Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Ursus on January 26, 2010, 10:33:15 AM
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From THIS post (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=29891&p=356911#p356891) in another thread:
While back, I came across the biography of Father Flanagan, of Boys Town, by Will Oursler. I read it and i had to read it slow and process my way through his story. At first i was a skeptic, being a survivor of a Roloff cult, but as i realized that Father Flanagan did things in direct opposite to Roloff, i realized the superiority of his system over Roloffs system. Flanagan refused any corporeal punishment, he would not force his doctrines either, respecting each childs familial heritage. I have heard that Father Flanagans Boys and Girls Towns are rated the highest in the Nation. The thing that stood out to me in contrast between Roloff and Father Flanagan was the one idea of "RESPECT" ....Flanagan respected each child and each childs reality and history. Roloff disrespected those sent to him and refused to see their individuality and disrespected their heritage that they came with. The other marking element between Flanagan and Roloff seemed to me (based only on my reading this biography and my personal knowlege of Roloff) was the aspect of conditional love in a Roloff type system versus unconditional love shown in a Flanagan type system. I do not know any more about the Flanagan system other than what i learned from this biography. But i did talk to a person who is in media and i was told that Flanagans Boys Town and Girls Town are rated the highest in the USA.
A number of sexual abuse cases have been surfacing which implicate Father Flanagan's Boys' Town, some of its satellite programs, as well as other Boys' Town programs patterned after it. Here's one:
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Omaha World Herald
Boys Town, Lincoln Diocese Will Look into Abuse Claims (http://http://www.nyclergyabuse.com/documents/Albany/James%20Kelly-2.pdf)
By Karyn Spencer, David Hendee
February 1, 2003
Two men allege in lawsuits filed this week that they were victims of child sexual abuse by Nebraska priests - one at Boys Town in Omaha, the other at a Catholic school in York.
The men allege that they were abused as boys in the 1970s but that they repressed the memories until a year ago.
In one of two lawsuits, a man says he was abused by a priest and a counselor at Boys Town. In the second lawsuit, the other man says he was abused by a priest who supervised St. Joseph Catholic Church and Grade School in York.
The priests and the counselor used their jobs to "develop unhealthy, psychologically dependent relationships by male students ... and to recruit them for sex," both lawsuits allege.
The priest named in the Boys Town lawsuit, the Rev. James E. Kelly, denied the accusations. The counselor, Michael Wolf, could not be reached for comment.
The priest in the York lawsuit, Monsignor Jerome C. Murray, could not be reached. A nun who answered the door at his apartment building in Lincoln said Murray would not be home Friday night.
The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Omaha and Lincoln.
Named as defendants in one were Father Flanagan's Boys Home, or Girls and Boys Town, and the Omaha Archdiocese. Named in the other lawsuit were the Lincoln Diocese, St. Joseph and Murray.
The plaintiffs' lawyer said Kelly and Wolf were not named as defendants in the Boys Town lawsuit because he could not find them. Both men are identified in the text of the lawsuit.
Representatives of the Lincoln Diocese, Boys Town and St. Joseph said they will investigate the complaints.
"We will do everything we can to find out the truth," said the Rev. Val Peter, executive director of Girls and Boys Town and a relative of one of the plaintiffs.
Both plaintiffs live in Arizona but do not know each other, their lawyer said Friday. He said the men did not want to comment.
The first man says in his lawsuit that he lived in a cottage at Boys Town from 1977 to 1979.
He alleges that he was physically and sexually molested there starting in 1978, and that the abuse was done separately by Kelly, then spiritual affairs director, and Wolf, a live-in employee at the cottage.
Kelly said Friday that he had never molested anyone.
"Without hesitation I can tell you that," said Kelly, now a chaplain with the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City. "Absolutely not."
Kelly said he wouldn't be surprised if someone was suing Boys Town because it has a lot of money. In addition, he said, "I would hate to think he's pulling the deep pockets thing on the archdiocese."
Kelly and Wolf both left Boys Town in 1983.
Peter said the man who filed the allegations against Boys Town is his second cousin.
Peter said the man has a checkered past and didn't show traits common to boys who have been victimized by sexual assault.
"That doesn't prove that it didn't happen, but it makes me wonder," Peter said.
Peter declined to answer questions about Kelly and Wolf. Asked whether he had reviewed their personnel files, Peter said: "It'll all come out."
Monsignor Robert Hupp was executive director of Boys Town when Kelly arrived from New York state to be director of spiritual affairs.
"He was interested in kids," Hupp, who led Boys Town for 12 years before retiring in 1985, said of Kelly. "He was a rather strict guy. He was a disciplinarian. He wasn't an easy-going guy."
Hupp, now 87 and a resident of Wisconsin, said he still occasionally hears from Kelly.
The second plaintiff alleges in his lawsuit that he was molested by the then-Rev. Murray at St. Joseph School in 1973 and 1974. The man alleges that the abuse occurred in Murray's office. The man was in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades.
Murray worked at the school from 1968 to 1974, serving as a teacher, school administrator, and religious and school counselor.
The claims of both men have been substantiated by others, said their lawyer, William G. Walker of Tucson, Ariz.
The Lincoln Diocese is investigating the complaint and "will respond according to the civil and canonical laws applicable in this situation," said the Rev. Mark Huber, spokesman for Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.
The Rev. Michael Gutgsell, chancellor of the Omaha Archdiocese, said he was surprised that the Boys Town lawsuit named the archdiocese as a defendant because there is no corporate link between the two. Also, Kelly never was a priest of the archdiocese, Gutgsell said.
The plaintiffs' attorney said both didn't remember the assaults until February 2002, when Walker was handling similar cases in Tucson.
Walker has represented 10 victims who have sued four priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson over sexual abuse. The case was settled last year for at least $ 15 million, according to news reports.
The men in the two lawsuits filed this week each have asked for more than $ 50,000 in damages for assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring and supervision and breach of confidence.
Walker said he believes that the church owes the men an apology, counseling and damages for the physical and emotional trauma. He said he hopes to avoid a trial.
"The result of any forced sexual trauma stays with you your whole life," Walker said. "This is something that's just been made real to them."
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Good information...
thank you Ursus, and this does go to show that at the heart of the issue is protection and parental involvement. That not even the best of programs/facilities out there can be any utopic safe places: "to stash one's troubled child into to keep them safe". That even kids growing up in seemingly socially adjusted families are faced with demons more commonly referred to as relatives who rape and sexually abuse kids-- i.e. pedophiles.
Every one of the teen help programs will find that there are those pedophiles and pervs that tend to gravitate where there are kids who have no parents or guardians who are actually daily, weekly involved in the real inner turmoil; the weakest, the most vulnerable child is the target of pedophiles, and in these places of help are those children.
The bottom line to me is that parents are culpable for the abuses their kids end up going through, no matter if its in their own house or in another place; the heart of it is down to the issue of parents being honestly engaged in relationship with their children.
The issue of State oversight, seems personally to me to be pointless when it comes to pedophiles in places like this. for it seems that pedophiles end up everywhere. State oversight does not appear to me to be able to guarantee that pedophiles have not penetrated into good programs. It happens. But, so far as the "program" and "philosophy" or overarching ideology of the Flanagan program goes, my personal 'feel' or take on it (being unprofessional but as a survivor who reads and has healed alot) is that it is one of the better programs and is ranked among the safer more effective programs and that it does have oversight and accountability, though I could be incorrect on that.
http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Pages/Accreditation%20-%20Licenses.aspx
The Boys Town Home Campus program in Boys Town, Neb., which includes locations in Grand Island, Neb., and Iowa, are accredited by The Joint Commission and the Council on Accreditation (COA). If the concern in question cannot be resolved, you are encouraged to contact The Joint
Commission and/or the Council on Accreditation (COA).
http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=1 (http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=1)
Licenses
The Boys Town Home Campus program is licensed through the Nebraska Health and Human Services System and includes Boys Town Grand Island, Nebraska. Also a part of Home Campus is Boys Town Iowa located in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is licensed through the Iowa Department of Human Services. All other Boys Town USA sites and affiliate locations are licensed through their respective state Health and Human Services systems.
* State of Iowa Certificate of License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services System License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services Foster Placement License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services License for Grand Island (PDF)
there is a need to differentiate between abusive programs versus pedophiles who tend to hide out in specialty teen programs or Mental Health facilities for young people.
Pedophiles infiltrate teen rehabs, and pedophiles hide behind masks of do-gooders. Programs can be safe and effective in helping and be up on top and licensed and watched over carefully, but its a challenge to weed out the perverts and pedophiles. Pedophiles go to Mosques and Temples and Churches and we trust them that they are sane people, but are in truth filled with venom out to kill and destroy. truly tragic. But just because there are Pediatricians who are found out to be pedophiles, we do not then condemn all of the other Pediatricians who are also licensed, no...we learn to watch out for the red flags and listen and beware. Because we understand that the ideology and practice or 'program' of Pediatrician care is good and watched over and safe and to be trusted.
But in my opinion, there must be and better be some oversight! This at least in my personal feeling would keep it curtailed but will not (in my view) ever remove pedophiles out of any system.
I personally think and feel that the Flanagan "Program" for teen help, is one of the best.
I also personally think that Pedophiles are everywhere and one can not ever stop being on guard for ones children just because of some name they put their children into. Programs may be good, but pedophiles hide. Overall Pediatricians are good and safe, but we do not just 'quit being on watch' because of this underlying belief and trust.
The men in the two lawsuits filed this week each have asked for more than $ 50,000 in damages for assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring and supervision and breach of confidence.
Walker said he believes that the church owes the men an apology, counseling and damages for the physical and emotional trauma. He said he hopes to avoid a trial.
"The result of any forced sexual trauma stays with you your whole life," Walker said. "This is something that's just been made real to them."
thank you Ursus,
do you know how this particular trial has progressed since this was posted in 2003 at the New York Clergy Abuse site? Would be interested to see that these victims were vindicated and given justice.
Roloff Cult Survivor
78'
GentleStormi
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http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Pages/A ... enses.aspx (http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Pages/Accreditation%20-%20Licenses.aspx)
The Boys Town Home Campus program in Boys Town, Neb., which includes locations in Grand Island, Neb., and Iowa, are accredited by The Joint Commission and the Council on Accreditation (COA). If the concern in question cannot be resolved, you are encouraged to contact The Joint Commission and/or the Council on Accreditation (COA). http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=1 (http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=1)
Licenses
The Boys Town Home Campus program is licensed through the Nebraska Health and Human Services System and includes Boys Town Grand Island, Nebraska. Also a part of Home Campus is Boys Town Iowa located in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is licensed through the Iowa Department of Human Services. All other Boys Town USA sites and affiliate locations are licensed through their respective state Health and Human Services systems.
* State of Iowa Certificate of License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services System License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services Foster Placement License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services License for Grand Island (PDF)
Sorry to burst yer bubble, but the above "stamp of approval" is pretty meaningless, as far as the reality of programs go... That is, most of them, including the more abusive ones featured on fornits ARE already accredited by JCAHO and/or COA. Several program directors are even on the advisory boards of these agencies.
It pretty much boils down to a question of kissing butt and paying fees. The programs need that accreditation to get reimbursement from the insurance companies, hence it's in their interest to pay said fees. Nothing more, nothing less.
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...do you know how this particular trial has progressed since this was posted in 2003 at the New York Clergy Abuse site? Would be interested to see that these victims were vindicated and given justice.
Well, there were two lawsuits mentioned in that article (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29932&p=356912#p356894), one involving Boys' Town, the other not.
As far as the former (Boys Town) lawsuit is concerned, it alleged sexual abuse at the hands of two Boys' Town employees, namely the Rev. James E. Kelly and counselor Michael Wolf. Those two names have cropped up in other sexual abuse claims made against Boys Town.
Whether or not the following pertains to the same case or to one of the other ones isn't clear, but ... Boys' Town appears to be particularly aggressive when it comes to squelching the charges.
In the case of Todd S. Rivers v. Father Flanagan's Boys Home, the Plaintiff claimed repressed memories as being responsible for the approximately 15- to 20-year delay in filing suit, a delay which would have ordinarily exceeded the relevant statute of limitations in the state where the suit was filed.
The defense presented a number of experts from the psych industry in an attempt to discount the theory of repressed memory, and to call into question how accurately people are able to recall sexual abuse or trauma from their past. There was perhaps even a hint of insinuation that the Plaintiff's repressed memories could be characterized as "False Memory Syndrome."
The Defendants prevailed in both motions to exclude.
See: ORDER ON MOTION IN LIMINE TO EXCLUDE EXPERT TESTIMONY REGARDING REPRESSED MEMORY (http://http://www.fmsfonline.org/BoysTown-Daub.html)
As to further developments in this case after the above hearing (November 28, 2005), I do not know.
Boys' Town is particularly well-connected politically, both locally as well as nationally. Most people seem to view them with high regard. That may change.
To my knowledge, Boys' Town has had at least five lawsuits brought against them in the last ten years for sexual abuse. Given the time lag involved in sexual abuse cases which also involve ideological imprinting, I'd say we're likely to see this pattern continue.
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http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Pages/A ... enses.aspx (http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Pages/Accreditation%20-%20Licenses.aspx)
The Boys Town Home Campus program in Boys Town, Neb., which includes locations in Grand Island, Neb., and Iowa, are accredited by The Joint Commission and the Council on Accreditation (COA). If the concern in question cannot be resolved, you are encouraged to contact The Joint Commission and/or the Council on Accreditation (COA). http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=1 (http://www.coanet.org/front3/page.cfm?sect=1)
Licenses
The Boys Town Home Campus program is licensed through the Nebraska Health and Human Services System and includes Boys Town Grand Island, Nebraska. Also a part of Home Campus is Boys Town Iowa located in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is licensed through the Iowa Department of Human Services. All other Boys Town USA sites and affiliate locations are licensed through their respective state Health and Human Services systems.
* State of Iowa Certificate of License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services System License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services Foster Placement License (PDF)
* Nebraska Health and Human Services License for Grand Island (PDF)
Sorry to burst yer bubble, but the above "stamp of approval" is pretty meaningless, as far as the reality of programs go... That is, most of them, including the more abusive ones featured on fornits ARE already accredited by JCAHO and/or COA. Several program directors are even on the advisory boards of these agencies.
It pretty much boils down to a question of kissing butt and paying fees. The programs need that accreditation to get reimbursement from the insurance companies, hence it's in their interest to pay said fees. Nothing more, nothing less.
Hi Ursus,
Thank you for helping shed light on the issue of what really goes on with the JCAHO and COA, through your own personal understanding of how it works, I did do a tiny bit of Google search and learned that *JCAHO’s standards are geared mainly toward monitoring surgical and pharmacological procedures*, not about overseeing the quality of programs that are the stuffs of private residential rehab centers, (JCAHO).
http://www.nospank.net/choices.htm (http://www.nospank.net/choices.htm)
http://www.jointcommission.org/AboutUs/ (http://www.jointcommission.org/AboutUs/)
I was not aware of any bubble of mine, and I apologize that I might have caused that impression in my posting from earlier. lol. I am a searcher, learner, listener and sharer and I value learning and sharing what my own experiences, thoughts, views and opinions are and also listening to others opinions and views in public forum, thank you for sharing your own knowledge and views as they help shed light.
I wonder what your view or opinion is about the main Licensing that the Boy's Town is licensed by? How do you personally feel about the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services? http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/licensing.htm (http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/licensing.htm)
by your statement that -'the above "stamp of approval"' is pretty meaningless', are you meaning to say that the State Licensing is without any value to overseeing the programs and how they are run to protect minors?
I personally feel that though State Licensing is not perfect--pedophiles do get in the doors-- it is much more highly to be desired over those programs that hide and run from State Oversight. How do you view State Licensing of Minor Facilities? Do you feel this State oversight helps curb the tide against corruption within institutions? not necessarily that they catch and stop ever pervert from getting through, but that they curb corruption within the programs that impact minors for the rest of their life?
Of course the 'idea' set up for children is to me something not reachable in a world filled with broken marriages/broken homes/shattered hearts, but the ideal situation to me would be--that every child be born to loving, humble, stable, responsible and mature, whole parents whom have established healthy relationship from birth up with their children and are actively involved with their offspring all their growing up years. but that is very idealistic in a world so broken down.
Ursus said:
--The defense presented a number of experts from the psych industry in an attempt to discount the theory of repressed memory, and to call into question how accurately people are able to recall sexual abuse or trauma from their past. There was perhaps even a hint of insinuation that the Plaintiff's repressed memories could be characterized as "False Memory Syndrome."
Boys' Town is particularly well-connected politically, both locally as well as nationally. Most people seem to view them with high regard. That may change.
To my knowledge, Boys' Town has had at least five lawsuits brought against them in the last ten years for sexual abuse. Given the time lag involved in sexual abuse cases which also involve ideological imprinting, I'd say we're likely to see this pattern continue.
Thank you Ursus for finding and sharing this information.
As far as I have studied on it in my personal research, the "False Memory Syndrome" is not included into the DSM manual, is not recognized by Psychology as any real syndrome and is merely a theory of some, is that correct?
Boy's Town began in 1917, so five sexual abuse cases out of 93 years is sad and five too many, no telling how many pedophiles hurt trusting children that have not spoken up.
http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/history ... story.aspx (http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/history/Pages/History.aspx)
I would also add another consideration, that given the growing child sexual abuses in general in the world, pedophilia is increasing and more and more children, tragically, are more opened and more vulnerable to abusers in any system, whether that is in a public school, in a church or Temple or Mosque, or in the safety of a family home, or in a rehab program, or when going to a doctor or dentist...
http://www.childmolestationlaws.com/ (http://www.childmolestationlaws.com/)
There has been a 322 percent increase [child sexual abuse] from 1990-2000 and that is not counting the vast number of unreported cases.
