The newspapers, media, and internet are again today (3/28) filled with stories about deaf victims of Fr. Lawrence Murphy. Further, there now is an allegation of similar kinds of abuse happening at a school for deaf children in Italy. This is not surprising. For years, people who have been involved with children who are disabled have known about the abuse that happened in residential schools(public and private). Further, those of us who have worked with both children and adults who are deaf and/or disabled have known that these children suffer abuse at least twice as often as children who are not disabled.
What is troubling for those of us who have worked in the field of disabilities, is that few people whose job is the protection of children have ANY knowldge or skills for working with children who are disabled.. What do I mean?
POLICE DEPARTMENTS: The Chicago Police Dept. has over 10,000 officers, yet there are not more than five officers who are skilled in American Sign-Language. Most suburban police departments have no one - no one - who has any expertise in dealing with deaf children or children with cognitive, communicative, or emotional disabilities.
CHILD ADVOCACY CENTERS: In Illinois, there are more than thirty Child Advocacy Centers whose responsibility is to handle all reported cases of abuse in their regions. The Chicago Children's Advocacy Center (the largest in the state) actually has policies re: what to do with victims, siblings, family members, alleged perpetrators who are deaf and/or disabled. Most of the Advocacy Centers in Illinois have no one on staff trained to work with children who have Special Needs; no guidelines; no budget for hiring sign-language interpreters or bringing in specialized consultants, for example, when a case involves a child with autism.
STATE'S ATTORNEY OFFICES: the prosecutors who work in these offices like to get convictions. Deaf and/or disabled chidlren who have been victims often make "poor witnesses"(these words have been used by more than one state's attorney in Cook County!). So, they often refuse to prosecute these cases, and the child goes right back to the situation where he/she will be abused again. Few of these county prosecutors throughout Illinois(and the USA!) have an identifiable person on staff who specializes in cases involving children who are disabled and victimized.
DCFS(Dept. of Children and Family Services, State of Illinois): DCFS does have a Coordinator for Deaf Services. However, advocates in the deaf and disability community have pleaded for years with DCFS to create specialized investigative teams to work with cases involving chidlren with disabilities. Nothing! A great deal of the DCFS budget goes to private, not for profit agencies. Many of these have no one on staff who has any idea how to handle cases involving disabled children. Worse, many of these so-called "child protection agencies" never hire people with disabilities to work for them.
My point is that there is a lot of hypocrisy about sexual abuse. It is easy - EASY - to blame, point fingers, accuse the Church of failing in its responsibility. The Church has failed, in many situations, to protect children: deaf, disabled, and non-disabled. However, all the organizations, agencies (public and private, listed above) who are also supposed to protect these children have failed just as much. Despite all the "uproar" and public anger, I do not see the above mentioned agencies doing very much to improve their services to these most vulnerable children and their families.