Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
The Guardian, Thursday 13 March 2008
South African schoolchildren are so affected by crime that they play games of “rape me, rape me” and mimic robberies in the playground, according to the country’s human rights commission. In a report on school violence published yesterday, the commission said schools were the “single most common” site of crimes against children, such as robbery and assault, including rampant sexual violence, some of it by teachers.
The commission said it had identified a number of games pupils played in response to the violence, including one in which they pretended to rape each other. “This game demonstrates the extent and level … brutalisation of the youth has reached, and how endemic sexual violence has become in South Africa,” it said.
The report said that a fifth of all sexual assaults on young people occurred at school. A survey of 1,227 female students who were victims of sexual assault found that nearly 9% of them had been attacked by teachers.
The commission also found that some boys committed what they called “corrective rape” on lesbians, justifying the assault by claiming that it would make the victims heterosexual. “There is a growing phenomenon of corrective rape. This refers to an instance where a male learner rapes a lesbian female learner in the belief that after such a sexual attack the learner will no longer be lesbian,” the report said.
A separate study by the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme found that a quarter of secondary school students said that forced sexual intercourse did not necessarily constitute rape.
The human rights commission report said that more than 40% of the young people it interviewed had been victims of some form of crime. It recommended that the education department consider introducing metal detectors and fences at schools, after the Red Cross children’s hospital in Cape Town said it commonly treated school pupils who had been assaulted with fists, knives, machetes or guns, or who had been raped.
The Oregonian
Trial opens in Portland, with Boy Scouts accused of hiding pedophiles
By Aimee Green, The Oregonian
March 17, 2010, 9:13PM
Attorney Kelly Clark, who represents a 37-year-old man who as a boy was sexually abused by an assistant Scoutmaster, told Multnomah County jurors Wednesday: “You will see a different face of the Boy Scouts of America” in coming weeks.
BRENT WOJAHN/THE OREGONIAN
A civil trial that opened Wednesday in Portland will show that the Boy Scouts of America knew it had child molesters in its leadership for decades but kept the problem quiet, according to an attorney for one of the victims.
The case, expected to attract national attention, centers on a Portland man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue joining boys in Scouting activities.
On a broader scale, the case is one of the first to bring into open court hundreds of confidential files that the 100-year-old organization kept on Scout leaders and others suspected of sexually abusing boys. Though the Scouts, based in Texas, have been sued dozens of times over allegations of sexual abuse, most cases have been settled out of court, keeping files from becoming public.
Patrick Boyle, the Washington, D.C.-based author of “Scout’s Honor: Sexual Abuse in America’s Most Trusted Institution,” said Wednesday that this case may be only the second time such files have been used in a trial.
“It’s very embarrassing to them,” Boyle said.
The case that opened Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court was brought by Kelly Clark, a Portland attorney who specializes in child sex abuse cases, and involves a former assistant Scoutmaster named Timur Dykes. The lawsuit, brought by a victim of Dykes listed in court documents by the pseudonym Jack Doe, seeks at least $14 million from the Boy Scouts of America and the Cascade Pacific Council in Oregon.
The Scouts, Clark said in opening statements, knew it had pedophiles in its organization yet allowed Dykes and others to continue to associate with its members. He held up file folder after file folder from Boy Scout headquarters that he said proves the organization knew of at least 1,000 suspected child molesters from 1965 to 1985.
“Those decisions led naturally, predictably and foreseeably to the abuse of boys like” my client, he said.
Attorneys for the two Scouting organizations said in their opening statements that their clients weren’t at fault.
Boy Scouts of America attorney Charles T. Smith said he would call experts who would testify that sexual abuse of children wasn’t a problem specific to the Scouts but one that occurs throughout society. He also told jurors that child molesters are difficult to track and that the organization kept confidential files on them in an effort to protect children.
“These people move,” Smith said. “They go from state to state. And they change their names or their birth dates or they do something to try to slip back in.”
The trial, expected to last four weeks, focuses on Doe, who was a Boy Scout when he was abused by Dykes in the 1980s. The Oregonian is not naming Doe, now 37, because he is a victim of sex abuse.
According to Clark, Dykes was 25 when he met a 9-year-old Doe in 1981. Later, Doe joined a Southeast Portland Scout troop where Dykes was an assistant Scoutmaster. The troop met at a building, in the 9900 block of Southeast Caruthers Street, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The boys also often went to Dykes’ apartment to work on merit badges or spend the night, with their parents’ approval, Clark told jurors.
“All of the parents trusted Timur Dykes because he was a Scout leader,” Clark said.
The apartment, Clark said, was like a playground for boys.
“He had ferrets,” Clark said. “He had snakes, including a boa constrictor. … He had a knife collection. He gave (Doe) french fries for breakfast on a regular basis.”
In January 1983, the mother of a Scout who said he had been molested by Dykes went to Gordon McEwen, a Mormon bishop who headed the local Scouting program, Clark said. McEwen confronted Dykes, who confessed to abusing 17 Scouts.
Nonetheless, Dykes was allowed to continue to spend time with the boys in the program, Clark said. McEwen contacted the parents of the 17 Scouts but “did nothing to warn the other parents of boys within Timur Dykes’ reach and grasp,” Clark said.
Dykes was arrested that year on accusations of molesting boys. He pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children. Yet, Clark said, he continued Scouting activities.
After his confession, Dykes molested Doe at least six times, Clark said. Four times, Doe awoke to discover he was on top of Dykes, who was aroused. Another time, Dykes pulled Doe’s hand into his shorts. During a recent deposition, Dykes admitted abusing Doe.