Thank you
GentleStormi'
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I wonder what your view or opinion is about the main Licensing that the Boy's Town is licensed by? How do you personally feel about the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services? http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/licensing.htm (http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/licensing.htm)
by your statement that -'the above "stamp of approval"' is pretty meaningless', are you meaning to say that the State Licensing is without any value to overseeing the programs and how they are run to protect minors?
Well, no. Not completely. But, let's be realistic. It's a state agency, hence subject to the same forces of graft, cronyism, and cover-up that any other state organization is generally subject to. In cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by highly esteemed members of the community, who are also probably pretty well connected politically, I imagine that pressure to lose and/or discount testimony is probably pretty high. If victims even dare to give it!
Morning Star Boys' Ranch (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10671), which was directly patterned on Father Flanagan's Boys Town, has had a lot of those kinds of problems. At least one local sheriff's deputy, as well as Spokane, Washington's former mayor Jim West, are reputed to be among the perps, so ... go figure.
I personally feel that though State Licensing is not perfect--pedophiles do get in the doors-- it is much more highly to be desired over those programs that hide and run from State Oversight. How do you view State Licensing of Minor Facilities? Do you feel this State oversight helps curb the tide against corruption within institutions? not necessarily that they catch and stop ever pervert from getting through, but that they curb corruption within the programs that impact minors for the rest of their life?
Well, that would be the ideal, but that's assuming the best, namely that state involvement actually stops all perps that it catches, and that these state agencies are not just as corrupt themselves, as the objects of their regulatory might.
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The defense presented a number of experts from the psych industry in an attempt to discount the theory of repressed memory, and to call into question how accurately people are able to recall sexual abuse or trauma from their past. There was perhaps even a hint of insinuation that the Plaintiff's repressed memories could be characterized as "False Memory Syndrome."
As far as I have studied on it in my personal research, the "False Memory Syndrome" is not included into the DSM manual, is not recognized by Psychology as any real syndrome and is merely a theory of some, is that correct?
The issue was the validity of repressed memory, which IS listed in the DSM-IV, as well as in the DSM-III. The witnesses called by the defense tried to muddy the distinction between repressed or disassociated memories with that of "false memories," which are generally conjured up with the help of "mental health professionals" employing hypnotic regression techniques.
One of the Defense's two witnesses testimony was summarized (http://http://www.fmsfonline.org/BoysTown-Daub.html) as follows, emphasis mine:
The Defendants also presented the expert testimony of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D. Dr. Loftus is a distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California-Irvine and a specialist in memory. She has authored or co-authored twenty books and 400 articles. Dr. Loftus was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005 and received the Grawemeyer Award in 2005. She is the top ranked female on a list of 100 most influential psychologists published by the Review of General Psychiatry. She has been engaged in doing research on memory distortion since the 1970s. (Ex. 48).
Dr. Loftus agreed that the concept of repressed memory is so controversial that one could not possibly say it was generally accepted within the scientific community of psychologists and cognitive psychologists. Dr. Loftus stated that there is no good scientific support for the notion today. Dr. Loftus co-authored an article in 1994 (Ex. 14), which Plaintiff contends is one of the studies that proves the existence of repressed memory. Loftus disagreed that the article proved repressed memory exists. Dr. Loftus stated that it is not known what the participants in the study meant when 19% of them stated that for a period of time they forgot their childhood sexual abuse and then the memory returned. Dr. Loftus stated that when the study was done, she thought there might have been evidence for repression but that in 15 years of efforts since then it still had not been scientifically proven that repression exists. In 1996 Dr. Loftus published her article "The Myth of Repressed Memory", which discussed how false memories are created, planted, or suggested. Dr. Loftus also studied cases where dreams and dream interpretation had the result of changing peoples memories and creating false memories.
Dr. Loftus reviewed Rivers deposition, Dr. Pope's evaluation, and Dr. Gutnik's evaluation, and a report prepared by defense counsel, Mr. Davis. In Dr. Loftus opinion there was "quite a bit" of external suggestion in Rivers' environment; including lots of discussion with his brother about his brother's claims, discussion with an investigator; discussion with his attorney, his dream, family pressure to bring a lawsuit, and reinforcement by Dr. Gutnik of a repressed memory.
Dr. Loftus, in her 30 years of research, had never found anything to prove the existence of repressed memory. Dr. Loftus did not believe there was any credible scientific support for the existence of repressed memory. Dr. Loftus also opined that there was no evidence that Rivers had a repressed memory. Dr. Loftus did acknowledge that she did not treat patients and had no special expertise in childhood development.
Dr. Loftus acknowledged that Rivers recovered memory was not the result of hypnosis or a therapy session but in Dr. Loftus opinion, there were other possible contaminates. Dr. Loftus stated that the DSM-IV is used for communication and diagnosis and includes language that proved how controversial the concept really was. Dr. Loftus testified that fewer people believe in the concept today because of the research and studies and because of the hundreds and hundreds of recanters and retractors. Dr. Loftus also testified that many mental health professionals had been sued for planting false memories of abuse, which led to some changes in how therapists conducted their therapy.[/list]
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To my knowledge, Boys' Town has had at least five lawsuits brought against them in the last ten years for sexual abuse. Given the time lag involved in sexual abuse cases which also involve ideological imprinting, I'd say we're likely to see this pattern continue.
Boy's Town began in 1917, so five sexual abuse cases out of 93 years is sad and five too many, no telling how many pedophiles hurt trusting children that have not spoken up.
I feel compelled to point out that sexual abuse litigation prior to the 1950s or 60s was rather infrequent, so your ratio of 5 cases/93 years is misleading to say the least. IMHO, with all due respect, all things considered, yada yada yada.
Moreover, since The Church is involved in at least a figurative basis, this ends up incorporating a pronounced veil of presumed innocence over the accused, which certainly affected the credibility with which victims were accorded in the past and still does to this day.
Then... there is also the religious/ideological mind-fuck factor which seems to impart an especially long delay in victims being able to deal with their abuse. Here's an excerpt from a (tangentially related) article (http://http://www.loyolaphoenix.com/2.3233/priest-accused-of-sexual-abuse-1.332966) dealing with the Rev. John Powell's legacy of sexual exploitation, which could just as well describe many another such case:
Barbara Blaine, founder and president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), agreed with Pearlman's estimate, calling the Jesuits "the worst in this country" in terms of religious organizations with a track record of concealing abuse. SNAP is a Chicago-based national advocacy and support group for survivors of sexual clerical abuse.
Blaine said that the 30 year span between the alleged incident and the lawsuit typified cases of clerical abuse based on her experience, especially so with cases involving Jesuit priests. She also said she was disappointed by Loyola University's lack of response to the claims of abuse by Powell.
"When you're raped by a teacher in your school," she said, "you're not really in a position to speak up or do anything about it. It takes years, sometimes decades of healing to withstand the scrutiny, especially because the Jesuits and Loyola do not make it easy for victims to speak up."[/list]
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To my knowledge, Boys' Town has had at least five lawsuits brought against them in the last ten years for sexual abuse. Given the time lag involved in sexual abuse cases which also involve ideological imprinting, I'd say we're likely to see this pattern continue.
Boy's Town began in 1917, so five sexual abuse cases out of 93 years is sad and five too many, no telling how many pedophiles hurt trusting children that have not spoken up.
I feel compelled to point out that sexual abuse litigation prior to the 1950s or 60s was rather infrequent, so your ratio of 5 cases/93 years is misleading to say the least. IMHO, with all due respect, all things considered, yada yada yada.
Good Morning Ursus,
Yes, I can agree that you have a gift of seeming to be living to be compelled to point out issues as you view them. This gift is something that you are using very well. I pray that your gift many never become a noose to survivors and victims. And that somehow it can allow the victims and survivors to feel empowered and not de-voiced.
I apologize again, Ursus, if my sharing of my feel on things somehow was personally experienced by you as misleading, and I apologize that I came across as misleading to you. I had voiced my feel of the issue by sharing that i thought even that small number of ratio was five too many and that no telling how many pedophiles hurt trusting children that have not spoken up. It is apparent to me that we agree on all these issues. Yet, somehow for some reason you are coming across and experienced by me as if you were attacking me, by your accusation that i am misleading or was misleading, whom am i misleading? How come you personally felt my words to be misleading? Have you experienced others in your life as misleading? If you reread what i wrote, do you not agree that five cases in 93 years of sexual abuse IS five too many? That is what i meant, even that small number if five too many for sexual abuse! Sexual abuse is so damaging and so assaultive to the persons spirit and soul! Believe me, I know. I also said that there are more victims than we know, please reread my statements. k? How we read people says more about ourselves than it does about them. I showed that even that small ratio is too many, and showed that there are more that have no voices spoken out. I do feel that you and i agree on that.
However, I do not feel that you and I agree on the idea that Flanagans programs are some of the best. When I say programs i define the program as separate from the personalities of workers in the programs. I applaud the programs of Boys Town from all that I have read on it, and not from any personal sense or need to. For some reason this seems to bother you. Sorry to disappoint you, but you wont find a perfect program out there, nor will you find any program ran by mankind on earth that can solve the problem of abandoned abused children. What you will find are gradations of some programs that help more than hurt. Flanagans to my personal opinion is one of the better programs that i have read about and heard about. It is my personal opinion and so far nothing you have shared has altered that opinion.
There may not have been a lot of litigation going on prior to the 40's but there was an increasing growing wave of awakening about sexual abuse in the early 20th century. Also, I had pointed out further that pedophilia and sexual molesters were increasing by 322% in the past years, showing my agreement that it is increasing.
Oddly, I can see we are in agreement on all these issues, but oddly, my experience of you is not one of a survivor to another survivor.
Ok, i knew i was going to get snagged into replying, lolol , and I have not yet even had my morning iced tea. ...lol..So....off i go to enjoy my tea and my day and week. I need to take a break from this site, its a bit too much like a tornado or black hole that can suck one into forces working on the forum and rob of life and time. lol
Have a good week Ursus
:peace:
Peace
GentleStormi
Roloff Cult Survivor
78
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To my knowledge, Boys' Town has had at least five lawsuits brought against them in the last ten years for sexual abuse. Given the time lag involved in sexual abuse cases which also involve ideological imprinting, I'd say we're likely to see this pattern continue.
Boy's Town began in 1917, so five sexual abuse cases out of 93 years is sad and five too many, no telling how many pedophiles hurt trusting children that have not spoken up.
I feel compelled to point out that sexual abuse litigation prior to the 1950s or 60s was rather infrequent, so your ratio of 5 cases/93 years is misleading to say the least. IMHO, with all due respect, all things considered, yada yada yada.
...somehow for some reason you are coming across and experienced by me as if you were attacking me, by your accusation that i am misleading or was misleading, whom am i misleading?
I said your RATIO was misleading. Big difference. As to your "experience" of feeling "attacked," I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about Boys' Town.
Perhaps you consider Father Flanagan's Boys' Town to be a "good program," and are taking this f-a-r too personally.
...I do not feel that you and I agree on the idea that Flanagans programs are some of the best. When I say programs i define the program as separate from the personalities of workers in the programs. I applaud the programs of Boys Town from all that I have read on it, and not from any personal sense or need to. For some reason this seems to bother you. Sorry to disappoint you, but you wont find a perfect program out there, nor will you find any program ran by mankind on earth that can solve the problem of abandoned abused children. What you will find are gradations of some programs that help more than hurt. Flanagans to my personal opinion is one of the better programs that i have read about and heard about. It is my personal opinion and so far nothing you have shared has altered that opinion.
Good for you. Everyone's certainly entitled to their opinion. In this case, yours would appear to be in keeping with that of most folk. As I said earlier, "Boys' Town is particularly well-connected politically, both locally as well as nationally. Most people seem to view them with high regard."
But, you are right in that ... I have great reservations about Boys Town.
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I think that the difference between boystown (or your average jesuit school) and most of the schools within this industry is 2 fold. Firstly while there have been some pretty inexcusable coverups of individual cases of abuse, the whole system and philosophy of these schools was not one of punishment, mind control or somehow "fixing" a broken person.
Secondly boystown does not take any youth against their will. If a kid does not want to be there they arent accepted. This has always been integral to the model at boystown and most regular boarding schools regardless of the religious background.
Abusers within any system should not be excused on any level and the catholic church has behaved appalingly toward those who were abused in it's care at places like boys town but I see it as a separate issue.
My concern is that a system designed to punish or force submission on underage minors is always going to be problematic. it is not a few players it is the game itself
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I think that the difference between boystown (or your average jesuit school) and most of the schools within this industry is 2 fold. Firstly while there have been some pretty inexcusable coverups of individual cases of abuse, the whole system and philosophy of these schools was not one of punishment, mind control or somehow "fixing" a broken person.
Secondly boystown does not take any youth against their will. If a kid does not want to be there they arent accepted. This has always been integral to the model at boystown and most regular boarding schools regardless of the religious background.
Abusers within any system should not be excused on any level and the catholic church has behaved appalingly toward those who were abused in it's care at places like boys town but I see it as a separate issue.
My concern is that a system designed to punish or force submission on underage minors is always going to be problematic. it is not a few players it is the game itself
First, "somehow 'fixing' a broken person," or, at the very least, fashioning a productive member of society is very much behind Boys Town philosophy. IMO, fwiw...
Second, Boys Town does take kids against their will. They have quite the continuum of care, ranging from community based family support services all the way up to locked-down intensive RTCs.*
I don't know how much research you've done on them, but they get a lot more mileage out the folksy heart-warming tales of Father Flanagan than reality would merit. It's called marketing.
To give Father Flanagan the benefit of doubt, I (at this point) have no reason not to believe that he genuinely cared about "his kids;" I've no reason to doubt that his motives were noble and pure. But Father Flanagan has been dead for over 60 years, and this organization is more or less under the umbrella of the Catholic Church.
Here's the thing that ultimately gets me, and which also addresses Gentlestormi_'s postulation that these may have been acts perpetrated by individuals and not abuses on the part of Boys Town itself: When an organization closes rank and refuses to hold itself accountable for egregious abuse occurring on its watch, even to the point of publicly denying that these events could even have happened ... that is, in and of itself, an act of tremendous harm. It may even be a bigger harm, in some cases, than the original event(s).
In this case, we're no longer talking simply about the perverted acts of warped individuals who may or may not be able to control themselves, we are also talking about harmful acts carried out on an official basis with express intent of an organization.
I'm not even going to address how administrators of Boys Town have sent out communiqués which cast thinly veiled insinuations as to the moral character of its victims.
And let us not forget the royal mind-fuck going on where one's concepts of "God" and "good" are hopelessly perverted right during that coming-of-age period, when self-identity is undergoing a major transformation.
Boys Town spends all this money on marketing and their own little in-house self-publishing think tank, the National Research Institute, and they can't even take care of the victims of sexual abuse that occurred on their watch, under their supervision and care, as a result of their own ignorance and ineptitude?
I smell corruption and kool-aid.
:soapbox: <end of rant>
* Boys Town Integrated Continuum of Child and Family Services:
- Intensive Residential Treatment Center Services
- Specialized Treatment Group Home Services
- Intervention and Assessment Services (Assessment and Short-Term Residential, Intervention & Assessment Home)
- Treatment Family Services (Treatment Family Homes, Treatment Foster Care, Specialized Treatment Foster Care)
- Foster Family Services (Traditional/Agency Foster Care)
- In-Home Family Services (Family-Centered Services, Family Preservation Services, Aftercare Services)
- Child and Family Support Services (Outpatient Child and Family Services, Community Education Services & Support, Boys Town National Hotline, Common Sense Parenting, Parenting.org)
Source: 2008 Annual Report (http://http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/locations/PublishingImages/2008AnnualReport_LO_RES.pdf) (52p PDF)
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First off I should say that I am not out to be some kind of mouth piece for boystown or any other organization. However there is a huge difference in my mind between providing legitimate mental health services to in this case youth and families where there is a clearly defined mental health or legal issue, or in the case of homeless youth a foster home particularly when consent is clearly required not just by the parents but the patient, and therapeutic schools, generic "treatment centres" and wilderness therapy services.
As to the whole prayer messes with young psyches thing I think that depends. This would mean that by this definition the vast majority of American citizens are abusing their kids. I dont think this is the case. Not even in the bible belt where you see 9 year olds with soldier of god tee shirts. Having said that I don't like that boystown make "prayer" regardless of the faith part of the therapeutic process and thus would not choose to go there or encourage my child to attend. But for me this comes down to choice. So to some extent i see your point there.
Aside from those who have been abused by individuals who worked for boystown(who it seems have been treated very badly here) where are the complaints about monitored communication with family and friends? about so called "therapy" taking up time that needs to be given to legitimate education? about food being used as a reward or punishment? about being isolated from the wider world? about not being able to ever leave the campus? About closely monitored visits by family? Are there any confrontational group sessions? Are the patients denied input into their treatment? I have not yet seen any evidence of this or heard any complaints of this from those in attendance and there is nothing about this as part of the treatment process
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Catholic priests diddling altar boys or other vulnerable members of socieity?????
That's never happened before............
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First off I should say that I am not out to be some kind of mouth piece for boystown or any other organization.
Nor I a mouthpiece trying to decimate every possible good that Boys Town does do.
