[Moo] More Background on the BoD Lawsuit

[Maven]

The following is cross-posted from the EK-BBM List, from someone who was an 
active East Kingdom officer at the time of the incidents that led to the lawsuit 
that has put the Board in such a deep hole 


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Fwd: [Announcements] Announcement from the Board-Law Suit Issues  
Posted by:      "Joseph Grieco" cormac_east at yahoo.com    cormac_east  
Tue Dec 7, 2010 11:08 am        (PST) Hi List,

I need to add more information so you folks don't go scratching your heads going 
Huh?

This all dates back to when I was Kingdom Youth Combat Marshall. Ben the  
Steward was the individual arrested, tried and convicted for the  incident. The 
parents of the accusing child are now looking for a  paycheck. In addition to 
the SCA, others named in the suit are the East  Kingdom, the Seneschal of 
Eisental (even though he was not an officer at  the time), and a couple of 
others, including Ben's parents. For  whatever reason (and I am grateful) I was 
not included in the suit.

Effectively, the parents of the kid (who was an older teenager at the  time) are 
saying everyone on the list should have known that Ben was  predatory and a 
child molester and we should not have allowed him any  contact with children. In 
fact the first time any of us heard anything  about Ben's behavior was in the 
arrest report published in the local  papers. While I was initially opposed to 
the Level 3 banishment during  the trial (I wanted the court to complete its 
work first), I did support  it after he was sentenced. Unfortunately, as none of 
us on the list  were trained psychologists, psychiatrists, or social workers, 
none of us  recognized any signs of Ben's behavior. No child ever came to any of 
us  with comments or complaints, either, so we had nothing to suspect  
concerning him.

This is what eventually led to the SCA requiring background checks on  all Youth 
workers. Unfortunately, as Ben had no previous record, there  is no way these 
checks would have identified him as a potential problem  for us. That being 
said, we can only hope that our children will tell us  when any adult acts 
"wrong" around them, or touches them in ways that  make them uncomfortable. 


That's what I have to say on this one.

Yours in Service,
Baron Master Cormac macEamon na Connemara
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.stierbach.org/pipermail/moo-stierbach.org/attachments/20101208/248591a9/attachment-0001.htm>