If You Have a Scholarship, Don’t Name It after a 3-time Accused Predator …

Worthy Adversary
January 17, 2013

http://theworthyadversary.com/1662-if-you-have-a-scholarship-dont-name-it-after-a-3-time-accused-predator

The latest from Hawaii: Why would Honolulu’s Maryknoll School keep a scholarship named after a accused child predator? And what kind of message does that send?

Victims blast local high school

Scholarship named after alleged predator

He’s been accused of abuse by three boys

But school & board still honor his memory

“Honoring predators lets abuse thrive,” SNAP says

Victims of sexual abuse are blasting a Honolulu high school for publicizing a scholarship named after a three-time accused predator priest.

In a letter to the president and board of directors of Maryknoll High School, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say that a scholarship honoring accused predator priest Fr. James A. Jackson “hurts victims and discourages them from speaking up, thus endangering more kids.”

They are urging that the scholarship be dissolved.

The endowed scholarship, advertised on the school’s website is named after Fr. Jackson, a Maryknoll missionary priest. The scholarship goes to students who “demonstrat[e] a willingness to contributed to the continued excellence of the Maryknoll family.”

In 2002, Fr. Jackson was accused of abusing three former students. At the time of the alleged crimes, Fr. Jackson was working as a missionary priest on the Big Island. He is now deceased. At least one of Fr. Jackson’s victims came forward publicly at that time to warn the community of the threat Fr. Jackson posed.

SNAP believes that this scholarship deters victims from Maryknoll or any school in Honolulu from reporting predators.

“You may say that the scholarship is a ‘simple oversight,’ but that is little more than a cheap excuse.” the letter says. “There is no room for ‘simple oversight’ when it comes to the safety of your students, the prosecution of predators and healing of children who have been horribly hurt by abuse.”

The group wants the school to immediately dissolve or re-name the scholarship and apologize to Fr. Jackson’s alleged victims and the school’s alums. SNAP is also inviting school officials to host a “listening session” with victims of child sex abuse, so that the Maryknoll community can “better understand the harm that abuse causes to victims and communities and the chilling messages such insensitive actions send to other abuse victims.”

“When an institution praises a credibly accused serial predator, it’s basically saying that adult criminals will be believed and kids will not be,” said Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, CA, SNAP Western Regional Director. “It encourages silence about child sexual abuse, which leads to more abuse, and it rubs salt into the wounds of victims, which leads to more pain.”

The group is also encouraging anyone who was abused, or who has seen or witnessed abuse, to come forward and report to law enforcement. A new Hawaii law allows child sex abuse victims to use the court system and expose their predator no matter when the abuse occurred. The law can help many victims of child sex abuse in Hawaii get justice and accountability, the group says. Similar laws in California and Delaware exposed more than 250 previously unknown child sex predators and helped law enforcement put at least five predators behind bars.

The law has already exposed ten predator clerics who worked at Honolulu’s Damien Memorial School.

The letter, sent by email and fax, is below