...where are the complaints about monitored communication with family and friends? about so called "therapy" taking up time that needs to be given to legitimate education? about food being used as a reward or punishment? about being isolated from the wider world? about not being able to ever leave the campus? About closely monitored visits by family? Are there any confrontational group sessions? Are the patients denied input into their treatment? I have not yet seen any evidence of this or heard any complaints of this from those in attendance and there is nothing about this as part of the treatment process
Boys Town evolved as an alternative to an orphanage or a reformatory, using a modified family-style unit as the home base (now called "treatment home"). Talk about dealing with a vulnerable segment of the population not liable to complain!
Although I don't know this for a fact, Father Flanagan appears to have modeled Boys Town on a number of similar programs written about in Great Britain, France and Germany, with descriptions published at least as early as the mid 1800s. Many of these were supported and/or run by churches or religious individuals, and depended on strong religious foundations as moral grounding. It is unlikely that Flanagan would not have known about them.
As far as Boys Town's evolution into the present day is concerned, you're beginning to hear complaints now, aren't you?
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Not really. I have heard complaints from 4 past students about 1 or 2 specific individuals. 1 claimed they vividly remembered (fair enough)2 used repressed memory which it was not invalid for boystowns laywers to point out has its problems. At any rate boystown should be negatively judged for the way they handled that case because i did find their lack of remorse problematic. But I have not heard any complaints from anyone in attendance in the last 20 years and I have not heard any complaints about the actual methods that were generally used by the majority of the staff or as a matter of course to educate, treat or discipline the children there.
I agree that it probably was modelled on the idea of orphanages as this was the only way of housing neglected or orphaned children at the time. The problems with this model have since become apparent and so most of the youth organizations around the world who once used this model(including boytown) have abandoned it. If you contrast this with for example the cedu model, certain more extreme practices may or may not have been abandoned but the idea that teens need to be broken down and rebuilt has not.
I take your point that consent is given by a vulnerable portion of the population which is why transparency is important. But again any organization that deals with any kind of young people or treats those with mental health issues is dealing with a vulnerable portion of the population. This does not make them inherently abusive. Has any recent student complained about the actual treatment involved?
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Not really. I have heard complaints from 4 past students about 1 or 2 specific individuals. 1 claimed they vividly remembered (fair enough)2 used repressed memory which it was not invalid for boystowns laywers to point out has its problems. At any rate boystown should be negatively judged for the way they handled that case because i did find their lack of remorse problematic. But I have not heard any complaints from anyone in attendance in the last 20 years and I have not heard any complaints about the actual methods that were generally used by the majority of the staff or as a matter of course to educate, treat or discipline the children there.
These five cases, which were all clustered around the same time period, involved six former residents of Boys Town. One of them was quoted in news coverage but probably did not pursue legal resolution. At the time, the only way you could get around an expired statute of limitations was to claim mental disability or repressed memory. There were at least three staff members involved.
abuse victims:
James Duffy
Lance Rivers
Todd Rivers
Darren Boudreau
John Sturzenegger
Wayne Garsky
perpetrators:
Rev. James Kelly
Counselor Michael Wolf
Rev. Richard Colbert
[/list]
The similarity between how these cases were handled, and how the Morning Star Boys' Ranch cases are currently being handled (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=29941), is striking.
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I dont disagree. I would also agree that morningstar is exactly the kind of place that I am talking about in that its model appears to be hard and free farm labor.
But again none of the complainants in this case complained about the overall model that boystown used, they complained about the actions of a single person. He should be punished to the full extent of the law. But where are any recent complaints about being isolated from the world, excessively disciplined as a matter of routine or course being subjected to therapies against the patient's will etc? If there was any evidence of that, or even that the website was deliberately misleading in some way I would be more inclined to b suspicious of the place.
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I dont disagree. I would also agree that morningstar is exactly the kind of place that I am talking about in that its model appears to be hard and free farm labor.
Morningstar was modeled directly on Flanagan's Boys Town. They even sent folk over to study it. Boys Town in Nebraska also had a farm on which the boys worked. They grew some of their own food, learned how to run a farm, slaughtered the pigs and chickens...
But again none of the complainants in this case complained about the overall model that boystown used, they complained about the actions of a single person.
No. Not so. James Duffy sued no individuals. He sued Boys Town. He named Rev. James Kelly and Counselor Michael Wolf within the complaint.
They all sued Boys Town. It's not like Boys Town was clueless. Kids' complaints were simply not taken seriously, and some folks had some pretty serious issues in their closets.
The culture of the place ensured that hierarchy of credibility: Priests were closest to God and were saving those kids' lives. They could do no wrong.
But where are any recent complaints about being isolated from the world, excessively disciplined as a matter of routine or course being subjected to therapies against the patient's will etc? If there was any evidence of that, or even that the website was deliberately misleading in some way I would be more inclined to b suspicious of the place.
Does isolating and controlling your environment to the point where you own your own town and have your own zip code count? Where visiting reporters are shadowed? Gotta make sure that no "unauthorized interviews" are done ... perchance? :D
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I am concerned about sounding like a boystown advert here, so this is the last i will post on the issue but i feel like hairs are being split. Of course the men sued boys town itself for the actions of 3 men who worked within it. I agree that boystown should cop criticism for it's handling of the case in the same way that the catholic church should be ashamed of itself for its recent history of protecting its clergy when accused of abuse instead of putting the victim first. But every single catholic school should not as a matter of course be closed down by the state regardless of its individual method or philosophy.
It does not surprise me that morning starclaims to use boytowns model. Most schools within this industry have taken all kinds of ideas some sound others not and bastardized them to suit their own ends. Positive peer culture is one classic example another is the way the psychologist Erickson is frequently basttardized to "force" kids to reach a stage of adolescent development. Even AA for all its faults was supposed to be voluntary. Everyone from synanon to straight to aarc have overlooked this.
I accept that naming yourself a town is pretty egotistical and arrogant but since when is being a bit up yourself a crime? You mentioned the press dont have freedom and it would concern me if the boys were not allowed to make unmonitored phone calls to press family or anyone else. Have there been any recent allegations from one of the students of this? Unlike the rest of the industry boystown is an international organization. Most of their work os is admittedly more generic youth welfare not the provision of "homes" but have you found any complaints outside of the US of systemic abuse as well? this When Mercy ministries opened in Australia it took about six months for the complaints to start. I am unaware of this with boystown
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It does not surprise me that morning starclaims to use boytowns model. Most schools within this industry have taken all kinds of ideas some sound others not and bastardized them to suit their own ends. Positive peer culture is one classic example another is the way the psychologist Erickson is frequently basttardized to "force" kids to reach a stage of adolescent development. Even AA for all its faults was supposed to be voluntary. Everyone from synanon to straight to aarc have overlooked this.
I'm not sure if I understand you correctly here, but if you're saying that "Positive Peer Culture" was originally something mainstream and more or less benign, which was then distorted and perverted by the industry, you're wrong. I'm not saying that, in some cases, it can't be the lesser harm of available options but... let's face it: PPC was developed by the industry ... for the industry. It evolved right out of TCs used in prisons right after World War II.
Similarly for AA (whose origins are more than a little suspect) re. one's allegedly voluntary participation: quite a lot of discussion could easily be devoted to exactly what constitutes "voluntary" when tremendous ideologically based pressure is placed on vulnerable individuals to conform to a group's expectations. And that being the "best case" scenario. Said discussions should probably best be addressed in another thread...
... have you found any complaints outside of the US of systemic abuse as well? this When Mercy ministries opened in Australia it took about six months for the complaints to start. I am unaware of this with boystown
There was a sexual abuse scandal that hit the news a few years ago regarding Boys Town's operations in the Philippines.
From what I've seen, the speed with which abuses at Mercy Ministries-Au were addressed is an anomaly rather the rule in the industry. IMO, it had mostly to do with the incompetence and naiveté of whoever was running MM in Australia, as well as some top notch and well-timed reporting. I also think the Australian public is a lot less jaded and inured than here in the States, when it comes to experiencing a visceral reaction to what goes on in these hellholes.
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Here's a piece from National Geographic that's especially laudatory about Boy's Town. Perhaps a bit too laudatory. I'm not trying to be Scrooge here but, seriously... I've heard the "If I weren't here, I'd probably be dead" mantra a few too many times, I guess...
Alternative PDF link* from the Boys Town website, which contains more photos: http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Documen ... rint2f.pdf (http://www.boystown.org/AboutUs/Documents/Nat_Geo_reprint2f.pdf)
* NOTE: Issue date is noted as Novermber 2002 on NGM's website, December 2002 on pdf download.
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National Geographic Magazine
A Town of Their Own (http://http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature5/fulltext.html)
ZipUSA: 68010
December 2002
By Jennifer Steinberg
Photographs by Landon Nordeman
BOYS TOWN NEBRASKA
Give them homes, schools, families and some old-fashioned religion, and troubled kids might just pull themselves together. This is their place.[/list]
Straddling dirt bikes, pants crotches to their knees, three teenage boys eye me from a streetlamp's cone of light. City-trained, I look away, walk faster, then glance back. They smile and wave.
It's my first reminder that I'm in a town like no other—Boys Town, Nebraska, the famed village-style haven for troubled kids. Forget Spencer Tracy taming a rogue Mickey Rooney in the 1938 film Boys Town. These are real kids with real, sad histories: broken homes, neglect, abuse, drugs, alcohol, psych wards, detention centers, and suicide attempts. Sent here by courts or relatives, all the kids "come in angry," says executive director Father Val Peter. "But we give them back their childhoods, teach them skills, and give them love."
It was another man of the cloth, in 1917, who planted the seed with his motto: "There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking." Father Edward Flanagan, with a $90 loan, placed his first five youths in a rented Omaha house. He later borrowed more to buy the 160-acre Overlook Farm, and homeless boys flocked there. A trust fund, donations, and fees paid by state agencies and some parents or guardians have kept the town going—and growing.
The first girls enrolled in 1979 and now make up half the population of what is still called Boys Town, though Girls and Boys Town has become the name of its far-reaching national organization. Flanked by cornfields, highways, then houses to the horizon, Boys Town leans against Omaha's sprawl but retains its identity as a campus of sorts—with 500 kids, a middle school and high school, two churches, a park and post office, police and fire stations, athletic facility and fields, and the iconic statue of one boy shouldering the weight of another.
Bright lights, small town – full of big houses of kids with big troubles. Some want to go home. Others are home in this town where "every adult's purpose is to help kids," says Father Val Peter[/list]
"Don't ask them about their pasts," Father Peter and others instruct me when I arrive Thanksgiving week. Let them focus on the present, they say: on school, surrogate families, and a rather lengthy set of rules.
Rules here, in fact, rule, the kids tell me. Worship services are mandatory. So is good behavior, which earns points—translating to privileges like candy or outings. Bad behavior (from skipped chores to violent tantrums) means "lost privs" or a stay at the Respite House—where offenders go to cool down. Boys' hair must be short. There's no dating, no tank tops, no tight jeans. Piercings are limited to girls, to ears, and no more than two holes per. And so on. Without these laws of the land, "we'd be distracted from what we've come here to do," one girl tells me.
"Every boy must learn to pray," taught founder Father Flanagan. "How he prays is up to him."[/list]
In part, they're here for months or even years of therapy that includes a healthy family life. Kids stay in mixed-race, same-sex groups of six to eight overseen by parent-teachers, resident married couples who are not just rule enforcers but caring supporters and role models. The dorms of earlier days have given way to 69 Tudor houses perched on curving lanes. Welcome flags whip in the wind, surnames dangle from lampposts: The Reals. The Carls. The Joneses.
I've barely stepped into the Jones foyer before I'm politely accosted with handshakes from five teenage boys—clearly in training. "They like the response they get and soon it becomes natural," says parent-teacher Tony Jones, who, with wife Simone, oversees eight teens and his own young son. Once a student here himself, Tony says, "Boys Town saved my life, so I came back to help the next generation."
Blocks away, Scott and Trisha Carl's house of girls represents the other half. Ashley, a sweet-faced freshman, is the first to befriend me. Running from room to room in her socks, she points proudly to family photos. "That's me. And I'm in this one too." Upstairs, her shared room is neat (a recent habit), and her months-old welcome balloon hovers at waist level, shriveled. "I'm keeping it until I leave," she says.
Jennifer—Ashley's roommate—and twin sister Dawn are cheerleader-pretty and busy in the town choir, ROTC, and flag corps (choreographed waving of oversized pennants, which they demonstrate for me in the foyer). "I'm not in all that," Ashley says, curling up in an overstuffed chair, "but I used to be afraid of water and now I swim." Once rebellious ("It's hard to be good when you don't care about yourself") and still reticent to smile, she has dreams of a safe household, a faithful marriage, and maybe a child "once I'm older and more in control."
But here, now, Ashley has "issues" to address. It's Thanksgiving morning and she's antsy; guests, most notably her mother, are coming. "We're working to have a better relationship," she tells me. And in the Carl living room the two do seem, at first, cautious. Then Ashley's mother brushes hair from her daughter's forehead and compliments her attitude change (at home last Christmas, she tells me, Ashley refused to leave her room). Before the feast—a group effort born from the well-rigged kitchen—mother and daughter hold hands as Ashley offers a prayer "for all who are hurting." And what are the Carl girls thankful for this year? "My parent-teachers," most declare. "That I'm in a safe place" is a close second. "If I weren't here, I'd probably be dead," one says.
Enter Father Peter, a man in constant motion. Today he'll breeze into every house with an infectious laugh and compliments to the chefs. "His visit is a Thanksgiving ritual," says Scott Carl. He and Trisha love their jobs, this place, these kids. "We get to protect them for a little while," Trisha says, forking up sweet potatoes.
There are, of course, bitter moments. Back at the Joneses, the big meal devoured and dishes done, stone-faced Frankie, 12, holds the greasy turkey wishbone out to Tony. "I wish I could go home," Frankie announces, looking at no one, and snaps off the bulk of the bone. Unsmiling, he walks out with his prize. "We can't and don't try to replace their families," Tony tells me later. "And some days they just want out. No surprise there."
Still, every day is a Thanksgiving of sorts for someone in this town, where new kids are made "citizens" in a festive ceremony. The Monday after the holiday, I join eight scrubbed newcomers waiting to face a cafeteria crowd. "I don't want to be here. I'd rather be with my real family," mumbles a straight-banged, suit-clad boy named John. "Better here than in jail," says the kid to his left. Then it's time. Father Peter stands and bids all welcome, cracks a corny joke or two, then calls on the kids to speak. Each rises and recites a rushed stream of well-rehearsed words, as heartfelt as one might expect from teens forced to the podium: My name is Joe. I've been here for two weeks. What I like best so far are the basketball courts. What I don't like is the point system. What I need to work on is controlling my anger. And so on. There's applause, and tense faces relax. No longer labeled bad kids, patients, or prisoners, all are deemed citizens and pledge to follow Boys Town's rules—to treat others as brothers and sisters, study hard, play fair, and pray well. "You are now part of our family," Father Peter announces.
Along the way a weary half smile has tweaked John's lips. I point it out to him. "I feel much better," he admits. "Now it's real—I'm part of something." The smile wins out. "I'm no longer an outsider."
© 1996-2006 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
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On PPC as far as I know it has been bastardized. Brenthro took an idea that many mainstream educators had used for years and totally bastardized it into the extreme it is today and had the arrogance to claim he invented it. What is a school that allows seniors to be prefects or that has peer tutoring (older kids tutoring their younger peers in subjects they are behind in) doing if not using the idea of positive peer culture? Again whether this is perfect is another debate but it is simply NOT what brenthro turned it into.
The other classic manipulation of a long standing youth movement is the way the ideas of Kurt Hahn have been mangled to make kids miserable through "wilderness" therapy. This was a guy who risked his life speaking out against hitler, who beleived that young people are inherently good and who saw the great outdoors as something to revel in . He also beleived that we all need opportunities for solitude so that we can develop out own ideas. It was about mastering each challenge at your own pace to build confidence. As well as founding outward bound and gourdonstun he taught ancient greek, history, politics and philosophy. What did the assholes who founded this industry take from that? To push kids to beyond their limits and "exercise" them into total submission.
I think you are right about the australian reaction to mercy. Aside from the same human rights issues that all post colonial countries have had with indigenous citizens, the idea that you can actually lock someone up like that against their will seemed astounding.
Again I am not the boystown fan club I dont really like a level system and I take your point that they are pretty arrogant and if they are taking court appointed boys as well as the ones who elect to attend then someone needs to be doing regular welfare checks. But it seems that their students have to express a desire to attend. They have never hidden the fact that they are religious so as long as kids have fair disclosure about what they are signing on for and can get out if they desire i am not about to lump them in with the other shitholes in this industry
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Before I address Oz girl's post, I want to finish up with some more material related to the just previous article...
········· + ····· + ·········
On National Geographic's website, there's a section which accompanies the above piece, "A Town of Their Own (http://http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature5/index.html)," namely, "field notes" and observations of the writer and photographer on said assignment.
