suggets you read at least the latter of the two articles above.

As head boy at this legendary choir school, Professor Lawrence Lessig was repeatedly molested by Donald Hanson, the charismatic choir director, part of a horrific pattern of child abuse at The American Boychoir School. Now, as one of America’s most famous lawyers, he has put his own past on trial to make sure such a thing never happens again.

He is now representing John Hardwicke, who was also one of the abused alumni, and who is suing The American Boychoir. Their efforts are being thwarted by the so called "Charitable Immunization Act" of New Jersey, where the school is situated. The Act basicaly allows the institution to hide behind it, making it immune to any liability and responsibility for the abuse that takes place at their premises, and is carried out by the very teachers they have hired. Professor Lessig, before today's decision:

"Even if we win our case, the law in New Jersey would still immunize a charitable institution from “negligence” in the hiring of a teacher. That means if a school hires a teacher without taking any steps to verify the teacher’s past — for example, asking why the teacher was fired from his last job — the school is immune from liability.

Assemblymen Cohen, Chiappone, and Bateman have introduced a bill to remove that immunity, so that a school would have the same duty that all of us have — to take reasonable steps to avoid foreseeable harm, at least if that harm is sex abuse. Yet this bill has been stalled by the very powerful lobbying of some — actually, primarily, one:

Leaders from the Catholic Church have opposed the change. Some of the same leaders, representing the “Catholic Conference of Bishops,” also filed a brief in our case asking the Court to affirm the “absolute” immunity — even for intentional acts — that the trial court had found.

It is completely beyond me why the Church spends its resources to make children less safe. No doubt, the Church has its own issues about liability. But is money really a church’s only concern? Do its values really say that it is more important to avoid its own liability than to protect children in the future? Or more accurately — that it is right to protect its assets by making children in the future less safe?"

Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig is a personal hero of mine, and someone I have long admired, not only because he has been championing for the freedom of speech on the internet, but because he had the courage to stand up and make his experience known. This is not the sort of case for which Lessig is famous. At 43, Lessig has built a reputation as the king of Internet law and as the most important next-wave thinker on intellectual property.

Today, the great news came in from The Professor:

"The New Jersey Assembly has voted 63-5 to enact a law to remove any immunity for negligence in hiring in any case involving sex abuse. Essentially the same bill had been passed by the New Jersey Senate last year. The bill goes to a committee to resolve the small differences. It is expected the Senate will vote tomorrow to concur in the Assembly’s action. The bill will then go to Acting Governor Codey for his signature. It is expected he will sign the bill before Christmas.

The Trenton Times has an editorial rightly praising the actions of the Assembly. But [Professor Lessig's] praise goes to the person who, in [his] view, more than anyone, brought this matter to a decision.

John Hardwicke as the plaintiff in the case and [The Professor] argued (which remains pending), but beyond his own case, he has devoted everything in the last few years of his life to getting the law fixed. Movements for justice require this sort of person. Change never happens without them. This change would not have happened, in [The Professor's] view, had John not done everything he did.

There are countless children who will never know to thank this man. Thankfully. But here’s one father who does.

The Senate has passed the bill, 39-1 Friday. It now goes to the Acting Governor."

From The Trenton Times:

"That a church or a school, through negligent indifference, should allow the sexual abuse of children in its care is outrageous. That the state should forbid the victims to seek emotional and financial compensation from the negligent institutions in court is unbelievable.

Believe it. New Jersey has been that kind of state. Along with only Alabama and Tennessee, New Jersey grants charitable organizations total immunity from civil lawsuits. Under the shelter of the law, charities in general and the Catholic Church and Princeton's American Boychoir School in particular have avoided the risk that a court would find them liable for harboring sexual predators as priests, teachers or other employees. Adults who claim that as children they were abused by such employees have been barred from seeking redress through the justice system. And a potentially powerful deterrent to negligence in the future has been lost."

Well not any more thanks to Professor Lessig and John Hardwicke, to whom we owe our eternal gratitude.

Comments

[jess1dering]

http://www.anncoulter.org/cgi-local/welcome.cgi Did anybody see thai GREAT NEWS ?

[Alexandra]

Thanks Buddy, brilliant.
I posted a comment on the Yarg blog on "Are They Out of Their Minds". Another incredible story not to be missed.

