CANADA
Calgary Herald
By Jeremy Klaszus, Calgary Herald March 5, 2012
As Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills grapples with allegations of sexual abuse, its leaders should note a recent and unsettling example of how not to handle such a situation.
Incidentally, the example involves somebody with Prairie roots. Mark Archibald, a former Prairie student who went on to manage a Bible camp, was recently sentenced to 12 months of house arrest and six months of curfew for indecent assault against three teenage boys. The assaults occurred in the 1970s; decades passed before victims found the courage to speak out.
The significance of this courage was apparently lost on John Hand, a former chairman of the camp’s board, who suggested in comments to the Herald that the victims should forgive Archibald and get on with life: “There seems to be an unwillingness to forgive and to grow and to move on from where people are at. I think that’s why it comes back so many years later.”
Of the ways to respond to victims of childhood sexual abuse, suggesting they get over it is one of the worst.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.