"In most cases these accounts are edited versions of a spoken interview. They have not been researched and may differ from the printed article."[/list]
Here are observations from reporter Jennifer Steinberg (photographer Landon Nordeman's observations in the post directly following):
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(http://http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature5/images/fn_a_tnail.5.jpg) Photo by Brian Strauss
On Assignment
ZipUSA: 68010 (http://http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature5/assignment1.html)
Nov. 2002
Field Notes From Author
Jennifer Steinberg
Best
Once a week Father Val Peter, executive director of Boys Town, invites a different household of teens to his home for dinner. The photographer and I were told we could stop by Father Peter's house, meet the kids, and observe for a few minutes. After a brief tour and a few introductions, the kids sat down to eat, and we got the vibe that it was time for us to go. But first Father Peter pulled me aside and told me how pleased he was at the way I was handling the assignment and interacting with the kids. "You just get it," he said, meaning I understood what he and others were trying to do at Boys Town and was careful not to interfere as I got my story. "I don't say that to many journalists," he added. He then shuffled chairs around at the head of the crowded table and invited me to stay for the meal as his special guest. The photographer and Boys Town press officer were escorted into the kitchen where they had to eat standing up, the door just barely ajar. It was fun to be teacher's pet again.
Worst
I must say I didn't really have a bad experience at Boys Town, which in a way became my worst experience. Not that I wanted to see unruly kids getting into fights or having tantrums, but I had hoped to get a very real experience—to see both the good and the bad sides of the place and the people. While there were moments in which kids showed real emotion in my presence, most of the time they were on their best behavior, perhaps thinking that was what I wanted to see. Sometimes I felt their responses to my questions weren't entirely from the heart but instead were textbook answers coming from the teaching and counseling they'd received. With only bits and pieces of a week to get to know them, I knew they saw me as I was—a transient on their turf, tossing out intimate questions but not able to stick around long enough to get all the answers.
Quirkiest
I had to have an escort whenever I spent time with the Boys Town kids. I'd be sitting on the couch interviewing one of the girls who lives with parent-teachers Scott and Trisha Carl, for example, and the Boys Town press officer would be sitting across the room chatting with another family member or reading a magazine. He joined me for the Jones family Thanksgiving grocery-shopping trip and later for Thanksgiving dinner at the Carls. I went to hear a student-run assembly, and guess who showed up? Same guy. A nice and helpful guy just doing his job, of course, but it was still disconcerting to be shadowed. It was a rule I had to live with—put in place to protect the kids from overzealous journalists wanting to ask questions about inappropriate topics such as an abusive past, drug problems, medications, etc. My escort eventually gave me some leeway when he saw that I wasn't breaking any rules, which was much appreciated. But it was a tough way to start out reporting a story.
© 2002 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
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(http://http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature5/images/fn_p_tnail.5.jpg) Photo by Landon Nordeman
On Assignment
ZipUSA: 68010 (http://http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature5/assignment1.html)
Nov. 2002
Field Notes From Photographer
Landon Nordeman
Best
I photographed the Jones family a lot, so they invited me for Thanksgiving dinner. I've spent a few Thanksgivings away from my own family. When I worked for daily newspapers, I sometimes dined with the fire department or the Salvation Army, for example. But being at the table with all these kids from across the country was a special experience. It made me feel like part of the Boys Town family. We went around the table, and each one of us said what we were thankful for. It was great to hear the kids talk about how much they appreciate their new family at Boys Town. And of course, the food was wonderful. The dessert—Mrs. Jones's sweet potato pie—was the best I've ever tasted. The whole day was very special.
Worst
This assignment made me realize how irresponsible I was as a teenager. I was never as mature as these kids are. When I was in high school, I always felt it was the kids versus the teachers. I didn't get that at all at Boys Town. The kids and the parent-teachers got along very well, and there seemed to be a mutual feeling of respect for one another. All of the kids are given so much responsibility, and they're so disciplined about doing homework and taking care of chores. Every night one of the boys is designated as the house manager. He makes sure that the other boys have done their chores, that the house is cleaned up, and the dishes are washed. The parent-teachers are there to supervise. There was no way I could have accepted that much responsibility at that age and I felt a sense of belated inadequacy.
Quirkiest
Every family is given a van, so one day the kids piled into three or four vehicles and went to the movie theater in Omaha to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I hadn't read the book or seen the movie, but I thought since the kids were going, I'd go with them. It was a little funny to be sitting there with about 40 kids. I loved the movie, but I never thought I'd be doing that in Boys Town. Then it occurred to me how the movie illustrates a comparison between Harry's life with his wicked aunt and uncle and the positive family experience of the kids at Boys Town. Maybe Harry isn't the only one who is saved by magic.
© 2002 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
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On PPC as far as I know it has been bastardized. Brenthro took an idea that many mainstream educators had used for years and totally bastardized it into the extreme it is today and had the arrogance to claim he invented it. What is a school that allows seniors to be prefects or that has peer tutoring (older kids tutoring their younger peers in subjects they are behind in) doing if not using the idea of positive peer culture? Again whether this is perfect is another debate but it is simply NOT what brenthro turned it into.
No, PPC did not evolve out of peer tutoring in schools and then become "bastardized," and it was not Larry Brendtro's idea per se, although I'm sure he contributed a great deal to it. But, at least you know who Brendtro is.
PPC has a far more specific legacy. Like I said, it evolved directly out of therapeutic community modalities used in prisons right after World War II. The allusions to mainstream education got pasted on afterwards, probably by Vorrath and Brendtro to make the method more palatable, not to mention more marketable to a broader audience.
Both Harry H. Vorrath and Larry K. Brendtro were co-authors of the book "Positive Peer Culture (http://http://books.google.com/books?id=iNkJyFxntOkC&dq=%22positive+peer+culture%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=gGmOS9CxK8iUtgeXrryqCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false)," first published in 1975, however, it was Vorrath who was senior author and the one who had connections to and experience with PPC's predecessor, "Guided Group Interaction." The prime difference between the two being that PPC also incorporates mainstream or further along kids as positive role models ("oldcomers," anyone?) to hurry along the behavior modification.
Lloyd McCorkle is the one who came up with Guided Group Interaction, specifically basing it on his experience with therapeutic communities during World War II. Both the U.S. and the British used therapeutic community methodologies on their own soldiers during the war.
McCorkle was later an assistant prison warden in New Jersey (and also a psychologist), and developed GGI as an effective behavior modification, group management, and self-improvement tool for working with groups of adult male prisoners. He published results on this in 1949: Lloyd McCorkle, "Group Therapy in Correctional Institutions," Federal Probation 13, no. 2 (1949).
McCorkle then tried his method on teenage males at the Highfields Reformatory, also in New Jersey, publishing results in 1958: Lloyd McCorkle, Albert Elias, and F. Lovell Bixby, "The Highfields Story," (New York: Henry Holt, 1958). Incidentally, for perspective, this is the year Charles Dederich, an ex-con, founded Synanon.
Harry Vorrath was working for McCorkle at Highfields in the 1950s, which is how he learned of GGI.
The thing to keep in mind here is that both GGI and PPC strive to create a therapeutic milieu, a 'round the clock environmental immersion to change the subjects' behavior from their minds outward. In other words, they are a type of therapeutic community. In no way can peer tutoring for academic subjects be considered to be even in the same ball park.
Btw, Brendtro was the former president of Starr Commonwealth, which runs the Montcalm program, which is also mentioned a few times here on fornits...
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OK I stand corrected on ppc. Bear in mind though that it has become a catch phrase in mainstream educational circles (at least here) for the most banal and benign practices eg senior students assistant coaching Jr school footy teams, making kids prefects, the ever fashionable "big brother" programs that every second school has set up for first years. I would bet my ass that your average deputy principal has no clue when they are using this catch phrase to dazzle mum and dad on open day that its roots are so bizarre.
As to boystown many of its practices and the article do make me concede that i would not really want my kid there. The clapping and cheering when a kid said something everyone approved of in particular seemed a little creepy. The putting on a show for the cameras a little less so as most school do that to a certain extent. But i stand by my original point. There have been isolated complaints of clergy abuse but as someone pointed out this has happened and been dealt with equally appauling incompotence in the past at other jesuit institutions that are just normal boys schools (well normal for a particularly miliraistic brand of catholic family :whip: ) I would be far more concerned if they took kids without their consent or if the complaints were of things like physical restraint, gestault therapy, group think exercises or limited communication with family and friends.
I shoud add that it is not that i view clergy abuse as a less serious issue. But to me the difference is twofold. It is about individual bad apples and the churches arrogant defence of them, not about an abusive educational philosophy or locking up citizens without right to due process. Secondly there are now and rightly so plenty of avenues for those who have been hurt by the church and the schools/communities involved have been forced to take complaints seriously and to put in sound preventative measures. The TTI is systemically abusive. Regulation can only go so far in stopping the most outrageous acts of abuse or neglect. Education needs to do the rest.
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Once a week Father Val Peter, executive director of Boys Town, invites a different household of teens to his home for dinner.
This seems creepy. What about boundary issues?
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whats creepy about that? Lots of principals of small boarding schools or parish priests do this. Id just assumed that in the US it is standard practice as it is in other western countries. Portsmouth Abbey for instance does this from time to time and it is not a gulag.
Id be more concerned by the fact that boystown had its own press officer with them for the dinner than the fact of it on its own.
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OK I stand corrected on ppc. Bear in mind though that it has become a catch phrase in mainstream educational circles (at least here) for the most banal and benign practices eg senior students assistant coaching Jr school footy teams, making kids prefects, the ever fashionable "big brother" programs that every second school has set up for first years. I would bet my ass that your average deputy principal has no clue when they are using this catch phrase to dazzle mum and dad on open day that its roots are so bizarre.
I think it has become a mainstreamed catch phrase here as well. I myself certainly had no clue as to its origins as recently as three years ago. I also have to wonder whether this mainstreaming is, to some extent, intentional.
I shoud add that it is not that i view clergy abuse as a less serious issue. But to me the difference is twofold. It is about individual bad apples and the churches arrogant defence of them, not about an abusive educational philosophy or locking up citizens without right to due process. Secondly there are now and rightly so plenty of avenues for those who have been hurt by the church and the schools/communities involved have been forced to take complaints seriously and to put in sound preventative measures. The TTI is systemically abusive. Regulation can only go so far in stopping the most outrageous acts of abuse or neglect. Education needs to do the rest.
If you think that schools/communities take complaints about Boys Town seriously... well, I would disagree. And therein is a huge problem, IMO. Individual bad apples or not, the church defends them, protects them, and finds a way to obfuscate incidents of abuse to the point where victims have no effective recourse for justice, nor validation for the harm they've experienced. The community is behind the Church, not the victims, especially so when it comes to Boys Town.
How, indeed, would anyone really know the extent of abuses at Boys Town, given the powerful and well-oiled publicity machine the Catholic Church runs?
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That i can not answer definitively because i do not work for the church or the vatican! I dont know that in western countries (at least the more secular ones like the UK and australia) the church is all powerful anymore. At least in this part of the world joe public has been fairly sympathetic toward most complainants.
Moreover the church is not the only thing with a powerful publicity machine. This industry has one too. But this does not mean its victims have been silent. You can read the program publicity, you can read what those who have been through programs have to say and make up your own mind. What always came across as telling to me is that those who claim xyz program saved them often dont deny some of the wierder or more horrid experiences. The just figure it was what had to be done. I have not heard from either group at boystown
What I do know of catholic education is only from my own experiences of it. This may not echo somebody elses. My relatives have kids at catholic schools which have a boarding wing though their own kids are day students and as an agnostic or a cathnostic I cant say i agree with everything that the school teaches. I don't know if i would choose this for my own kids. But I do know that the precedure for reporting abuse is extremely thorough and transparent and the diocese we live in has made it mandatory for all catholic schools to have the same systems in place. The schools sex education program while flawed in many ways also talks about good and bad touching and what to do about it from a very early age.
I dont kid myself that this is because of the benevolence of the church. But there is no longer any conspiracy of silence that I can see. My own experiences (i graduated highschool in the 90s) were not of abuse either physical or emotional. I can remember in grade 3 the nun used to kiss each girl on the forehead as we left for the day but there was not anything sinister in it and most secular teachers in those days were a whole lot more tactile than they are today. I also remember once being smacked across the back of the leg by the same nun for climbing on a wall that was of of bounds because it was earmarked for demolition. The next year corporal punishment was banned in all schools. I appreciate that the population of boystown is more vulnerable that your average kid at a catholic day school or even a boarder but there are checks and balances in place and i have not yet heard any students accuse them of brinwashing techniques or communication interference or the rest of the insanity associated with this industry
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http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse
The Poper's own brother says he ignored allegations of abuse.
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Sorry to interrupt this thread, but.....
Father Flanagan's BOYS' TOWN
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :eek: :rofl: :rofl: :roflmao: :sue: :roflmao: :roflmao: :rofl: :rofl: ::puke::
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http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse
The Poper's own brother says he ignored allegations of abuse.
At boystown?????
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http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse
The Poper's own brother says he ignored allegations of abuse.
At boystown?????
Ya know, I think this is a problem endemic to the Catholic ministry across the board, which includes what goes on in places like Boys' Town. And part of that problem lies in not only the abuses themselves, but in how they handle them. Or don't handle them, depending upon how you choose to describe it.
Consequently, I do not see these five sexual abuse cases I brought up previously as an anomaly, save perhaps that they managed to see the light of day at all. Moreover, I find it no coincidence that these cases all cropped up around the same time. I think these young men took solace and strength from the fact that others saw fit to sue, whether or not they had communication with one another.
My guess is that there are more cases, some of which may well never reach the public's awareness.
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Ignorantia juris non excusat.
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Ignorantia juris non excusat.
Oh, I am sure that ignorance of the law has very little to do with it. After all, the Catholic Church considers itself above the law. It answers to a higher calling, one that ensures forgiveness, as well as a cushy stay at a pedophile-friendly mental health resort these days. I guess that's supposed to signify that the Church is keeping up with the times and becoming more "progressive," eh?
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In fact, shortly before these five sexual abuse cases hit the airwaves, the Omaha Archdiocese broached the issue publicly:
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KETV7abc OMAHA
Omaha Archbishop Discusses Sex Abuse Controversy (http://http://www.ketv.com/news/1867770/detail.html)
Curtiss Announced Abuse Review Board
POSTED: 11:50 am CST January 3, 2003
UPDATED: 9:25 am CST January 4, 2003
OMAHA, Neb. -- The archbishop of Nebraska's largest Roman Catholic diocese for the first time openly accepted questions on the controversy of sexual abuse in the church Friday.
Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss announced 11 members of an abuse allegation review board. Such review boards were made mandatory during a national conference of bishops in June.
The mandated came in a year when at least 300 of the 46,000 American priests have been removed because of allegations of molestation.
Curtiss said Catholic church leaders have learned there are, "sick people out there that you have to deal with."
In Nebraska, three Roman Catholic priests accused of such abuse were placed on administrative dismissal last summer. That decision by Curtiss baned Anthony Petrusic, Thomas Sellentin and John Starostka from publicly offering Mass.
Another priest, the Reverend Robert Allgaier, was sentenced to 2 years of probation and fined $300 for viewing child pornography over the Internet.
Review board members include a psychiatrist, police officer, physicians, psychologist, priest, counselor, attorney, social worker and the parent of a victim. They are: Dr. Kimberly Allen, Dr. Amanda Cervantes, Alan Harms, Dr. Michael Kelley, Gene Klein, Father Owen Korte, Dr. Stephen Lazoritz, Claire L'Archevesque, Craig McGarry, Steve Miller and Iva Mueller.
Copyright 2007 by KETV.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
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I dont disagree with your criticisms of the catholic Churches handling of abuse in general but I also dont believe in the guilty till proven innocent idea. 5 boys say 1 or 2 individuals molested them. I am willing to concede that these individuals possibly did molest more kids that havent come forward and that the church handled it the way it handled all other abuse cases. Badly. This is because the history is pretty consistent here
But I dont beleive (based on the fact that nobody has made this accusation) that boystown is an inherently abusive orgainzation in the way that most places in this industry are. I would go as far as agreeing that troubled or mentally ill children are best helped at home. This is why most western countries have done away with the orphanage model and most mainstream boarding schools encourage as much contact with home as possible. But to claim something is inherently abusive is a very big accusation. It happens to be true in the case of anywhere that runs like a prison which most troubled teen institutions do, but i dont see any evidence that boystown runs this way.
Dont get me wrong, if any boystown alum come out and described a school like cedu or straight or any other of these bizarre places with monitored mail and abusive therapy etc, i will change my view, but I think claiming that somewhere is "probably systemically abusive" plays into the hands of the Lon Woodberries of the world who try to write survivors and those who support them off as making unfounded accusations. I hope that I am right here, because boystown internationally provides a number of excellent family services, but if any boystown alum describe a school like the others in the system then it is all the proof i need to stand corrected.
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The problem with your approach, Oz girl, is that you're not really looking at systemic conditions which enable abuse. Rather, you ask for "proof" of actual occurrences and yet when I give you proof of said allegations, you say these are still not enough. Which says to me that ... until it gets to the point where the abuse is truly over the top, you may not even recognize that it is happening.
At what point does it cross the line where it is no longer just "isolated aberrant instances," but becomes "bona fide abuse" for you? At the risk of sounding crass, is there a set number per unit of time?
Ya see, it's not just the number of abuse cases that actually see the light of day, since those may well be artificially depressed. And it's not just the physically dangerous acts like unwarranted and dangerous restraints that go on. And it's not just the craziness of some forms of "therapy," like students being forced or manipulated into doing lap dances for staff like at MBA.
The abuse also has a lot to do with certain conditions of disrespect for another person's autonomy, and the belief that the ends justify the means. And this is certainly furthered by a certain self-righteous mindset that the program "knows best" as to what the kid really needs. When these last conditions are in place in any given program, you have set the stage for potential abuse. When actual abuses do occur in such a program, chances are, there's plenty more.
