DID CHURCH PROTECT PASTOR, NOT CHILDREN?

An Indianapolis Star investigation found that an Indiana church failed to act with urgency in response to sexual offenses by a relative of the church’s pastor. The abuse involved at least eight children from families within the congregation. Because of the family relationship with the pastor, and perhaps also because the child molester is himself a minor, the church’s elders chose to hide the allegations of sexual abuse from higher authorities in the denomination.

Why should this story be of particular interest to readers of our Ramey & Hailey personal injury blog? Indiana law requires any adult who suspects a child is being abused or neglected must report their suspicions to law enforcement or the Indiana Department of Child Services.

As personal injury attorneys for more than forty years, we work with the families of children who have “survived” abuse and/or neglect. But, although the criminal behavior may have stopped, these children typically need long-term treatment. Not all families have access to affordable insurance, and not always does insurance totally cover the needed, very long-term therapeutic interventions. Only a civil lawsuit has the power to compensate the victim and his or her family (or a new family who adopts a child removed from his natural parents’ home).

The message of this Ramey & Hailey NewsBlog: If you see something, say something!  Then, let our personal injury attorneys DO something!