Goodbye party for teacher convicted of not reporting abuse canceled after victims groups’ involvement

ARKANSAS
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Oct. 18, 2013

Two sexual abuse victims groups crashed a party planned for a former Arkansas high school athletic director convicted of failing to report the sexual abuse of a minor.

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests alerted Little Rock, Ark., Bishop Anthony Taylor in a letter Wednesday about a going-away party for Kathy Griffin, who in September was found guilty of not reporting a sexual relationship between a fellow teacher and a high school student at the all-girls Mount St. Mary Academy.

Griffin, who also worked as a guidance counselor and dean of discipline, was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $2,500. She is appealing the decision.

The event for Griffin, promoted on Facebook and through an online invitation website, asked friends to gather at a Little Rock restaurant Saturday “as we say a heart felt good-bye as she moves on to the next phase in her life.” It asked people to share memories and create a money tree “to show her what she has meant to all of us.”

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