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Shortly after Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss announced (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29932&p=362007#p361915) the creation of an abuse allegation review board, the following news hit:
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WOWT.com
Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Abuse (http://http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/203686.html)
Father Peter vows to get answers
A lawsuit has been filed accusing a former Boys Town priest and a counselor of sexual abuse. Father Val Peter, the head of Father Flanagan's Boys Home, is vowing to get at the truth in a case that dates back to 1978.
Posted: 4:49 PM Jan 31, 2003
Updated: 9:05 PM Jan 31, 2003
A lawsuit has been filed accusing a former Boys Town priest and a counselor of sexual abuse. Father Val Peter, the head of Father Flanagan's Boys Home, is vowing to get at the truth in a case that dates back to 1978.
The allegations come from a man by the name of James Duffy. He now lives in Arizona.. but grew up in Nebraska and was a resident of Boys Town in the late 1970's.
The Reverend Val Peter says the allegations came out of the blue.
At a news conference late Friday afternoon, Father Peter said, "These things, if they happened, I want those people thrown in jail and the key thrown away. If they did not happen I will not allow Father Flanagan's dream to be tainted."
In the lawsuit, James Duffy claims that he was repeatedly abused on separate occasions by the Reverend James Kelly and family counselor Michael Wolf between 1978 and 1979.
Duffy's attorney claims the memories of the alleged abuse were repressed and just resurfaced over the past year.
Father Peter says he does not know the priest and counselor who are accused of the abuse because they were gone before he came to Boys Town.
He does know of James Duffy. Duffy is the son of one of Father Peter's first cousins.
While Father Peter does not know Duffy well, he says he was very troubled while he was at Boys Town.
Father Peter says, "Our records show, this would be an example, that he left four days before graduation, breathing threats to people, bragging about marijuana use, flipping the bird to folks. That doesn't prove it didn't happen. But it makes me wonder, did it?"
It's not yet clear where Father Kelly and Michael Wolf now live. In fact, the two are not even named in the lawsuit, in part, because Duffy's attorney has not been able to locate them.
The lawsuit names Father Flanagan's Boys Home and the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha, asking for unspecified of damages.
Father Peter says he doesn't think this lawsuit is based on any personal motive and Duffy's attorney has also stated that the family relationship has nothing to do with the lawsuit.
Gray Television, Inc. - Copyright © 2002-2010
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Lundington Daily News
Former Boys Town resident alleges abuse (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GlkmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yEsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7081%2C2439596)
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 1, 2003
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A man who lived at Boys Town, the home for wayward youths that was made famous by a 1938 Spencer Tracy movie, has filed a lawsuit alleging a priest and a counselor molested him in the 1970s.
James Duffy said in the lawsuit filed Thursday that he was repeatedly abused beginning in 1978 but repressed memories about it until a year ago.
Duffy, who lives in Arizona, is seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit names Father Flanagan's Boys Home, the parent company of what is now a nation-wide chain of homes for troubled youth, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha.
Neither the counselor, Michael Wolf, nor the priest, the Rev. James E. Kelly, was named as a defendant. They could not immediately be reached for comment. Neither is listed in the Girls and Boy's Town current employee directory.
The Rev. Val Peter, executive director of the parent company, was traveling Friday and not available for comment, a spokeswoman said.
The Omaha Archdiocese did not immediately return a call.
# # #
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Seems like that line between isolated and endemic got blurred months ago.
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I get your point and I think that in this industry it can sometimes be a dangerously fine line. Particularly when religion gets thrown into the mix. Any regular boarding school in some ways makes students more vulnerable to abuse than it's day school equivalent in that the students are far from home and in a somewhat institutionalized environment. I appreciate that this concern is greater when the student population is a vulnerable or at risk group.
But by your logic just about any mainstream catholic school day or boarding that ever had a bad parish priest who was quietly "moved on" is inherently abusive. This is where I would disagree. This and the fact that boys town takes only students that agree, in a real sense, that is give informed consent to go. In answer to your question this is where I would draw the line. No by a "unit numbers" approach.
If kids came forward saying that they signed on expecting one sort of institution but the day to day operations were completely different or reported that any other quack therapies were used I would change my mind. Another thing that is making me want more concrete evidence is the fact that boys town as an organization runs all sorts of welfare services for young people globally. Ive not heard any complaints in recent years about their operations.
While i accept that the repressed memory guy was not the only complainant against this priest, are you not at all sceptical about this as a technique being used in a court? After all it is a pretty crackpot theory. Most respectable doctors and therapists who have worked with traumatized people claim it is a load of rubbish and many of its practitoners also have engaged their patients in other coercive therapies like "holding therapy" that are as mad as most of those used in the industry.
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Not like this website will do anything to Father Flanagan's Boys Town. They have an impeccable reputation.
(http://http://richmondthenandnow.com/Images/Articles/Father-%20Flanagan-Boys-Town-2.jpg)
(http://http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BPZVzc5W894/SiY5WoePmJI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/gWOQOyLlYM0/s400/father_flanagan.jpg)
(http://http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/boystown.jpg)
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I would like to add a few general thoughts on isolated versus endemic. It is another fine line. For example programs often argue that a death or severe injury was an "isolated incident" on one level this is right. The incident was.
But what was not was the systemic abuse or neglect that lead to the death which had been occurring routinely as part of the general practice or "therapy" of the school. I think of Caterine freer as an example. One kid died in what they said was a "freak accident" when a heavy branch fell on him. Perhaps this was a terrible tragedy. But then a few more things happened that were a result of a neglectful or downright idiotic day to day precedure. Kids have come forward describing what sounds like a pretty hideous way to spend a month or 2 even if they have come out alive and said it was not 1 or 2 counsellors but the standard practice of the place. Sometimes the lines blur but there is a difference
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Father Edward Joseph Flanagan was born in 1886 in Ireland. He received his education in Ireland and in Rome. He was an American Roman Catholic clergyman. He finished his studies at the Jesuit University, Innsbruck, Austria. In 1912 was ordained a priest. In 1914, he served as an assistant pastor at Saint Patrick's Church, in Omaha Nebraska. Father Flanagan started the Workingmen's Hotel, which was a shelter for penniless men. After three years of this work, he devoted his work to the youth. He wanted to help rehabilitate the troubled young boys.
He started the Home for Homeless Boys that was located on 106 North 25th street in Omaha. Once this home was started, Father Harty relieved Father Flanagan of his pastoral duties and he was allowed to have two nuns to go with him. Many of the boys were sent to him by a court order, or other citizens and some boys just came in off the streets. The boys rode in a wagon pulled by a horse to get them to school only after Father Flanagan guaranteed the conduct of the boys would be appropriate.
This home was moved outside of Omaha about 10 miles and was renamed the Overlook Farm on October 22,1921. This was integrated as a village that housed over one hundred boys. The home was available for all boys no matter their religions or race. The boys themselves govern this village. The residents of Overlook Farm voted a change of name again to Boys Town in 1926. The site covers about thirteen hundred acres and has seventy-six family homes. Since the opening of the Boys Town in Omaha it has expanded to many countries and thrives today.
Father Flanagan had passed away in 1948 and shortly before his death he was asked if he worried the home would go on. He replied "God will send. The work will continue you see, whether I am there or not, because it is God's work, not mine". His follower was Nicholas H. Wegner and under his direction, the New middle school was built. He tired after twenty-five years of service. Father Robert Hupp oversaw the Boys Town operation for the next twelve years. In 1985, Father Valentine Peter was the fourth executive Director for Boys Town.
What is Boys Town exactly? Well it is a place that provides care and treatment for troubled youth. Girls were first allowed in Boys Town in 1979. The children that reside at the facility have experienced personal and/or family problems. Many suffer from emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Substance abuse is included in the many problems of these youths. Delinquent or pre-delinquent are accepted at the facility also.
In 1974, Boys Town made a change from an institutional-care service to one that focuses on family care. Today, there are about six young children that dwell in each home in the village and throughout the Boys Town around the country. The young adults live with surrogate parents. These parents go through many training classes and are married. These couples provide twenty-four hour care and support for their kids that live with them. The surrogate parents ensure that the physical, emotional and treatments needs are met for each of the children that live with them for a time. Boys Town has a unique teaching form. It is referred to as Boys Town Educational Model (BTEM) which is the modern version of the Teaching Family Model (TFM). The teaching method emphasizes on social skills and positive relations among the children and youth living in the family homes in Boys Town.
The self-government still remains an important part of Boys Town. All the residents have a say in the business part of Boys Town and also the rules of the homes they remain in. Since Boys Town has its own government it allows them to operate its own United States Post Office, fire department, police department, credit union, schools, churches, gift shops, and visitor center. Boys Town owns it's own farmland. This land provides the Town with it own food and the children that live there help work the land and help plant and raise the garden food. The farm is about four hundred acres.
Boys Town has now involved satellite sites. The services that are offered are Common Sense Parenting classes, which can help parents that have troubled children, emergency shelter services, and foster care with trained foster parents. For assistance for the foster care parents, a twenty-four hour hotline is available. There is also a family safeguarding service and the Boys Town residential program on satellite. Since 1993 there were thirteen satellite sites.
Boys Town organization operates the Boys Town National Research Hospital that was started in 1977. Since the hospital was built more than one hundred thousand children and young adults have been treated. The hospital working with hearing, speech, and learning disorders. There is a high school named for Father Flanagan that was started in 1983. Boys Town inspired three films. Boys Town made in 1938, Men of Boys town in 1941 which the saying "He ain't heavy, Father. He's m' brother" was introduced to the Boys Town during the movie that Spencer Tracy starred in and Miracle of the Heart in 1986.
Boys Town offers many services for the children whom need help and for families who need help. They have all the needs of the children in the Town; Education, counseling, parenting, guidance and much love and understanding. It had expanded much more than father Flanagan had ever dreamt possible and it has helped millions of children through the years and continues on today.
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isnt spamming a legitimate discussion with a clear program advertisement like this against the new forum rules? Psy?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/opini ... istof.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/opinion/18kristof.html)
I found this to be interesting.
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that was an interesting article. While particularly focused on the Catholic church because it is possilby the most openly patrichal and "boysclubby" of the christian churches, I think this dichotomy is shared by a lot of christian churches. I can remember here the first hospice for people with HIV and aids was a hospital run by the sisters of ST Vincent. Many other churches also have legitimate welfare arms which help with unconditional love and compassion the people that the rest of society turn their back on while having the most draconian internal practices. I know that while I only ever darken the doorstop of any church for somebody else's wedding or Christening I also have taken from a Catholic education a strong belief in social justice.
In relation to the Boys town discussion it remains to be seen for me whether Ursuses suspicion, that it is in fact a draconian way of growing the numbers of the catholic boys club is correct or if it is providing a legitimate social service to families and children that seek it's help.
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While i accept that the repressed memory guy was not the only complainant against this priest, are you not at all sceptical about this as a technique being used in a court? After all it is a pretty crackpot theory. Most respectable doctors and therapists who have worked with traumatized people claim it is a load of rubbish and many of its practitoners also have engaged their patients in other coercive therapies like "holding therapy" that are as mad as most of those used in the industry.
At the time, "repressed memory" was the only legal means by which they could bring Boys Town and the Omaha Archdiocese to court. It was the only way around the inhuman and, to my mind, ridiculous and unrealistic statute of limitations.
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KETV7abc OMAHA
Priest On Leave Following Abuse Charge (http://http://www.ketv.com/news/1955692/detail.html)
Former Boys Town Resident Filed Lawsuit Claiming Sexual Abuse
POSTED: 11:10 a.m. CST February 4, 2003
UPDATED: 11:45 a.m. CST February 4, 2003
OMAHA, Neb. -- A former Boys Town priest has been placed on administrative leave, KETV NewsWatch 7 is reporting Tuesday.
James Kelly worked in Omaha on the Boys Town campus in 1978. An Arizona man claims he was sexually abused by Kelly while at the school.
The man said he's been repressing the memories until recently. The man filed a lawsuit against Kelly last week.
Kelly now works in Carson City, Nev., as a prison chaplain.
The archdiocese has since put Kelly on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Copyright 2003 by TheOmahaChannel.com. All rights reserved.
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But by that standard any nutbar can come forward and claim that they have "represssed" a memory. While genreally I am in favor of statutes of limitations, it does become more complex in the case of child abuse cases as no kid can reasonably be expected to come forward. Im also not defending this individual priest. But given that programs themselves have on occasion convinced kids that they need to "recover" memories that don't exist and that it has been dismissed by the psychiatric establishment I do not think it should have a place in a just legal system. This can become a dangerous weapon in bitter divorce cases etc.
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But by that standard any nutbar can come forward and claim that they have "represssed" a memory. While genreally I am in favor of statutes of limitations, it does become more complex in the case of child abuse cases as no kid can reasonably be expected to come forward. Im also not defending this individual priest. But given that programs themselves have on occasion convinced kids that they need to "recover" memories that don't exist and that it has been dismissed by the psychiatric establishment I do not think it should have a place in a just legal system. This can become a dangerous weapon in bitter divorce cases etc.
And is the legal system in the United States ... "just?"
It is quite common — in sexual abuse cases involving ideological coercion — for 30-40 years to elapse before victims feel strong enough to come forward and withstand public scrutiny. Some of them never do. Where is the accommodation for that in the U.S. legal system?
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At any rate, here's another article on the Rev. James Kelly being put on leave. This one's from the Albany, New York, region; apparently that was his home base. It's substantially more in-depth than the news from Omaha, and also gives a brief synopsis of his career with the Catholic Church:
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The Daily Gazette (Albany, NY)
Tuesday, February 4, 2003
Accused priest placed on leave (http://http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XHohAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BooFAAAAIBAJ&dq=boys-town&pg=1389%2C922887)
Abuse at Boys' Town alleged; cleric was currently prison chaplain
By JILL BRYCE
Gazette Reporter
ALBANY — A priest investigated in the mid-1980s after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor at a church in Rensselaer was placed on administrative leave Monday by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese pending investigation of another molestation charge.
The Rev. James Kelly, who grew up in Green Island and served in many churches throughout the Capital Region, was removed Monday from all public ministry duties after a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Omaha, Neb. Kelly most recently has been a prison chaplain in Nevada.
The lawsuit, seeking $50,000, said Kelly sexually abused a boy while he served on the staff of Boys Town in Omaha during the late 1970s. The victim lived in a cottage at Boys Town from 1977 to 1979 and claims he was physically and sexually abused by Kelly, beginning in 1978. Kelly was spiritual affairs director at Boys Town at the time.
Boys Town was started by a priest to help homeless and delinquent boys, and is home to more than 800 abused and troubled boys and girls.
The alleged victim, who now lives in Arizona, claims to have repressed memories of the abuse until a year ago.
The Reno Diocese announced Monday that it, too, was barring Kelly from public ministry pending the outcome of the investigation.
The Albany Diocese received a complaint in the mid-1980s that Kelly sexually abused a minor when he worked at St. Joseph's in Rensselaer in 1983-84, according to the Rev. Kenneth Doyle, chancellor of the Albany Diocese.
The diocese said it investigated the claim and determined Kelly's behavior did not "constitute sexual abuse."
"As an added safety measure," Kelly was sent to a therapeutic facility for evaluation and therapy before returning to ministry, according to the diocese. No other claims were filed against Kelly while he served in the Capital Region, said Doyle.
Doyle also said no monetary settlements were made in connection with the claim against Kelly.
When Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard returned from the National Bishops conference in Dallas in 2002, he resubmitted the allegation made at St. Joseph's against Kelly in the 1980s for additional review, said Doyle.
It was brought before the diocese's sexual misconduct panel and the panel determined Kelly's behavior did not constitute sexual abuse.
Hubbard said he informed officials in the Reno Diocese of the allegation against Kelly when Kelly went there in the mid-1980s.
The bishop contacted Kelly on Monday and informed him of the diocese's decision to remove him from public ministry pending the outcome of an investigation into the Boys Town allegation.
Doyle said the Albany Diocese was informed of the lawsuit Sunday evening after a newspaper article appeared in Omaha and the archbishop in Omaha contacted Hubbard. Boys Town and the Archdiocese of Omaha are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Kelly strongly denied the allegation and in response to the lawsuit said he never molested anyone. "Without hesitation I can tell you that. Absolutely not," he told the Omaha World Herald.
He could not be reached for comment Monday. As recently as last week, Kelly was working as a prison chaplain in Carson City, Nev.
The Rev. Val Peter, director of Boys Town and a cousin of the accuser in the latest case, raised doubts about the accuser but said the institution will do a thorough investigation of the latest charge. "It could still have happened," said Peter. "We will find out and we will take action. We want the truth."
The lawsuit said Kelly used his job to "develop unhealthy, psychologically dependent relationships with male students and recruit them for sex."
"The Albany Diocese will review the case as it proceeds in the court. We will monitor it and determine an outcome," said Doyle.
Hubbard is on vacation in Florida and could not be reached for comment Monday.
Kelly, who was ordained in 1957, did graduate study in physics at the Catholic University of America and served until 1967 as an instructor in physics and in theology at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md.
When he returned to the Albany Diocese, he served as associate pastor in several parishes and as associate chaplain of the Newman Club at the University at Albany before he became principal at Keveny Academy in Cohoes where he served from 1969 until 1974.
He staffed the diocesan office of youth activities until September 1975, when he began working at Boys Town, where he remained until 1982.
He returned to the Capital Region and served in several parishes, including St. Joseph's in Rensselaer from 1983 to 1984, where the complaint against him originated, and also at St. Agnes/St. Patrick's in Cohoes from 1985 to 1988.
