"Private School Sex Abuse Scandal"

We had the "clergy sex abuse scandal." Now it seems that it's time for the "private school sex abuse sandal." See Jess Bidgood, Abuse Charge at Exclusive Boarding School [Deerfield Academy] Stirs Inquiry, NYTimes. (March 29, 2013). Other cases of this sort have (unsurprisingly) surfaced in recent months. See, e.g., the Horace Mann Case. Will the Deerfield Academy investigation and cases like it garner a journalist or a news organization a Pulitzer Prize? Will it and cases like it lead to the formation of of SNAPS ("survivors network of those abused by private schools"). Will such cases lead to a campaign to discredit and bankrupt private schools? Will such cases produce a new generation of multimillionaire tort lawyers? Will such cases lead to attacks on the religious organizations with which schools such as Horace Mann are affiliated? Will they lead to calls for faculty members who are sworn to celibacy? Compare:

Thursday, March 25, 2010

News Flash: The BBC and the New York Times Discover Sexual Sinners in the Roman Catholic Church!

Child sexual abuse is a horrible, grievous crime. Homosexual child abuse by priests is a terrible wrong.

But this non-Catholic (Lutheran) & heterosexual has a few questions:

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6. It is often suggested that clerical celibacy is the root of the problem among the Catholic clergy. SNAP seems to think that celibacy is the root of the problem. See Comment of David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP ("Sometimes, sexually troubled young Catholic men will turn to the priesthood, hoping and praying that if they promise to be celibate, God will give them the gift of celibacy, and help them overcome the troubling sexual urges they feel. Obviously, often that doesn't happen.") Cf. Clifford J. Levy, A Flock Grows Right at Home for a Priest in Ukraine, New York Times (March 23, 2010).

But question: If celibacy of the Catholic clergy were abolished, would the problem of child sexual abuse go away or diminish? Or would the phenomenon just migrate?

Was I mistaken in believing that the most common instances of child sexual abuse are those committed by parents on their children?

Perhaps the rule should be: sex by clergy: OK; having children: not OK? Is this the idea here?

Is child sexual abuse by married adults less common than child sexual abuse by unmarried adults?

Should celibacy by Tibetan monks also be done away with? Or should we embrace celibacy there on the ground that celibacy in Tibet is quaint & admirable -- and an effective form of birth control in a part of the world that very much needs effective birth control, perhaps even more effective than the PRC's one child policy?

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