[Buddy Larsen]

a better start, here.

[Buddy Larsen]

More here.

[Buddy Larsen]

Hi, Alexandra. Wrt the topic, you may want to read this.

[Stefan]

RC,
Thanks for the thought but...no chance there :-)

[RC]

Stefan, are you familiar with the music of Fernando Ortega ?

www.justforcatholics.org

rbc.net/rtb/3rsn/
eeinternational.org/dykfs/
discoveryseries.org/q0603

Heaven is a free gift.
(the "scandal" of God's amazing grace)

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:23

powerforliving.com
rumorsofanotherworld.com

[Stefan]

This is a very difficult issue for me as a Catholic and I will try to be concise. It is hard to express the humiliation, anger, and sadness that Catholics felt with the abuse scandal. However, there are some important things that must be accounted for. The percentage of priests that were offenders is about the same as it is for Protestant denominations and below that of the general population. Most of these offending priests have been either defrocked, sent to prison, or have long retired. They were primarily formed in the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s in the midst of the cultural turmoil of the times and in the time after Vatican II when many liberal Catholics were militantly attempting to hi-jack and interpret the Council’s reforms to fit their own radical sexual ethics. There were many seminaries that were run by wackos who nurtured and encouraged a homosexual sub-culture (know by the unaffectionate title of the “Lavender Mafia”). There is one more thing to add to this. Until the 1970’s and 1980’s no one talked about sexual abuse of minors anywhere in this country. The cutting edge psychological diagnosis of these offenders was that they just needed some treatment and they would straighten out and it was not taken that seriously. This widely held professional opinion was followed by many Church leaders and these priests were often given “clean bills of health” and re-admitted to ministry. Now, these are not excuses but they are vitally important as a context. There was a crushingly tragic amount of “looking the other way” done and scandalous mismanagement of these dangerous and destructive people and there is plenty of very serious blame to go around with many Church leaders to be sure. The question is now what do we do? Besides the new rules and the much needed reform of the seminaries in the USA how does the Church make amends? The bankrupting of dioceses is heart breaking and does not seem appropriate for the reason that so many of the faithful are being punished because of the terrible mistakes of some of their leaders. Many people have smelled blood in the water and are coming for a piece of meat. Liberals have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and venomous attacks on the Church using the scandal as a vehicle for old grudges. Organizations like S.N.A.P and Voices of the Faithful flatly refuse to ever be satisfied and have become MSM darlings. Please don’t accuse me of not feeling sorry enough for the suffering of the victims because that flat out false. I am just struggling to find a balance between fair recompense for the victims and fairness for the innocent Catholics (and the vast majority of priests and bishops by the way) who are collateral damage in these massive settlements. Contrary to popular myth the Church is not "made of money". I don’t know what to think about the shield law and I totally understand the passion for justice that people (like you Alexandria) feel on this subject. I also share this passion for justice but yet I want to protect my Church from predatory lawyers and prosecutors. This is not to let incompetent leaders of the hook but because I love the Church and know how much tremendous work she does and what she stands for. Many liberals see the Catholic Church as the strongest and most unified voice against their cultural agenda and they have used this awful scandal to push relentlessly and unscrupulously to destroy it. I remain torn on this topic. Sorry so long…..:-/.

[Buddy Larsen]

Your illo is unusually powerful--and disturbing, as it should be.

[Buddy Larsen]

Alexandra, the topic is a 'back-burner' in the rush of events, but there is nothing more important than extracting the world's young from the hedonic swamp of solipsism that the world's shucking-off of "excess" judgementalism has thrown so many of them into.