He did chaplain work at the Saratoga County Jail until he was granted permission by the Albany Diocese to live with family and provide ministry in Reno.
The diocese last June publicly identified and removed six priests after they admitted they sexually abused minors. Three other priests had previously been removed.
It has spent more than $2.5 million on settlements with victims.
Contact Jill Bryce at 432-4391 or [email protected].
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After James Duffy filed a lawsuit against Father Flanagan's Boys Town and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha, claiming childhood sexual abuse by the Rev. James E. Kelly and counselor Michael Wolf, the Rev. Kelly was placed on "administrative leave pending an investigation."
Then... some old abuse allegations against Rev. Kelly resurfaced from the Albany (New York) diocese, after additional (new) complaints were allegedly received:
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Albany Times-Union
New complaints rise against removed priest (http://http://www.corpun.com/uss00302.htm#10664)
8 February 2003
Albany -- Area attorneys say they received calls this week; the Rev. James F. Kelly denies sexual abuse
By Andrew Tilghman
Staff writer
Several people have come forward this week with new complaints of sexual abuse and misconduct by a priest who worked at a Rensselaer church and school in the 1980s and was removed from ministry on Monday.
The Rev. James F. Kelly on Friday maintained he never molested children but said he was a "strict disciplinarian" and occasionally told young boys to drop their pants for "just a few whacks on the bare behind."
Kelly, who also worked in parishes and schools in Cohoes, said he took groups of high school students for overnight stays at a camp in the Adirondacks in the early 1970s.
Bishop Howard Hubbard removed Kelly, 70, from his most recent post as a prison chaplain in Carson City, Nev., after Kelly was accused in a federal lawsuit last week of molesting a young boy in Nebraska the 1970s.
Hubbard removed him without a preliminary investigation because of a previous complaint about Kelly while serving in Rensselaer, church officials said. Kelly said the accusation dated to 1984 when he was living at the St. Joseph's parish in Rensselaer.
He said the complaint arose because he used corporal punishment and there was "nothing sexual about it." At the time, the diocese found Kelly's conduct did not constitute sexual abuse but sent him to residential therapy as a precautionary measure, church officials said.
Two Capital Region attorneys, Lee Greenstein and John Aretakis, said they received calls this week with new reports of sexual abuse by Kelly. They declined to discuss the cases.
Officials at the Albany diocese did not respond to inquiries whether they had received any new complaints about Kelly this week.
Several people from the St. Joseph's eighth-grade class in 1984, in interviews this week, recalled Kelly's one-on-one talks in the rectory and his sudden departure.
One 33-year-old man who was a 13-year-old eighth-grader at St. Joseph's that year recalled a confrontation with Kelly when the priest brought him into the rectory living quarters and told him to take off his pants.
The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he refused, and when Kelly persisted, the two got into a heated dispute. He was ultimately expelled because of the incident and finished eighth grade at public school in Rensselaer, the man said.
"All these years I've felt like I'm the bad guy for yelling at a priest -- like 'Wow maybe I should have let him pull my pants down and spank me,' " the man said.
The boundaries for appropriate corporal punishment should be clear, said Dr. Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea, a psychologist and sexual abuse expert who was chosen by American bishops to speak at their conference in Dallas last year.
"The old days, in the '50s, you would hear about kids receiving corporal punishment -- the Christian Brothers were famous for rapping kids on their knuckles. But it crosses the line of when you start having to disrobe, and it becomes, by definition, sexualized in some way."
"And the fact it's not in public is a problem. Corporal punishment was administered in public and was open in the classroom for everyone to witness. It wasn't done secretly," Frawley-O'Dea said.
Kelly was principal of the Keveny Academy in Cohoes from 1969 to 1974, and he said Friday that he often took groups of boys to a camp in the Adirondacks for weekend retreats.
"Usually six or seven at a time. No individuals at all, it was always a small group, a group," Kelly said.
"Oh, they snuck some beer up there and drank it while I was sleeping," he said. "In no way would I take kids away on the weekend to have beer."
After leaving Keveny, Kelly served as the diocese's director of youth activities until 1975, when he left the Capital Region.
He spent eight years as a chaplain at Boys Town, the home for wayward boys in Nebraska.
In 1978, Kelly allegedly molested numerous children living at the home, according to the lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Omaha by one of his alleged victims, James Duffy.
Duffy, who lives in Tucson, Ariz., had suffered "repressed memory" of the abuse until last year, when a news report about pedophile priests triggered awareness of his troubling past, the lawsuit said. Otherwise, the lawsuit would be barred by statute of limitations.
Duffy said Kelly physically and sexually abused him at the priest's residence on the Boy's Town campus, according to Duffy's attorney, William Walker of Tucson.
Kelly said he has no recollection of Duffy.
Kelly and a counselor who worked at Boy's Town are named in the lawsuit, but they are not defendants. The defendants include the Archdiocese of Nebraska and the home.
Kelly spent the late 1980s and early 1990s as a chaplain at the Saratoga County Jail.
In 1992, he moved to Nevada to live near his brother. Hubbard notified the Diocese of Reno of the complaint about Kelly from the 1980s, according to a church statement.
The Albany diocese considered prisons, jails, hospitals and nursing homes to be appropriate assignments for priests who sexually abused children, church officials have said.
Kelly is at least the 10th priest who worked in the Albany diocese in the 1970s whom church officials have identified as an alleged child molester. In June, Hubbard removed six of the priests from active ministry.
Also last summer, the Albany diocesan sexual misconduct panel reviewed Kelly's personnel file and found his actions did not constitute sexual abuse, according to the statement issued Monday announcing his removal.
Kelly said anyone making claims against him now was exploiting the sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the church nationwide during the past year.
"I think in the atmosphere today, a guy thinks, 'Here is a chance to get some money.' " Kelly said.
Corpun file 10664
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:bump:
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James F. Kelly — despite vehement claims of his innocence — hurriedly retires:
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
NEVADA PRISON SYSTEM: Chaplain retires after sex abuse allegations (http://http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Feb-08-Sat-2003/news/20648920.html)
Priest accused of abuse 25 years ago at Father Flanagan's Boys Town
By SEAN WHALEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
Saturday, February 08, 2003
CARSON CITY -- A chaplain with the Nevada prison system retired after he was named in a federal lawsuit that accuses him of abuse 25 years ago at Father Flanagan's Boys Town.
James F. Kelly, reached at home in the capital Friday, said the allegations made against him by James Duffy are completely false.
"Obviously, I was very surprised and hurt by it," Kelly said. "I absolutely, vehemently deny it."
Kelly, 70, said he automatically was placed on administrative leave by the Catholic Church after the allegation surfaced. Rather than remain on leave, Kelly said he decided to retire from his job as chaplain with the Department of Corrections, where he has worked for seven years.
Kelly is not named as a defendant, but is identified in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Omaha, Neb., by Duffy, an Arizona resident, against the home for troubled boys. Duffy said Kelly was one of two men who molested him at Boys Town in 1978.
Kelly said he worked at Boys Town for seven years, including the period mentioned in the lawsuit. He said he does not remember Duffy.
Kelly said he was told that Duffy recalled the abuse in a repressed memory released following news of another abuse lawsuit being settled.
Duffy filed the lawsuit Jan. 30.
Kelly said two people who lived at Boys Town during his years working there have called to offer their support.
"They backed me up completely," he said.
As a prison chaplain in the capital, Kelly said he ministered to thousands of inmates and coordinated religious services of all denominations for them.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Kelly is a former Albany, N.Y., diocesan priest who also was accused of sexual misconduct in New York in the 1980s. Kelly was accused of sexual misconduct in 1983 and 1984, while he worked in Rensselaer, N.Y., The Associated Press reported, citing a news story in the Albany Times Union.
Bishop Howard Hubbard told the Albany newspaper that the diocese investigated the complaint in the 1980s and determined that Kelly's actions did not constitute sexual abuse. However, he was ordered to undergo therapy and evaluation before returning to the ministry, Hubbard told the newspaper.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2010
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i guess this is no longer just a discussion on boystown, more about the law in general but to me the argument of oh well the law can be an ass sometimes is not good enough when it comes to prosecuting people. If repressed memory therapy is considered a crock by the mental health establishment it has absolutely no place in a court room. Particularly when the alleged crime took place over 30 years ago. There is little to no evidence that trauma victims remember nothing. If anything the common symptoms of trauma related mental illness like ptsd include regular flash backs. Good therapy can help people come to terms with the bad memories and even piece together what happened but not "uncover" stuff that they simply dont recall
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This repressed memories thing can be very dangerous. The reality is memories can be created. Some therapist are all to skilled at helping their dramatic and imaginative patients, (who can often-times have trouble telling reality from fiction on a good day), come up with some very destructive memories.
There may be cases of people who suddenly recall an event they had forgotten - I'm not arguing such a thing can never happen. What I am saying is, unless there is other evidence - others who were aware of the event and can give supportive testimony; or some kind of physical evidence that supports the memory - then it should never be accepted in an of itself as evidence of a crime.
I would like to see it become a crime for a therapist to manipulate fragile and impressionable patients into believing they are victims of abuse and assault that never occurred.
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This repressed memories thing can be very dangerous. The reality is memories can be created. Some therapist are all to skilled at helping their dramatic and imaginative patients, (who can often-times have trouble telling reality from fiction on a good day), come up with some very destructive memories.
There may be cases of people who suddenly recall an event they had forgotten - I'm not arguing such a thing can never happen. What I am saying is, unless there is other evidence - others who were aware of the event and can give supportive testimony; or some kind of physical evidence that supports the memory - then it should never be accepted in an of itself as evidence of a crime.
I would like to see it become a crime for a therapist to manipulate fragile and impressionable patients into believing they are victims of abuse and assault that never occurred.
Yeah. Remembering something on your own is one thing but if a therapist hypnotizes you or otherwise "helps" you remember, false memories can be created.
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i guess this is no longer just a discussion on boystown, more about the law in general but to me the argument of oh well the law can be an ass sometimes is not good enough when it comes to prosecuting people. If repressed memory therapy is considered a crock by the mental health establishment it has absolutely no place in a court room. Particularly when the alleged crime took place over 30 years ago. There is little to no evidence that trauma victims remember nothing. If anything the common symptoms of trauma related mental illness like ptsd include regular flash backs. Good therapy can help people come to terms with the bad memories and even piece together what happened but not "uncover" stuff that they simply dont recall
In this case it was likely a legal strategy since, at the time, there was no other way to press charges after an unrealistically short statute of limitations had run out. If I recall correctly, and I may well not, they changed the statute in Nebraska after these sexual abuse cases with Boys Town.
I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of repressed memory though... I think such a phenomenon exists in extreme trauma cases; however, I think it is probably far far more rare than is currently thought. Or, maybe everyone else already thinks that and I just don't know it.
I also think occurrence has a lot to do with a person's cultural or societal context at the time. Namely, the less accepting the culture, the more likely the repression. George Orwell wrote a great book in which the protagonist undergoes an episode of amnesia about her life: The Clergyman's Daughter.
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This repressed memories thing can be very dangerous. The reality is memories can be created. Some therapist are all to skilled at helping their dramatic and imaginative patients, (who can often-times have trouble telling reality from fiction on a good day), come up with some very destructive memories.
There may be cases of people who suddenly recall an event they had forgotten - I'm not arguing such a thing can never happen. What I am saying is, unless there is other evidence - others who were aware of the event and can give supportive testimony; or some kind of physical evidence that supports the memory - then it should never be accepted in an of itself as evidence of a crime.
I would like to see it become a crime for a therapist to manipulate fragile and impressionable patients into believing they are victims of abuse and assault that never occurred.
Yeah. Remembering something on your own is one thing but if a therapist hypnotizes you or otherwise "helps" you remember, false memories can be created.
This is one of the reasons that I (personally) am so anti-hypnosis. I suppose a lot of people have found benefit for certain things like smoking cessation and the like, but I guess I have so little trust in the mental health industry at this point, I dunno if I'd even trust them for something as noninvasive as that... :D
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Oh no way would I consent to hypnosis.
But it doesn't have to be hypnosis to create false memories. The constant suggestion that: " everyone I've ever treated with your symptoms was sexually abused - I am sure you were as well and you can't improve until you remember and talk through it" is more than enough for many patients to begin to remember awful things that never happened.
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Oh no way would I consent to hypnosis.
But it doesn't have to be hypnosis to create false memories. The constant suggestion that: " everyone I've ever treated with your symptoms was sexually abused - I am sure you were as well and you can't improve until you remember and talk through it" is more than enough for many patients to begin to remember awful things that never happened.
For that matter, the constant reminder that, "Every kid that I've ever dealt with that wasn't able to admit to misdeeds that I believe him or her to be guilty of ... has a real attitude problem and is morally compromising the community," is enough for some kids to begin to believe that they are inherently flawed. And that is the mindset of a lot of programs. In fact, it is enough for some kids to discount or downplay actual abuses that occur as part of or during their time in the program! At least for a while...
I'd wager that something of this ilk occurred to the young men whilst they were at Boys Town, though that's just my opinion! :D
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isnt spamming a legitimate discussion with a clear program advertisement like this against the new forum rules? Psy?
I don't really think that's spam. I think it's rather informative. I wonder if the good Fathers of Boys' Town have any dealings with Larry King of Lincon, NB (http://http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963215809?ie=UTF8&tag=circlofmiamithem&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0963215809) (http://http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=circlofmiamithem&l=as2&o=1&a=0963215809) (now that is an advertisement, but I think it's appropriate in context and therefore not spam)
Aside from that the whole thing sounds just swell, except for a couple of things. It's terrifying to think that a judge can order your child into an adoptive family against your or their will. I wonder how much contact these kids have with their real families or with the community nearest their compounds. Think about what the Jesuits were all about in Austria around the beginning of the rise of Naziism. Fuckin WOW! :timeout:
I think I'll go see if I can find some Boys Town networking sites laying around and get some answers.
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BTW, here's some background
http://www.educate-yourself.org/cn/fran ... erpt.shtml (http://www.educate-yourself.org/cn/franklincoverupexcerpt.shtml)
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I wasnt talking about the posts that ursus put up to illustrate his Point, I was talking about the piece Kristen put up in the middle of the discussion that was selling boystown, by giving a brief glowing history presumably from their website but that had nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
Ursus I guess where I am puzzled is why they would choose to rely on repressed memory testimony when as you have pointed out plenty of men have claimed that they remember pretty clearly. I Dont understand how a court can possibly throw out a legitimate memory for being too old but then accept an even older memory that was "repressed". usually there is a statute of limitations because the older a case is the harder it is to prove. Particularly when witnesses are dead etc. So with this in mind to throw something even more unreliable into the mix like a repressed memory is totally counter to the reasoning behind the original statute of limitations.
In terms of the priest in the middle of the scandal stepping down or retiring while proclaiming his innocence, I think the church has finally done something right here. If someone is accused of a crime against children it is standard practice for them to stop working with children while the case is running. This does not and should not negate their right to plead innocence, it just means that until a legal resolution is reached no child is at risk of being abused. In the event they are found not guilty it is a decision for the organization who hired them. Some companies "suspend" emloyment and give th job beck if you are innocent. Most ask you to resign or retire. Surely you would not advocate that he just be allowed to keep doing the job while on trial for such a serious offence?
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Surely you would not advocate that he just be allowed to keep doing the job while on trial for such a serious offence?
Lol. I don't know where you get the idea that I "advocate that he just be allowed to keep doing the job," if that's what you're implying... Quite the opposite. What *I* would advocate is probably best not put into print!
Also, James Kelly was not on trial, as was pointed out in the above articles.* James Duffy brought his lawsuit against Boys' Town and the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm sure that Kelly retired as a means of PR damage control; whether that was his choice or a "recommendation" from the Archdiocese of Reno where he was thence employed, I have no clue.
* At least in three of them. I went back and checked carefully and the shortest article (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29932&start=45#p362235) from the TV station got it wrong, so perhaps it's just as well that this point gets clarified. Thanks for bringing it up!
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but the lawsuit was specifically pertaining to what kelly is alleged to have done. So it seems perfectly reasonable to "retire" him for without him there would be no problem. Any company or organization would do the same. This still does not prove that children attend boystown without informed consent or that the day to day methods that the school use are abusive or harmful. It just suggests that 1 guy probably molested some boys and the school handled it badly. By those stnadards you would advocate nearly every catholic school and or parish older than about 10 years be shut down. Also many secular orgainizations like the Boy Scouts who have at any point in the past dealt with abuse allegations unprofessionally.
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but the lawsuit was specifically pertaining to what kelly is alleged to have done.
But not just Father James Kelly, also counselor Michael Wolf. And... James Duffy claimed that other kids were also molested by these two.
So... an independent investigation was launched as to what actually went on there. Gotta wonder just how "independent" it could possibly be, when Boys' Town defense council James Martin Davis is leading the team. Lol. Sometimes I can't believe they actually print this stuff and no one raises their eyebrows.
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KETV7abc OMAHA
Team Launches Investigation Into Boys Town Charges (http://http://www.ketv.com/news/1974275/detail.html)
Former Student Says He Was Sexually Abused At School
POSTED: 6:02 p.m. CST February 12, 2003
UPDATED: 10:46 a.m. CST February 13, 2003
OMAHA, Neb. -- An independent investigation is being launched Wednesday into sexual abuse allegations by a former Boys Town student.
The former student said a priest and counselor molested him at the school 25 years ago.
A team of four people plan to look into the allegations.
