WICHITA (KS)
KAKE-TV, ABC-10 [Wichita KS]
June 23, 2025
By Sydney Ferguson
WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) — Survivors of sexual abuse that happened at a local church are now working to change the state laws they feel either allowed their abuse to go unnoticed or are still preventing them from receiving justice decades after the abuse took place.
At the beginning of June, Eastminster Presbyterian Church announced that former youth director Bodie Weiss had sexually assaulted 23 children during his employment at the church from 1989 to 2006.
Tyson Stuart is a survivor of the abuse that took place at the church. He, along with other survivors and their supporters, protested the church’s handling of the allegations outside the church on Sunday afternoon.
Stuart led the protest and read off a list of seven demands the survivors are making of the church.
One of them is that the church publicly supports legislation to end the statute of limitations on when child sex abuse survivors can file civil lawsuits.
“Our mission is simple. It’s to protect victims of childhood sexual assault, past, present and future,” said Stuart. “This law solely exists to protect institutions and the powerful. It is of zero service to victims.”
Kansas law right now says survivors can no longer file a civil lawsuit against their abuser after their 31st birthday.
In 2023, Senator Cindy Holscher was instrumental in getting the limit raised from 21 to 31. On the criminal side, she was able to get the statute of limitations eliminated entirely moving forward, but she says more work needs to be done.
“While that was a change and that was an improvement, I will tell you, a number of people still aren’t ready to bring their case forward at that point,” said Senator Holscher.
In his newfound role as an advocate, Stuart has repeatedly shared that he didn’t realize or talk about what happened to him until he was 34 years old.
What’s more, Holscher says the inability to look at criminal cases retroactively, from before the statute of limitations was eliminated, is preventing abusers from being held accountable.
“You don’t see the situation where a person violates one child, typically it’s several. And without that look-back window, we close the door and are able to prosecute some of those individuals,” said Holscher. “To best protect our children, we need to make these changes and to deliver justice to the survivors in the time frame that works for them.”
Holscher says much of the work being done at the state level has required educating lawmakers on why the changes are necessary. She says work on extending or eliminating the statute of limitations has also stalled because of a single senator — Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Kellie Warren.
“That really is the point where we have to put our focus, because she has indicated she does not care to look at this again,” said Holscher.
Holscher says Warren has ties to the Catholic church, and it’s likely that her resistance comes from the belief that allowing victims to sue for monetary damages without limits would be costly.
“I would assume there are some members within the diocese, maybe in leadership, who are concerned about the financial ramifications,” said Holscher. “That is the area where we need to focus to help her understand that this is an important issue.”