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	"We're Crushed," Says Director of Cape Camp Where Senator Says He Was Molested By Cynthia Mccormick South Coast Today February 18, 2011 http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110218/NEWS21/102180329/-1/NEWS01 After U.S. Sen. Scott Brown publicly revealed he was molested as a child at a religious camp on Cape Cod, an official at Camp Good News on Snake Pond in Forestdale confirmed Thursday that Brown had attended there. Jane Brooks, who serves as director at Camp Good News, said the Wrentham Republican attended her family's camp but she doesn't know whether the incident he described happened there and said they are "sick about" Brown's description of the abuse. "He did go here," said Brooks, whose family has run the Christian non-denominational camp for generations. "We're crushed." Asked whether Brown intends to contact the camp where the abuse took place, his spokesman, Colin Reed, said in an e-mail to the Cape Cod Times, "Senator Brown did not identify the camp in (his) book and he does not intend (to) do so now." Good News Camp follows strict guidelines to minimize the chance of pedophiles working with children, including conducting criminal records checks, getting references, conducting interviews and enrolling employees in a 10-day training period before they even meet campers, Brooks said. Massachusetts has developed some of the strictest camp hiring guidelines in the country, summer camp executives say. They say camp officials also need to exercise constant vigilance to ensure the camp experience is safe and fun for their charges. "You really have to keep an eye on your employees at all times," said Ruth Provost, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of America in Mashpee, which runs school vacation and summer day camps. 'Very traumatic' In an interview for "60 Minutes," Brown told Lesley Stahl of CBS News he was sexually abused at age 10 by a camp counselor. "Fortunately, nothing was ever fully consummated, so to speak," Brown says in the preview for the show airing Sunday, the day before his memoir "Against All Odds" is released. "But it was certainly, back then, very traumatic. He said, 'If you tell anybody, you know, I'll kill ya," Brown said in the "60 Minutes" preview. According to The Boston Globe, which got an advance copy of the book, Brown said that when he went to a religious camp on Cape Cod the summer of fourth grade he was fondled by a counselor in his mid-20s. The Globe reported Brown writes that the counselor followed him into the infirmary bathroom. The sexual encounter that ensued prompted Brown to scream and run outside. Brown said in his autobiography that this is the first time he has disclosed the abuse. It is not at all unusual for people to keep child sexual abuse secret well into adulthood, said Beth Biro, forensic sexual abuse consultant for Children's Cove, which interviews and treats child victims. "Years ago, it was shamed-based and people blamed themselves," she said. Child advocacy centers didn't exist at the time Brown was sexually abused four decades ago, and people just didn't talk about it, Biro said. "Disclosure is extremely empowering to the victim, no matter what their age," Biro said. The Children's Cove consultant said she thinks Brown's writing about his abuse will make it easier for others to come forward and acknowledge their experiences. Brown described himself as growing up in chaotic households in Wakefield and other Massachusetts towns with serial stepfathers who physically abused him. "When people find people like me at a young, vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is — they make you believe no one will believe you," Brown, now 51, said on "60 Minutes." Taking precautions Camp Good News, like other Massachusetts camps, follows a set of guidelines to reduce the risk of abuse to campers. In addition to references, criminal checks and interviews, the camp also enrolls employees in a 10-day training program with a clinical psychologist, Brooks said. Staff is trained on how to interact with children, she said. There is "no touching at all." There is no federal mandate for camp hiring practices, said Bette Bussel, executive director of the American Camp Association's New England division. Practices vary from state to state, but Massachusetts has some of the strictest guidelines for employees and volunteers, she said. In Massachusetts, prospective camp employees are required to submit a work history for the previous five years, three positive references and report if they've been convicted of a felony. Their identities are also run through criminal and sexual offender records checks, including juvenile records checks, Bussel said. The safeguards work fine if the prospective employee is from Massachusetts, but the background checks are more difficult if the person is from out of state or out of the country, she said. Some states keep criminal records in town depositories, where it can be hard to track them down. It's even more difficult to get information if the employee is from a foreign country, Bussel said. Camps on Cape Cod routinely hire young people from the United Kingdom to work here in the summer. The American Camp Association is pushing for a national registry in which fingerprint checks would reveal a person's criminal record background, Bussel said. Even that system wouldn't be foolproof in routing out sexual predators, since it would only work with pedophiles who have criminal convictions, Provost said. The Boys & Girls Club of America in Mashpee makes supervision of staff a priority, she said. "Our kids are never alone with staff members. There's always two staff members around." Camps need to immediately remove any staff members accused of abuse and also train staff to recognize camper-on-camper abuse, Bussel said. Parents need to do their share, too, Provost said. Teach children about predatory behavior, she said. "If they threaten you and tell you not to tell someone, that's when you tell someone." Contact: cmccormick@capecodonline.com
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