In July 1984, police pulled over Dykes while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip. Police discovered his 1983 conviction and arrested him. Doe’s parents learned of Dyke’s history and, alarmed, asked their son if he had been a victim.
“To protect his parents, he said, ‘No, Timur never touched me,’” Clark said. But the abuse deeply disturbed Doe, who started getting bad grades, using drugs and getting in trouble with the law, Clark said. Today, he suffers from depression, nightmares and flashbacks, Clark said.
Clark is also representing seven other victims of Dykes in lawsuits against the Boy Scouts. Those plaintiffs also sought damages from the Mormon church, and the church settled.
Paul Xochihua, an attorney for the Cascade Pacific Council, painted a much different picture. He disagreed with how Clark characterized McEwen’s response to Dykes’ confession, saying McEwen cooperated with a police investigation. Police also knew of McEwen’s plan to contact the parents of the abused children, he said.
“He will say he acted immediately,” Xochihua said.
Smith, the attorney for the Boy Scouts of America, said neither the local nor national organization was directly involved in the operation of Doe’s troop. That fell to the Mormon church. But, Smith told jurors, “Boy Scouts of America is not here to blame this on the church. Those decisions will be up to you.”
Boyle, the author, said Smith’s argument is one he’s heard before.
“‘We don’t run the local troop. We don’t choose the leaders,’” Boyle said. That argument has been successful in the past, he said. What’s more, Boyle said, the public has a lot of good will toward the Scouts.
“People are unwilling to punish the Boy Scouts,” Boyle said. “I draw a distinction with the Catholic Church, because a lot of people don’t like the Catholic Church.”
– Aimee Green
Investigation into child abuse at Marianna reform school brings no charges
By Ben Montgomery, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, March 12, 2010
They have thought about revenge, daydreamed about swinging a leather strap at a feeble old man. Some have even driven back to Marianna, as grown men, with murderous intent.
One way or another, the former wards of the Florida School for Boys want the guard who beat them to pay.
But a 15-month investigation into decades-old abuse won’t result in criminal charges against Troy Tidwell or any other former staffers at the state’s oldest reform school, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Thursday.
“With the passage of over 50 years,” the 13-page FDLE report states, “no tangible physical evidence was found to either support or refute the allegations of physical or sexual abuse.”
The FDLE interviewed more than 100 men, relatives and former staffers about allegations of brutal beatings in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. Most of the statements were consistent, they found. Boys were given up to 100 licks with a heavy leather paddle in a putrid cinder block building called the White House. Many said their backsides bled, that they needed stitches, that they had to pick underwear from their lacerations. Eight said they had scars or suffered injuries.
Three former employees told investigators they either witnessed abuse or saw the effects, such as welts or bloody pajamas. The daughter of one deceased employee told the FDLE that her father came home one night and said, “That damn drunk son of a b—- beat another boy,” in reference to Arthur G. Dozier, after whom the school is now named. Her father later quit in disgust.
One former superintendent, Lenox Williams, told investigators he administered 10 to 12 licks. “That’s the number,” he said. “We didn’t go over that.”
He did recall hearing from a school physician that a boy had “gotten too many licks across his buttocks with that paddle.”
“He said there . . . were some, some lacerations,” Williams continued. “And it’s possible to do that with it if you choose to.”
The few men who claimed to have witnessed deaths at the school could provide few specifics and no names. Some former students said they were sexually abused, but they could not identify their abusers.
The investigators did not interview Tidwell; his attorneys declined their requests.
Forensic investigators did examine the inside of the White House and tested the walls for blood. “All areas tested had negative results.”
The FDLE gave its report to Glenn Hess, state attorney for the 14th Judicial Circuit of Florida. Hess declined to prosecute, citing the statute of limitations and the vague nature of some of the allegations.
The investigation was ordered by Gov. Charlie Crist after a number of men went public in 2008 with stories of abuse. The men, who call themselves the White House Boys, found each other online a few years ago. The school is the subject of a Times investigation, “For Their Own Good.”
Crist also asked the FDLE to investigate a small cemetery on the property. That investigation, concluded last year, found no evidence of foul play in the deaths of 31 boys believed to be buried on school property.
The White House Boys are critical of both reports, saying the FDLE has a conflict in investigating allegations against state employees and state agencies.
Robert Straley, 63, of Clearwater says he was beaten and sexually assaulted by Tidwell, a memory that he repressed for decades. “It seems like such an absolute travesty of justice that a person could do that and get away with it,” Straley said after reading the report.
Straley and more than 300 others are pursuing a claims bill in the Legislature seeking unspecified compensation.
“This isn’t over,” Straley said. “We’re not in it for the money.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/investigation-into-notorious-marianna-reform-school-brings-no-charges/1079048
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 12 (UPI) — A $10.5 million settlement has been reached between Philadelphia and the family of a teenager who died at a Tennessee treatment center, court records show.
In return for the money, the family of Omega “Manny” Leach has agreed to drop all claims against the city of Philadelphia and the Department of Human Services, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday.
Leach, 17, was sent to the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Tennessee despite warnings that the facility was dangerous, the newspaper said.
Attorney Thomas P. Kline said a key piece of evidence in the federal lawsuit he filed on behalf of the family was a photograph from a surveillance camera showing a technician at the clinic with both hands around Leach’s neck as he pinned him to the floor.
Tennessee authorities ruled the teen’s death a homicide but the mental health worker who placed him in a restraint hold has not been charged with a crime.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/02/12/105-million-awarded-for-teens-death/UPI-13681266000890/
Recent Comments