[RC]

God Bless Larry Lessig.
He is a genuine American hero.

nsopr.gov

sharedhope.org
ecpatusa.org
childhelpusa.org
preventchildabuse.org

"Betrayal: The Crisis in the catholic church"
by The Boston Globe

[Liqud]

It's just a good day when anything is done for the protection of little children! Thanks Alexandra for sharing your post and these articles on the subject. I didn't know this about New Jersey. I really don't understand the "sickness" of pedophilia because I can only label it a 'premeditated sexual choice of perverted evil' since the individual which has these tendencies manipulates and targets a child by opportunity or by cunning predatory skills, but I wanted to ask anyone here, what really are the statistics of the possiblity for change? How many pedos really ever do change? What are the statistics of the number of victims they take in a lifetime? And do the churches really think a moral intervention can help overcome the desire of such vile perversion by allowing it asylum? Isn't saving one's skin useless if you lose one's soul? What has or does the church really do for the individuals that have been caught in these actsthe ? Do they send them to remote places like Alaska? I would think that "shining the light" on the problem would be the beginning of the answer. The reality is though that you can find these creeps anywhere. They could be your neighbor. It's just so despairing when we realise it has surfaced in environments that we trust and deem safe, but why do certain people or certain institutions tolerate the intolerable? Where is our backbone concering this subject? The law of the land should continue to do more about children's rights even if that child cannot speak out until it feels safe inside it's own adult body. What is the final solution until then for our children besides complete separation from these monsters? Because the more you read about these horrible cases, the more, if you have children, should definately learn what your state does or doesn't do in accordance to the law in the protection of our sons and daughters. We can't be with our children 24/7 sometimes and when we can't, we want to be able to trust those that we put them into the care of. When that trust breaks down...we feel betrayed on all levels! I know I have asked more questions here than anything, but God bless men like Larry Lessig that are working to search for the tools that help guard our most precious gifts from God!

[sigmund, carl and alfred]

With sincere respect to David, my remarks were addressed to those who violate the law, period, whether gay or homosexual (the nuances of which are lost to many).

My remarks were addressed to the reality of political gay agendas, some of which David may or may not agree with, that look to obscure the differences between gay and homosexual proclivities.

In the same way that straights are excoriated for criminial behavior, regardless of the rainbow of sexual proclivities that they might partake, so it should be for homosexuals.

[Alexandra]

David,

You are unfortunately right on both counts.

The victory is one for the future protection of our children, and may not help John Hardwicke's present case per say. Well not directly, indirectly, only The Professor would know.

Your second point, I am afraid the word "gay" we lost long time ago. It kinda went away, along with "stoned" for being intoxicated (during our parents' generation...)

[David]

A couple of quick observations:

While the news that NJ has now made charitable institutions liable for due dilligence in hiring practices, etc., by holding them to the same standards of liability in business as other organizations, this _may_ not affect past practices of The American Boychoir School. *sigh* Ex post facto...

Second, an aside to sigmund, carl and alfred: Must we participate in the pejoration of the word "gay"? Although sometimes melancholy, often phlegmatic, I am frequently gay. And so, I imagine, it likely is with people whose sexual preferences and lifestyle are homosexual. While the numbers of homosexual pedophiles may be rather large as a percentage of pedophiles, I seriously doubt there are very many gay pedophiles. Most homosexual pedophiles are quite probably extremely NOT gay, but seriously troubled, sick or even outright evil.

If there were a "gay community" then surely it would be comprised of people who are habitually "showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry" instead of peopled by the sorts one normally sees represented by the media as a part of "the gay comminuty" who are anything BUT gay, simply homosexual.

Pursuing this to its *reductio ad absurdum* (as if "gay community" as used by the media were not example enough in itself :-), should NAMBLA be allowed to refer to its members as "Boy Scouts"?

Oops. Maybe that was a bad example...

[sigmund, carl and alfred]

After reading this, and your other posts on the subject, a thought occured to me- if the school were a religious institution, they would be pursued relentlessly by the media. Inasmuch as they aren't, I can only attribute the reluctance to do just that is out of media fear of being regarded as 'homophobic'.

'Pedophelia' is comitted by anonymous, no name predators of children.

When the predators are 'somebody' in the community, with a reputation and standing, well, the media backs off, for fear of the repurcussions from the gay community that cannot tolerate anything that might put them in a poor light or might seem 'abnormal'.

This kind of behavior isn't exclusive to the organized gay community.

The American media ignored Charles Lindbugh's anti semitism and his appreciation of the Nazi party and Adolph Hitler. The Brits ignored King Edward VIII (who later abdicated the throne) and his admiration for the Nazis- and his efforts to support Nazi endeavors.

In the free marketplace of ideas and thoughts, when it comes to matters you describe, the MSM is in where it has placed itself- in the gutters of deceit, of which they are so familiar.