Preying on Youth

 

Our society seems to be being pulled apart by a number of forces—our political divisions, urban crime, Cancel Culture, Woke ideology that seems to have taken hold in nearly every institution, the corrosion of our educational system, the corruption of our media.

But there is one development that worries me the most—and that is our society’s disregard for the safety of our young people, particularly when it comes to sexual assault and sexual exploitation.  Indeed, our institutions have been complicit in the most egregious violations of their personhood.  That our institutions look the other way.

Chicago Blackhawks
As more is coming to light about the sexual assault of Kyle Beach, the more we should be repulsed by an organization that swept this awful occurrence under the rug.  The offender, Brad Aldrich,  went on to coach in high school and assaulted a 16 year old, and who knows how many others.  The Blackhawks just obtained the resignation of general manager Scotty Bowman, issued a statement and asked that Aldrich’s name be removed from the Stanley Cup.  The league pressured Coach Quennville to resign from the Florida Panthers.

Yet, this is 10 years too late and, like the Catholic archdiocese, the Blackhawks remained silent and allowed Aldrich to move on when what happened to Beach was common knowledge.

That the organization covered up for Aldrich is hideous.  Whatever sins were committed by  the mismanagement of Bill Wirtz in comparison to what occurred under the aegis of his son, Rocky.

U.S. Gymnastics
It was hard not to rage as McKayla Maroney and others testified about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Larry Nasser.  Michigan State president Lou Ann Simon resigned in the wake of the scandal and her replacement, interim president John Engler resigned after he was quoted as saying that the victims seemed to be “enjoying the spotlight.”    Most incredibly, FBI agents changed Maroney’s statements, and were slow to pursue allegations against Nasser, which enabled him to abuse more victims.

Loudoun County
We learned that a 14 year old girl was raped in the girls’ bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt.  The school board covered up the crime, transferred the boy to another school, where he molested another victim.  The school board, which recently implemented a transgender friendly policy enabling a student that self identifies as a girl to have access to the girls’ bathroom.  In its eagerness to advance its trans agenda, the board and principal showed their eagerness to trample over the safety of adolescent girls and the result was a girl brutally raped and several others assaulted.   To date, no one has resigned.

For Kyle Beach, McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles and the other victims of Larry Nasser, Brad Aldrich, and the Loudoun County rapist, the assaults were defining moments  of their lives.  It was a horrible occurrence that forever changed the trajectory of their lives. 

These were outstanding young people.  In the case of the gymnasts and Kyle Beach, they were athletes that evidenced discipline to compete at the highest level of their sport. 

The outrage is not simply that these horrendous things happened to these beautiful, talented and innocent young people.   That is bad in and of itself.  But the grotesqueness of it all is that the structures and institutions PROTECTED THE PERPETRATORS, enabled them to go on to sexually abuse and exploit more young people.  These are organizations whose mission is, in part at least, to develop and showcase the talents of young people.  Instead, they actively colluded to coddle the predators.

It’s as if the people running these organizations learned nothing from Joe Paterno and learned nothing from the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church. 

These awful collusions and cover-ups are very bad indicators for our society.