Sexual abuse cases settled
San Jose Mercury News - San Jose,CA,USA
... ``As a denomination,'' he said, ``we are just beginning to develop a policy as to how to deal with pedophiles in the church. . . . ...
Sexual abuse cases settled
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH TO PAY $3.5 MILLION TO CONCLUDE MONTEREY BAY ACADEMY LAWSUITS
By David L. Beck
Mercury News
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by five men who say they were molested by teachers at the church's Monterey Bay Academy during the 1980s.
The church has also agreed to alter school policies to become more responsive to reports of sexual abuse.
``I refused to discuss money with them,'' said one of the victims, Michael Weston, ``until they could prove to me that radical changes in policy have been made, and that they would provide free counseling to victims of sexual abuse in their churches and schools.''
The church's Maryland attorney, Victor Elliott, confirms that has happened.
``What you had here,'' said Elliott, ``was something that went back 20 years. The circumstances of screening of teachers and supervision are not up to current-day standards.''
``Well, I sure hope so,'' said Albert Tilstra, the father of one of the victims and himself an Adventist pastor, after hearing a new set of standards had been put in place. ``Sometimes something like this needs to happen in order to wake up individuals and see what's really going on.
``As a denomination,'' he said, ``we are just beginning to develop a policy as to how to deal with pedophiles in the church. . . . It's something we have never really dealt with.''
Four of the lawsuits were brought in Los Angeles County and one in Santa Cruz County, where the exclusive school is located. Under the settlement, all five will be dismissed, with no admission of liability on the part of the church.
``We feel like justice was done,'' said Joseph Scully, attorney for the five victims. ``They weren't looking forward to a trial,'' which would have been ``difficult and painful.''
Caron Oswald, a spokesman for the Central California Conference of the Adventist Church, said in a prepared statement that the church was ``deeply saddened since we learned of these allegations'' and expressed the hope that ``these settlements will help bring closure for those involved.''
Negotiations were concluded Thursday under the aegis of a professional mediator in Los Angeles. The defendants' side included a lawyer who worked with the Catholic archdiocese of Boston, ``assisting with knowledge of case values.'' Boston paid $84 million to 552 victims of clerical abuse in 2003.
The Adventist lawsuits involved teachers and staff at the boarding school on the shores of Monterey Bay, which is part of a church-wide educational system, kindergarten through college, aimed at giving Adventist children a sound education in a protected environment.
The accusations outlined in court documents were lurid -- groping in cars off-campus, rape, liquor and drugs in the dormitories, and more. They accused two teachers: Lowell E. Nelson, 72, who taught biology; and Ronald E. Wittlake, who taught music. Nelson is retired. Wittlake left the school in 1989 and worked in the Antelope Valley Unified School District in Los Angeles County. When the accusations became public in January 2003, Wittlake shot himself to death in his Lancaster home.
Nelson continues to deny the accusations. ``Absolutely not true,'' he said in a brief telephone conversation Friday.
Weston, also the son of an Adventist pastor and like the other plaintiffs in his mid-30s, estimates he has had 42 jobs in his life as well as a brief marriage. ``I was good at whatever I've chosen to do,'' he said -- construction, property management, marketing, the film business, lifeguarding -- ``but as I get near success, that's when the fear has come in. Whenever I was happy and successful, I was afraid that something terrible was going to happen to me again . . .
``What happened to me and others was a tragedy that could easily have been prevented,'' Weston said. ``It wasn't prevented because the educational system wasn't prepared to deal with this problem.''
Documents provided to the Mercury News show those circumstances are changing. Every teacher at Monterey Bay Academy must sign a child abuse reporting policy; there are warnings about sexual abuse and harassment in the school bulletin; and ``incident report'' forms are available. The school now limits faculty and staff access to dormitories and forbids school employees from driving students off-campus alone. It includes ``display of sexually suggestive objects or pictures'' as well as jokes and comments in its definitions of proscribed conduct.
Scully said he believes such changes are ``a result of this litigation. And my clients are pleased about that. A positive thing happened out of his negative thing in their lives.''
Contact David L. Beck at [email protected] or (831) 423-0960. ---------------------------- 7th Day ADVENTIST SEX ABUSE SETTLEMENT WHY IMPORTANT? Thread topic title is a rhetorical question for reply discussion. What say you?