Defense attorney James Martin Davis is representing the school and said he'll lead the investigation.
Davis said the team is composed of investigators, including former FBI agent John Pankonin, former Omaha police detective Richard Circo and well-known private detective Dennis Whelan of Omaha.
Davis said the investigation would be very thorough.
"It's going to be handled with integrity, independent of Boys Town. That's how they want it done; those are my marching orders," Davis said.
Davis said he expected the results of the investigation to be made public when completed.
Copyright 2003 by TheOmahaChannel.com. All rights reserved.
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I'm not sure whether this piece of news came out as a result of the investigation, or whether it just came out, but ... it turns out that counselor Michael Wolf, one of the alleged abusers, died a dozen years prior:
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KETV7abc OMAHA
Alleged Abuser Dead In Case Against Girls And Boys Town (http://http://www.ketv.com/news/1991296/detail.html)
Former Resident Accused Priest, Counselor of Abuse
POSTED: 2:30 p.m. CST February 19, 2003
OMAHA -- One of two men accused in a lawsuit against Girls and Boys Town of molesting a student 25 years ago is dead.
Attorneys for both sides have been looking for the counselor. It turns out, he died 12 years ago.
A former student says 25 years ago he was sexually abused at Boys Town by two men, Michael Wolf, a counselor, and a priest, the Rev. James Kelley.
"Obviously, Father Kelly denies it; we would have expected Mr. Wolf to deny it," said James Martin Davis, an attorney for Girls and Boys Town.
Davis said the search for Wolf ended in Indianapolis. The former counselor died of a heart attack there in August 1990. He was 48.
People investigating the allegations will now rely on interviews with other students, teachers and parents to determine what's true and what's not.
The attorney representing the former student lives in Arizona. He said the counselor's death will make no difference because his client wasn't suing the counselor; the client is suing Girls and Boys Town along with the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha.
"By the time it goes to trial, we'll have abundant evidence that Wolf was a child abuser," the attorney said. "It won't matter whether he was alive."
Davis doubts the case will ever make it to trial, though, because of the statute of limitations. But the other attorney disagrees: He says that the statute of limitations doesn't apply because the student had repressed memories.
The investigation under way -- being completed by Davis at the request of Girls and Boys Town -- will take at least several more weeks.
The results will be made public, Davis said, no matter what the outcome.
Copyright 2003 by TheOmahaChannel.com. All rights reserved.
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A number of other men came forward, claiming childhood sexual abuse by one or both of the alleged abusers, the Rev. James Kelly and counselor Michael Wolf. To date, these have not yet evolved into lawsuits.
The following article is archived on the BishopAccountability.org website. Another edition of this same story which was circulated in Nebraska (with minor text variation) is accessible HERE (http://http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2003_02_23_Buttry_NumberAlleging_Kelly_AND_Wolf.htm).
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World-Herald [OMAHA]
Number Alleging Abuse at Boys Town Rises to 4 (http://http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_02_24_Buttry_NumberAlleging.htm)
By Stephen Buttry
February 23, 2003
PHOENIX - The number of former Boys Town residents who say they were sexually abused, or fended off sexual advances, in the 1970s and '80s by two staff members of the famed Omaha refuge for children is now at five.
One of the men, Lance Rivers of Phoenix, provided The World-Herald with extensive hospital records that show Boys Town investigated sexual abuse allegations against counselor Michael Wolf, who died in Indiana in 1990.
Rivers, now 35, claims that Wolf initially asked to watch him masturbate, then fondled him and performed oral sex on him, paying him off with baseball cards for nearly nightly abuse in the early 1980s.
Another Arizona man, James Duffy, sued Jan. 30, alleging that Wolf and the Rev. James Kelly sexually abused him while he was at Boys Town in the 1970s. Duffy has declined an interview request through his attorney, William Walker of Tucson.
Wayne Garsky, now living in Oakland, Calif., screamed "Yes!" when told recently that someone else had accused Kelly of sexual abuse. "I'm 35 years old, and I've been waiting for this for so long." Garsky said Kelly fondled his crotch through his clothes during confession.
A fourth man, who lived in Wolf's house at Boys Town and spoke only on condition that his name not be used, said Wolf and Kelly abused him in the 1980s.
Rivers' older brother, John Rivers, now of Neapolis, Ohio, says Wolf made sexual advances but did not abuse him.
Kelly told The World-Herald that he did not sexually abuse boys.
Kelly and Wolf left Boys Town in 1983, a year before Archbishop Daniel Sheehan appointed the Rev. Val Peter to succeed Monsignor Robert Hupp as executive director at Boys Town. Peter assisted Hupp for a year before Hupp retired in 1985. The organization changed its name to Girls and Boys Town in 2000.
Peter declined to be interviewed for this story.
James Martin Davis, an Omaha attorney hired by Boys Town this month to handle allegations of sexual abuse, said if any boys "suffered at the hands of renegade employees," Peter will make "a real effort to make these kids whole again."
Peter and Davis have vowed to protect the legacy of the home's beloved founder, Father Edward Flanagan, whether that means fighting false allegations or atoning for the actions of abusive former staff members.
In announcing an investigation of the lawsuit's allegations, Davis said Kelly and Wolf would have abused other youths if Duffy's allegations were true. He said Friday that investigators have found no evidence of sexual abuse in Boys Town files or in interviews with former residents, including about 10 who lived with Wolf.
Hospital records show that Lance Rivers told Peter in 1991 that Wolf had abused him eight years earlier. Boys Town discounts the abuse claim because Rivers has a long history of mental illness.
"I couldn't help it that I was mentally ill," Rivers said in an interview at his Phoenix apartment. The memory of Wolf's abuse, he said, "drove me insane."
Determining the truth can be difficult in any sexual abuse case, especially one that happened many years ago. Few molesters commit their crimes with witnesses around. Experts in child care and sexual abuse say the very circumstances that bring troubled youths to a place such as Boys Town can make them more vulnerable to abuse and can provide grounds to question their credibility.
"Every one of them was a problem," Hupp said last week.
Davis said he will ask Kelly and any accusers to take a polygraph test.
Many former residents say Boys Town provided the structure and guidance they needed to live happy, productive lives. Former residents, including some who knew Kelly and Wolf, have said in recent interviews that no one molested them and that they doubt others were abused.
Jim Dornacker of Omaha remembers Kelly coming for dinner to the Boys Town house where he lived. "He was very professional," Dornacker said. "When he prayed with you, he'd touch the back of your head. . . . It was almost like God was sitting on your shoulder, saying, 'Hey, I'm here.' "
Garsky remembers Kelly differently: "He was a freak in confession. . . . He would touch you and he would feel you." Garsky said he did not report the abuse because he did not think anyone would believe him. "This was a man of God."
The former resident who asked that his name not be used said Kelly abused him during confession. But the man did not provide details.
Rivers said Kelly did not abuse him but did ask him once in confession to pull down his pants. Rivers said he left and never went to confession with Kelly again.
"Every bit of that's absolutely false," Kelly said Friday from Carson City, Nev., where he was a prison chaplain until Feb. 3, when Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., suspended him from the ministry. Kelly was ordained in the Albany Diocese and served as a priest there before and after working at Boys Town.
Davis said his investigation has not turned up any allegations about Kelly beyond those raised by Duffy in his lawsuit.
"If Father Kelly is guilty of doing any of these things, particularly in confession, Father Peter would want to hang him by his Roman collar," Davis said. "That is not only a violation of his holy orders, but it's a desecration of the sacrament of confession."
Lance Rivers was a runaway and a victim of physical abuse before coming to Boys Town in December 1979 from Toledo, Ohio, at the age of 12.
He was an avid baseball player and fan. Every two weeks, he would take his $11 paycheck for chores at the high school office and spend it all on baseball cards.
In early 1981, Rivers said, he moved into the Boys Town home at 116 Maher Circle where Wolf lived with several boys.
After Boys Town converted in the 1970s from dormitories to family homes, most boys lived with married couples. Wolf was the last single person who lived with boys in the new role of "family teacher."
Wolf taught for at least four years at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Omaha. The Rev. William L'Heureux, pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes, said church directories show that Wolf taught at the school from 1970 to 1974. Boys Town records show that boys and supervisors gave Wolf high marks on his evaluations.
Rivers gives this account of the abuse he alleges by Wolf:
One night a few months after Rivers moved in, Wolf was making a routine bed check and caught Rivers masturbating. The next day Wolf asked Rivers, "What could I do to get you to do that for me?"
Rivers said he would need some "dirty magazines" and wanted to be allowed to smoke cigarettes. Wolf, expressing concern that Rivers spent all his money on baseball cards, also offered to buy him cards. Their deal was that Wolf would buy a box each of Topps, Fleer and Donruss cards every two weeks.
"I was scared, nervous, but I saw an opportunity," Rivers recalled. "I never had nothing in my life. And here was this guy asking me to do something I thought was fun, and he'd give me baseball cards."
For their first encounter, Wolf drove Rivers in a Boys Town car to a convenience store and bought four pornographic magazines. Then Wolf drove to Walnut Grove Park at 150th and Q Streets, where Rivers masturbated while Wolf watched.
The next time, Wolf told Rivers to come to the dining room at night. "He would already have the magazines down there. He would shut the drapes and close the door and lock it."
At Wolf's instruction, Rivers took off his clothes and paraded around the room, even climbing on the table and prancing about. "I blocked it out," Rivers said. "I didn't think about the consequences at the time. All I thought about was the cards."
In the dining room, Wolf started touching Rivers. In later episodes, Wolf performed oral sex on him, a progression that resulted in doubling the card payment. "Only one time did he want me to touch him," Rivers said. The boy didn't want to, and Wolf didn't ask again.
Rivers says the abuse continued every night some weeks, even on vacations Wolf took with the boys.
The youth who asked that his name not be used said Wolf sexually abused him on a vacation to Colorado Springs.
Rivers said his payoffs from Wolf filled a trunk with cards. A letter to his mother boasts that he displayed 840 cards on his bulletin board. He said Wolf took him to card shows and bought him expensive cards of Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron.
John Rivers remembers that his brother "had a baseball collection that was the envy of the whole state of Nebraska."
A 1983 fire that filled the house with smoke on a Sunday morning led to Wolf's departure. Lance Rivers and the youth who alleged abuse by Kelly and Wolf said no one called the fire department and Wolf, his assistant, Bob Marceau, and the boys put out the fire.
Everyone else in the village was at church, and the fire escaped notice initially. The former residents said Wolf told the boys not to tell anyone and directed Marceau and the boys in cleaning up the smoke damage. Marceau would not comment for this story.
Davis, the Girls and Boys Town attorney, confirmed that Wolf resigned after Boys Town officials learned about the fire two months later. Boys Town records show that he said he started the fire in his bathtub, burning "girlie magazines" confiscated from the boys.
John Rivers, Lance's older brother, moved to Boys Town after the fire. Wolf invited him into his apartment, John said. "You could smell the smoke damage in his bedroom really strong." John also saw "a huge pile of pornography at least knee high."
He said Wolf "asked me to masturbate for him."
John, 18 at the time, declined. "On another occasion, he had offered to take me to a brothel in Council Bluffs. He wanted to watch me have sex with one of the hookers there." The youth also declined that offer, he said.
After word of the fire leaked out, Wolf told Lance Rivers that he was going to be fired and asked Rivers to move with him to Lafayette, Ind. Rivers said he wanted to go home and live with his father. Wolf drove Lance and John to the bus station and bought them tickets home.
An obituary in the Lafayette Journal and Courier said Wolf worked for six years as a counselor at the United Methodist Children's Home in Lebanon, Ind., and died of a heart attack in Indianapolis Aug. 19, 1990.
Gary Davis, director of the Indiana home, said no one there has complained of abuse by Wolf.
Living with his father didn't work out for Lance Rivers. When he asked to return to Boys Town in 1984, he said, he was quizzed by Lou Palma, who supervised Wolf.
"Lance, did you have sexual relations with Mike Wolf?" Palma asked.
"I said 'no' because I had to come back to Boys Town," Rivers said. "It would have ruined everything for me."
Palma, now living in Las Vegas, declined to be interviewed for this story.
Hospital records show Boys Town did investigate sexual abuse allegations against Wolf. Records from Rivers' 1991 hospitalization at the St. Joseph Center for Mental Health say that Mark Graham, who worked with Rivers following graduation in Boys Town's continuing care program, told a St. Joseph social worker that an "investigation of sexual abuse allegation by Lance was done with the male staff involved." The records identify Wolf as the alleged abuser.
Graham, now living in Colorado, confirmed the investigation but did not recall details. Davis, the attorney, said his investigators have seen no evidence of the investigation in Boys Town files.
Until 1991, Rivers says, he told no one other than his brother John about being abused by Wolf. The secret, Lance said, "was destroying me inside." He said he would spend holidays alone in a park, smoking marijuana, listening to music and crying. He had lost his job and was distraught and destitute.
In 1991, Rivers told his former family teachers about the abuse, then met with Peter and Palma at Boys Town April 24, 1991. Rivers said he told them his story. "The first thing that came out of Val Peter's mouth was 'prove it.' "
Rivers says he asked Peter for a loan. St. Joseph records say Rivers "attempted to blackmail Father Peter for $10,000 cash."
Rivers ran from the meeting but continued repeating his allegation to other staff members in the days that followed. Hospital records show and Rivers admits that at one point he threatened to kill Peter. "It was a blind threat. I was never going to carry it out."
He says he stormed into church one Sunday when Peter was preaching. "I was sweating and angry and I just looked at him. I wanted to stop the whole church thing right there. . . . Something snapped inside me that said, 'Wait a minute, Lance.' "
Instead, he took Communion from Peter. "He put his hand on my right shoulder and he said, 'God be with you.' "
Finally, Rivers decided to kill himself. On May 17, 1991, he drove his girlfriend's Trans Am around Boys Town. When he turned onto West Dodge Road and saw Father Flanagan's church, he said, "Father Flanagan, I'm coming to see you."
Police reports show that Rivers drove east down the westbound lanes, causing a five-car crash. No one was seriously injured.
Rivers spent more than a month at St. Joseph, committed by the Douglas County Board of Mental Health on a petition from Boys Town. Over the next 11 years, he was hospitalized nine times, according to records he gave The World-Herald. The records describe him as paranoid, delusional and abusing drugs.
Records show Rivers was diagnosed as bipolar, with post-traumatic stress disorder from being abused. In at least 13 instances, the records cited sexual abuse.
Rivers says he has been off illegal drugs since July 15. He takes two prescription drugs to control the chemical imbalance that causes bipolar disorder. He is hoping to attend vocational school in Phoenix to learn about heating and air-conditioning. "I'm trying to straighten my life out."
He admitted his mental illness, discussing it in great detail and providing 116 pages of records. "Just because I was mentally ill doesn't mean I'm not a victim," Rivers said. "I'm not a psychopath. I was abused."
He remains especially bitter toward Peter. "He pulled a Pontius Pilate on me. He washed his hands of the situation."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.
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Despite the additional voices confirming sexual abuse at Boys Town, former priest James Kelly continues to deny any and all wrongdoing:
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CBS News.com
Abuse Allegations Probed At Boys Town (http://http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/23/national/main534066.shtml)
Former Priest Denies Molesting Boys; Considers Filing Lawsuit
By Jarrett Murphy
OMAHA, Neb., Feb. 25, 2003
(AP) A former priest at Boys Town, the fabled home for wayward youths, on Monday denied accusations that he sexually abused boys.
Former Boys Town pupil James Duffy alleged in a lawsuit last month that the Rev. James Kelly and a counselor, the late Michael Wolf, repeatedly molested him in the late 1970s.
The suit named neither Kelly nor Wolf as defendants, instead naming Boys Town and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha.
On Sunday, the Omaha World-Herald reported that four other men have made sex abuse allegations against Kelly and Wolf. None has sued.
Addressing the lawsuit and the other allegations, Kelly said: "I definitely deny it."
"The stuff that is coming out now, they are coming out of the woodwork," Kelly said in a telephone interview from his home in Carson City, Nev.
He said he's considering a defamation of character lawsuit: "Somebody said I should be proactive, and I'm thinking about it."
James Martin Davis, the attorney hired by Boys Town to lead an investigation into Duffy's allegations, said the home will probe the new allegations as well.
"I'm concerned with the validity of all these allegations," he said.
One of the men who lodged the new complaints, 35-year-old Wayne Garsky of Oakland, Calif., told The Associated Press on Monday night that he was at Boys Town in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"I was 12 years old, dude, and I was put in a place I thought was safe and it wasn't safe," Garsky said.
Kelly was accused of sexual misconduct in 1983 and 1984 in New York, but two investigations by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany found the allegations not credible.
Both Wolf and Kelly left Boys Town in 1983. The school's name was changed to Girls and Boys Town in 2000.
The home was made famous by the Oscar-winning 1938 Spencer Tracy movie "Boys Town."
©MMIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Here is where the state really should have stepped in (if not earlier) to conduct its own investigation. Didn't Nebraska care about the truth? Maybe not. The team headed by the Boys Town lawyer "can't find anything," which is not too surprising. Why would they want to?
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WOWT.com
New Lawsuits Threatened (http://http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/252271.html)
Local investigation is stalled
Posted: 10:00 PM Mar 11, 2003
An investigation of alleged sexual abuse at Boys Town years ago is now one month old and, so far, the team hired by Girls and Boys Town to investigate, has uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing.
Omaha attorney James Martin Davis and three investigators were asked to conduct a neutral investigation but the key witnesses are not talking to them.
