JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
DavidClohessy.com [St. Louis MO]
June 25, 2024
By David Clohessy
Dear Attorney General Bailey,
To help kids who are at risk of abuse now and adults who’ve already been abused, we’ve repeatedly asked you to take a few simple steps.
Three of them you repeatedly ignore. The fourth you claim you can’t do. (We’re adding a fifth today.)
Frankly, we’re insulted and frustrated by your unwillingness to even seriously entertain our very reasonable requests.
But our feelings are secondary. The safety of children is, of course, what matters most. And in our view, you are refusing to do your civic and moral duty to protect boys and girls from unscrupulous, untrained and abusive staff at dozens of essentially unregulated, controversial, ‘under the radar’ purportedly Christian boarding schools.
Fundamentally, we believe that ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ We strongly believe you can do more than you’re doing now. And we know that it’s wrong of you passively and timidly sit back, do nothing, and wait for your phone to ring, effectively sacrificing more innocent, struggling youngsters to horrific physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
Your office’s ‘mission statement’ claims that you will ‘fight for justice. . .especially for those who have no voice.’ Who is more voiceless than kids already tagged as ‘difficult, suddenly taken from home against their wills, deposited in a harsh ‘school’ with poorly screened and trained staff, and physically, sexually and emotionally violated time and time again?
In your recent letter to us, you write “Our office remains on standby for all prosecuting attorneys who request our assistance in seeking justice for victims in their counties.”
That’s nothing to brag about, Mr. Bailey. That is what your office is constitutionally bound to do.
And that’s inadequate.
Are you really comfortable doing the absolute bare minimum and essentially turning a blind eye while heinous and long-buried crimes are ever-so-gradually revealed only because of dogged investigations by journalists, lawsuits by courageous victims, and the sporadic charges by local prosecutors?
It was 1984/5 – 39 years ago – when the first pedophile priest case made national headlines across the US. (The cleric eventually admitted to raping or sodomizing at least 37 children.)
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/1987_02_15_AP_ChildMolestation_Gauthe_AND_Fontenot_1.htm
It was 2002 – 22 years ago – when the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal became a truly nationwide crisis (as stunning revelations of crimes and cover ups in Boston fueled widespread coverage of similar horrors, deceit and outrage in nearly each of the nation’s 180 dioceses.)
But it was only 2018 – six years ago – that roughly 20 attorneys general finally began launching investigations into the thousands of Catholic clerics who committed and concealed sexual assaults on children. (Your predecessors eventually did a fairly poor probe in Missouri. But unlike you, they at least took action.)
For decades, most top law enforcement officials were irresponsible. Now, the continuing inaction of roughly two dozen of their peers is even more irresponsible.
Imagine how many children would have been spared lifetimes of shattered trust, devastated psyches, demolished faith, crippling addictions and other self- destructive behaviors to which so many turned hoping to numb the nearly inescapable pain.
So won’t you do what common sense and common decency require and show creative, sensitive and aggressive leadership to begin finally working to stop this growing scandal?
Before making a new request now, we’ll try once again – as simply as possible – to get a simple straight answer from you about our earlier requests.
Will you – yes or no – write to the roughly two dozen prosecutors in the counties where these facilities operate and strongly urge them to launch investigations?
Will you – yes or no – use your bully pulpit to publicly help expose these troubling abuse reports and warn parents who are considering sending their children to these facilities or whose children are already in them?
Will you – yes or no – hold a Zoom call soon with at least a few dozen of the hundreds ofwomen and men who have been so severely violated in these facilities and simply listen to their pain and their pleas?
And will you write and ask school owners to allow unannounced inspections of their facilities by independent children’s groups and law enforcement personnel (including the Highway Patrol)? This would only be a small and partial step forward. Most people understand that stronger state laws regulating these schools is critical. But abuse thrives in secrecy so for now, letting outside experts enter buildings and talk freely with students might at least protect some kids, deter some wrongdoing and reassure some parents.
We look forward to your response.
David Clohessy
Missouri