Child Abuse Victims Need Reform Now

Patriot-News
June 26, 2012

http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/06/child_abuse_victims_need_refor.html

Monsignor William Lynn was the first U.S. church official convicted of charges related to helping an archdiocese cover up abuse claims.

Pennsylvania lawmakers cannot continue to hide behind the “we’ll get to it” mantra when it comes to reforming the state’s child abuse laws.

We owe it to the victims of Jerry Sandusky who bravely came forward against community pressure and in the midst of a media circus.

We owe it to the victims of child molestation at the hands of certain Catholic clergy in Philadelphia. They, too, stood their ground, leading to a landmark guilty verdict in the case of Monsignor William Lynn.

And we owe it to all the victims who have only felt able to come forward recently or who are still living in confusion and shame.

Just last week The Patriot-News received a letter to the editor from a woman in Camp Hill alleging abuse from a neighbor when she was growing up.

Lawmakers know what they should do.

As the horrors of the Sandusky case unfolded in court, the House finally passed the bill by Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland County, to require child abuse training for school personnel. Now it awaits a concurrence vote in the Senate.

Time and again it has come to light how insufficient the training has been for mandatory reporters, let alone the public at large.

Training alone will not stop the abuse, but it might help the next time a child goes to a guidance counselor’s office to relay an abuse story.

Equally as important is granting additional time for victims to come forward. At the moment, victims must bring criminal cases by age 50 and civil cases by age 30.

What the state should do is offer a one- or two-year window for victims, regardless of age, to bring civil suits.

Delaware, Hawaii and California have offered these windows, and they have not led to bankrupting religious or educational institutions. Lawmakers need to look beyond the Catholic Church lobby’s assertion that this is about rehashing “stale claims.” It’s about giving a voice to victims, and it’s the least we can do for them.

The guilty verdicts Friday in Pennsylvania’s two landmark cases, Sandusky and Lynn, are the talk of the nation.

Many states are looking to see what the commonwealth will do. It’s a hollow response when lawmakers say they await another report from another task force on child abuse, especially when that report won’t arrive until the end of their 2012 legislative session.

How many more Jerry Sanduskys do we have to hear about before lawmakers act decisively in favor of kids?