Davis says, "The disconcerting fact is that fact that the people who allegedly made the allegations haven't talked to us."
When Davis began the investigation, one person had made allegations. Now, four people have made allegations against Boys Town.
One of them, James Duffy, filed a lawsuit five weeks ago. Duffy, who now lives in Arizona, claims he was physically and sexually molested by counselor Michael Wolf and Father James Kelly in the late 1970s.
Davis says three others who have made similar allegations are not talking.
He says, "If they came to us, we'll listen with a willingness to be convinced in terms of what these allegations are and do whatever we can to objectively interview those allegations."
To that, Duffy's attorney, William Walker, says he's skeptical that Davis and his investigators are neutral since they're being paid by Girls and Boys Town but he says he's open to answering questions on behalf of his client and other alleged victims who have contacted him.
Walker says, "In the short time I had in Omaha with my investigator we were able to uncover additional evidence that both Wolf and Kelly engaged in molestation activities at Boys Town. I don't know why investigators who have a permanent base in Omaha can't find the same information we found."
Meanwhile, five weeks after filing the lawsuit, Davis questions why the Arizona attorney still has not served the papers to Girls and Boys Town so the civil lawsuit can go forward.
Davis says, "I'm really suspicious that this Walker really doesn't know what he's doing."
Walker says the papers are now on the way. He says that he has talked with a number of alleged victims and adds that he may be filing more lawsuits against Girls and Boys Town in the future.
Davis says he needs to know the specific allegations in these cases so that he can ask specific questions when he interviews Father Kelly. The counselor named in the allegations died several years ago.
Davis also says that he'd like to give the alleged victims polygraph tests but he says James Duffy's attorney won't allow that.
Gray Television, Inc. - Copyright © 2002-2010
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The second Lawsuit finally gets filed. The plaintiff, known only as "John Doe" at this point, alleges abuse at the hands of the same two perpetrators, but from a different time period than that noted in James Duffy's suit.
The following article is archived on the BishopAccountability.org website.
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Omaha World Herald [NEBRASKA]
Second Suit Alleges Boys Town Abuse (http://http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2003_03_25_Buttry_SecondSuit_James_E_Kelly_10.htm)
An Unidentified Man Says he was Molested by the Rev. James Kelly and Michael Wolf
By Stephen Buttry
March 25, 2003
A second man has filed suit alleging sexual abuse by a priest and a counselor when he was at Boys Town.
The suit was filed Tuesday in Douglas County District Court on behalf of a Nebraska man identified only as "John Doe." The suit says the man will be identified to the court and the defendants.
James Duffy, now living in Arizona, filed suit Jan. 31, alleging that he was abused in the late 1970s at Boys Town by the Rev. James Kelly and Michael Wolf, a counselor who lived in a house with several boys.
The John Doe who filed suit Tuesday alleges abuse by Kelly and Wolf starting in about 1982. The youth lived at Boys Town from 1981 to 1987.
The suit was filed against Father Flanagan's Boys Home, the legal name of the organization that now goes publicly by Girls and Boys Town. Also named as a defendant is Kelly, now living in Carson City, Nev. Wolf died in 1990. Both left Boys Town in 1983.
Kelly has denied sexually abusing boys. James Martin Davis, attorney for Girls and Boys Town, was out of his office and did not return a phone call Tuesday morning.
Like the earlier lawsuit, the suit filed Tuesday does not detail how or where the alleged abuse occurred. It charges that Kelly and Wolf "each engaged in separate, wide-ranging plans to use their influence and positions" at Boys Town to sexually abuse youths who lived there.
The petition says Boys Town knew or should have known about Kelly's and Wolf's behavior. The suit accuses Boys Town of negligence in hiring and supervising the men.
The man filing the suit "will be emotionally and mentally scarred for life," the petition says. The suit says that the man's memory of the sexual abuse was repressed. He started recovering the memories on or after March 27, 2002, the suit says.
The lawsuit was filed by William Walker of Tucson, Ariz., the lawyer who also filed the Duffy suit. Walker is assisted in this case by Dale Romatzke of Kearney, Neb.
In addition to the two men who have sued, two other men alleged in interviews with The World-Herald that Wolf or Kelly abused them while they lived at Boys Town in the 1980s. Lance Rivers of Phoenix said Wolf abused him, and Wayne Garsky of Oakland, Calif., alleged abuse by Kelly.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.
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So I posted this ad to Lost Angels' Craigslist and a similar one to Lincoln, NB.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/vn ... 91439.html (http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/vnn/1729391439.html)
No copy pasta allowed on CL, though, so I'd have to edit for each area. I don't want each version to look more and more tortured like scam/spam language. So if anybody wants to re-write it in your own words and post to another area that'd be kewl! Here are the locations
http://www.girlsandboystown.org/locations (http://www.girlsandboystown.org/locations)
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No takers yet, eh?
My guess is that a very large percentage of Boys Town clients are those who avail themselves of their community support services and in-home family services, which are at the least invasive end of what Boys Town calls their "Integrated Continuum of Care (http://http://girlsandboystown.org/approach/continuum)." Hence, it's easy to see how people might have mixed feelings about, and some reticence towards, exposing abuses which have occurred. Overall, Boys Town would appear to do more good than bad. Whether true or not, such a mindset does nothing to address the abuse nor offers appropriate redress to its victims.
As Blombrowski so aptly states in this post (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=26397&p=362218#p331757) in another thread, emphasis added, they are a "multi-service agency - they have as many programs designed to keep kids out of residential care as residential programs. ...All this is to say, depending on how you define the problem, Boys & Girls Town is either part of the problem of part of the solution, maybe even both."
My concerns, of course, lie primarily with the Boys Town programs which are at the other end of that continuum.
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If boystown currently appears to do no more bad than good it might be that it is not inherently abusive any more than the boy scouts or any catholic parish school are. Given the amount of people who have come forward to complain about systemically abusive practices at just about everywhere else that operates under this system, i dont see why there would be an irrational fear of doing the same at boystown. Particularly since it is a place kids choose to attend which is the key difference bwtween it and just about evry other gulag. As i have said in the past I don't know whether i really support an orphanage sort of model for kids who genuinely can not live at home and so to some extent i agree with blombro's post. An institution is not a home. But to accuse a place of systemic abuse there needs to be some recent evidence. Particularly when boys town provides many legitimate social services.
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You are a very devout catholic aren't you?
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LOL no. I assume you want to get a bit of a rise here and i am bored today so will give it. I am an agnostic. Not because i have any particularly bitter feelings toward the church or organized religion. I just cant picture myself sitting on a cloud in a hospital gown.
If you want to start a discussion on all the things i think are disturbing or wrong about the church, particularly their approach to abuse accusations or the somewhat unhealthy view of human sexuality or contraception that the church can hav,e then be my guest. Whether i think that the damaging effects of this outweigh the genuine compassion and concern with social justice that many rank and file clergy of all religious stripes show on a daily basis, i honestly dont know. I know that many people much brighter and kinder than me have devoted their life to what they see as service of god and i take my hat off to them. Not because of their faith but because of their lifetime of selfless acts and their search for knowledge.
I also know that fanatical blind faith leads people to some pretty dark places and has allowed terrible abuse to flourish. This means that some clergy are real evil pricks. their damage to the community is endless. Others are not so much evil as stupid and ignorant and mortifyingly anti intellectual. It does seem to me that such people of faith have the loudest media voice in any religious debate and this saddens me. It certainly seems that the religious right has taken it upon itself to speak for every person of faith and that the media has let it.
But i think that this is all a matter for the free for all forum.
As I have said all along if a boystown alum stands up and says that the general practices of the place mirror the rest of the industry then i will have no reason not to believe them. I also hope that the guilty parties involved in this case are suitably punished and that Boystown has been forced by the diocese to take professional standards seriously. I would hope that is now the same for any school anywhere regardless of its religious background. If not then any organization should be shut down. If this makes me some sort of jesus freak then i guess so be it.
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I think any time you are dealing with a program that utilizes a 'round the clock therapeutic milieu, especially one that's ideologically driven, and which wields an inordinate amount of power over not only how alleged abuse is investigated and adjudged within the program, but also by the local community... you run the risk of outright abuse as well as abuse brought about through coercive thought reform.
That's my 2¢, and that's been my experience, fwiw...
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Back to the news articles... Yet a third lawsuit gets filed:
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KETV7abc OMAHA
Third Lawsuit Alleges Sex Abuse At Boys Town (http://http://www.ketv.com/news/2159405/detail.html)
Attorneys File Latest Lawsuit Thursday
POSTED: 1:21 p.m. CDT April 25, 2003
UPDATED: 2:14 p.m. CDT April 25, 2003
OMAHA, Neb. -- Boys Town faces a third lawsuit claiming sexual abuse from decades ago at the home for wayward youth.
Phoenix attorney William Walker said Friday more lawsuits will follow, but he is refusing to say how many more.
Boys Town officials said the claims are unfounded.
Lance Rivers, of Phoenix, a former Boys Town resident, claims in the latest lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court that he was abused multiple times by a counselor from 1981 to 1983.
It is the third lawsuit claiming abuse by the late Michael Wolf, a counselor at Boys Town from 1969 to 1983. He died in 1990. The other lawsuits also allege abuse by the Rev. James Kelly around the same time.
Kelly left Boys Town in 1983. He has adamantly denied the allegations.
Copyright 2003 by TheOmahaChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The Rev. James Kelly may continue to adamantly deny the allegations, but ... these allegations sound awfully similar to complaints made back in Albany, New York:
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Omaha World-Herald [NEBRASKA]
Priest's N.Y. accusers shocked to hear of his move to Boys Town (http://http://www.corpun.com/uss00305.htm)
3 May 2003
By Stephen Buttry
World-Herald Staff Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. - Before the Rev. James Kelly came to Boys Town in the 1970s, he was urging boys to drop their pants in the principal's office at a New York high school, several former students there say.
One former student alleged in a recent interview that Kelly molested him in the office after telling him to pull down his pants.
"He touched me and told me, 'Don't be afraid. God will forgive you,'" said the 43-year-old Albany man, who agreed to talk on the condition that he be identified only by his first name, Bob.
Bob was one of six former students at Keveny Memorial Academy in Cohoes, N.Y., who told in recent interviews with The World-Herald about conversations in Kelly's office that often turned to sex and masturbation.
Another former student, identified only as David, told the Albany Times-Union that Kelly molested him after asking him to drop his pants for a spanking.
One former student remembers being "shocked by the absurdity" when he learned Kelly was going to work at Boys Town.
Three others agreed, saying they recalled laughing at the news. "We all said, 'The poor kids at Boys Town,'" one said.
Kelly was accused in recent lawsuits of molesting two boys when he was at Boys Town from 1975 to 1983. A third man said in an interview with The World-Herald that Kelly molested him while he was at Boys Town. Those lawsuits also allege abuse by Michael Wolf, a former counselor who left Boys Town in 1983 and died in 1990. A third lawsuit alleges abuse only by Wolf.
James Martin Davis, the attorney hired by Boys Town to investigate the allegations raised in the lawsuits, said Boys Town received no indication of sexual misconduct before hiring Kelly.
Kelly denies abusing boys in New York or at Boys Town. He said he spanked boys with their pants down, a practice he said was acceptable at the time.
"I used to tell parents the only way you should discipline a child is to hit him on his bare butt with your bare hand," Kelly said in an interview this week from Carson City, Nev., "I'm in trouble now because I followed the advice I gave parents. . . . There was no fondling. There was no touching of genitals at all."
He acknowledges that he talked to boys about masturbation, but says he brought it up only in asking the youths about possible sins they might confess.
After the first lawsuit was filed, Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard placed Kelly on administrative leave, pending an investigation. Kelly was a prison chaplain in Carson City.
The Albany Diocese investigated a complaint against Kelly in the 1980s, after he returned to New York from Boys Town, and concluded then and in a review last year that the incident did not constitute sexual abuse. As a precaution, though, the diocese sent him for therapy.
Ken Goldfarb, communication director for the Albany Diocese, said the investigation is continuing. He did not know details of the 1980s incident.
"Whatever that event was, it was enough to prompt some sort of evaluation and therapy," Goldfarb said.
Kelly said that complaint related to his spanking kids on their bare bottoms. Both investigations, he said, concluded that "there was nothing sexual in that at all." His therapy, he said, had to do with "anger and rigidity."
The accusations by former students at Keveny and Boys Town have similarities:
• Former students from both places, including some who don't say they were molested, said Kelly asked them uncomfortable, detailed questions about masturbation and other sexual practices.
• Former students from both places say Kelly asked improper questions during confession. Two former Boys Town youths say Kelly molested them during confession.
• Former students from both places recall him encouraging them to pull down their pants.
Those who say they resisted Kelly's encouragement to drop their pants say he never molested them. They spoke only on condition they not be identified.
Some recall him staring at the genitals of naked boys.
"This priest never looked above our waistlines in the 10 minutes that he grilled us," recalled a 45-year-old Albany man. He said Kelly stopped him and his brother as they came out of the shower after baseball practice, the last boys to leave.
A Keveny classmate of that man said another youth stripped to retrieve a dock that was floating away at a church camp on Lake Luzerne, where Kelly often took groups of youths.
Kelly walked up as the naked youth came ashore. "Kelly was talking right to his (penis)," the former student said. "He never took his eyes off."
Kelly said he did not recall such incidents.
The former Keveny students said that when teachers sent them to the principal's office for discipline, Kelly asked uncomfortable questions, then presented manipulative choices.
A baseball player said he had to choose six weeks of detention, missing nearly the whole baseball season, or physical punishment. When he chose spanking, the former student said, he faced another choice: 30 to 40 swats with pants up, fewer with pants down but underwear up and fewer still on his bare bottom.
Another former student got the choice between detention and private confession.
Kelly said he did give boys the choices of punishments and did give fewer swats if they took their pants down. However, he denied presenting confession as a disciplinary choice.
Whether in confession or in a discussion before paddling a youth, the former students said, Kelly asked explicit questions about the boy's sex experience: Had he had sexual relations with a girl? Did he masturbate? How much semen did he ejaculate?
"This guy could talk about the weather, and it ends up at masturbation," one former student said.
Kelly denied talking about sex with youths except in properly counseling them about sexual sins. "They are really using their imaginations," he said. "I would never get that ridiculous."
If a youth told him that he masturbated, Kelly said, "I would tell him he had to stop."
Jim Zareski of Malta, N.Y., a 1974 Keveny graduate, remembers that Kelly paddled him for smoking. Told about the choices other students recalled, Zareski said, "I don't remember that. I know my pants stayed up."
Richard Litwa, who taught math at Keveny, remembers that Kelly and a dean of discipline handled corporal punishment, but he did not notice or hear about any improper behavior.
"I have the highest regard for him," Litwa said.
Several former Boys Town residents also praised Kelly and said they doubted the accusations.
One Keveny student who never went to the office for discipline said Kelly summoned him anyway. He and another student faced the same questions about sex, under the guise of a sex-education lecture.
"I can only liken it to foreplay," the former student said. He said he answered every question by saying he didn't know. "I remember thinking, 'If this guy touches me, I'm going to punch him in the face, make a break for my door and tell my father.'"
However, he didn't tell his parents. None of the former students interviewed did.
Students talked and joked among themselves and gave Kelly insulting nicknames, but those who were interviewed didn't tell their parents, police or church authorities.
Bob still hasn't told his parents or his wife.
As a freshman at Keveny, Bob was summoned to the office in October and told that the principal interviewed all freshmen. Kelly closed the door, Bob said, and started by asking routine questions about his family and why he came to Keveny.
Then, Bob said, Kelly asked if the youth was sexually active. "He asked me, when I go to the bathroom, do I play with myself?"
The second time he was called to the office, he said, Kelly told him to pull down his pants and show how he touched himself when he went to the bathroom.
Then Kelly fondled the youth's genitals, Bob said. He estimates he was molested similarly on eight or nine occasions.
Bob was sure no one would believe him if he told. "In '73 I think it was a different world," Bob said. "Priests were priests, and you respected them."
As Bob grew up, he had difficulty with relationships and had a mental breakdown.
He was shocked to read news reports this year about Kelly being accused of abuse in the suits against Boys Town. "I thought he was dead," Bob said
Bob finally told his story to a lawyer, John Aretakis, who has several clients alleging abuse by priests, but has not filed suit.
"I've got some relief that I've told somebody."
Kelly said the accusations stemming from his time at Boys Town have ended his career. "Every priest is scared to death that somebody from his past is going to bring something up for money."
Corpun file 11096
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And ... yet another lawsuit gets filed:
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
July 28, 2003
Fourth lawsuit claims abuse at Boys Town (http://https://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46&aid=42911)
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OMAHA, Neb. -- A fourth man who lived at Boys Town, the home for wayward youths made famous in a 1938 Spencer Tracy film, has filed a lawsuit claiming he was sexually abused by a staffer.
John Sturzenegger, 20, said in the lawsuit filed this month that he was abused during a 1997 diabetic incident, the Omaha World-Herald newspaper reported in Monday editions. He alleges that when he regained consciousness he found former teacher Glenn Moore fondling him.
The lawsuit says Sturzenegger told Boys Town officials about the incident at the time, and no action was taken against Moore.
Moore denied the allegation but declined to comment further, the newspaper said.
Girls and Boys Town attorney James Martin Davis told the newspaper that Boys Town immediately reported the allegation to police, child protection services, the youth's guardian and juvenile court. Davis said a police investigation found no substance to the allegation.
Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:15 PM on Jul. 29, 2003