Thursday, July 21, 2011

Accusations of Abuse by Priest Dating to Early 1940s

I saw this headline in the NYT yesterday:

 

Accusations of Abuse by Priest Dating to Early 1940s

By DAN FROSCH

His accusers allege that the Rev. Clement A. Hageman was "dumped" in impoverished, nonwhite communities in Arizona and New Mexico by church officials to avoid scandal.

The thought occurred to me that this is EXACTLY what our broken school systems do: rather than getting rid of bad people who victimize kids, the big, broken, inward-looking, self-serving bureaucracy instead transfers them to the places where the people are the poorest, least educated, and (most importantly) least powerful, where the victimization continues…  This is a high crime.  (Lest you think this is a spurious analogy, I think one can make a pretty compelling argument that failing to teach a child to read does as much long term harm as sexual abuse.  In both cases, lives are ruined.)

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