I wonder if the DoT had a "I don't want to know about it" attitude about this, somewhat like the Bp. of the DCNY about the allegations of sexual molestation at St. Paul's in Owego. You may recall that when the DCNY finally did investigate the priest was forced to resign his orders. And, the bishop's persecution of Fr. David Bollinger who insisted on an investigation was ended by the diocesan ecclesiastical court. You may also recall that the diocese's conduct in this matter was critiqued in the Schaffer Report that the diocese never released. I suspect that the Shaffer Report highlighted wrongdoing by the DCNY, but we'll never know because the DCNY adopted an "I don't want to know about it" attitude about the report. ed.
From The Living Church:
Posted on: May 21, 2009
The Diocese of Texas is a defendant in a $45-million class-action lawsuit which alleges that for more than 40 years, diocesan officials have tried to hide the fact that one of the priests on staff at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin sexually abused students at the residential school.
According to the transcript from a pre-trial hearing in 2008, James Lydell Tucker served as chaplain at St. Stephen’s from 1958 to1968. The diocese transferred him to another school in 1968 after receiving misconduct complaints about him. He retired from active ministry in 1994. He was deposed from the ordained ministry of The Episcopal Church in 2008.
“The world was a bizarre place,” said Bob Haslanger, as reported by the Houston Press. “Having to deal with this person who was perhaps the most popular faculty member on campus in public, who acted as though nothing was odd, and then once a month or more he would come into my room and molest me. Well, wow, that’s more than my little, young, teenage brain could handle.”
Mr. Haslanger first reported the sexual abuse in 1966 during a meeting with Allen Becker, the headmaster at St. Stephen’s. After a second student complained to Mr. Becker in 1968, the school announced that Mr. Tucker was leaving St. Stephen’s because of heart problems.
David Evert, one of the plaintiffs who complained to Mr. Becker in 1968, said that the headmaster ordered him and the other student, not to tell anyone about Mr. Tucker, not even their parents. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Becker did not object two years later when Mr. Tucker became rector of St. James’, Houston. Some of the plaintiffs to the class-action lawsuit claim that Mr. Tucker abused children at St. James’ as well.
Mr. Haslanger told the Press that he again told St. Stephen’s about the misconduct after receiving a fund-raising letter in 1993, He said he began to consider a lawsuit after receiving another fund-raising letter from the school two years later, which asked Mr. Haslanger to contribute to a new scholarship in Mr. Tucker’s name.
Much of the information about the case came to light as a result of an investigation initiated by the diocese, which hired a risk-management company in 2006. The results of the year-long investigation have never been released, but the diocese did release a timeline in September 2007, explaining how the allegations became public.
“Our lawsuit is not about molestation,” Mr. Haslanger told the Press. “Our lawsuit is about the conspiracy of the school and the diocese to keep this quiet and to have kept it quiet for 40 years. And their attempt right now to make it all seem like it’s Tucker’s fault, and none of theirs.
“We may have been molested by Tucker. But we were abused by the church and the school.”
The Press reported that no one from either the diocese or the school would comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.
No comments:
Post a Comment