Trio of SNAP Advocates Speak on ESD Campus
David Clohessy, Sarah Box, and Lisa Kendzior called for better treatment of victims of sexual abuse.
Standing in front of the sign for the Episcopal School of Dallas, David Clohessy asked the school to reconsider its decision to appeal a $9.2 million verdict handed down last week.
“All that will do is drag these families through more pain and suffering,” said Clohessy, the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “[ESD] will be saying that its reputation and assets are more important than your child’s safety.”
Clohessy, who flew in from St. Louis to take part in the protest, held a sign urging victims to come forward. Clohessy was abused by a Catholic priest as a child, but didn’t tell anyone until he was in his 30’s.
SNAP member Sarah Box held a sign that said “Protect Kids Not Predators,” and Lisa Kendzior’s sign displayed the photos of a dozen victims of sexual abuse alongside a hotline number, 1-877-SNAP HEALS.
Kendzior, Dallas director of SNAP, called for a “full course law enforcement investigation in the form of a grand jury” to address allegations of abuse and cover-up at ESD.
“If police with experience and subpoena power really delve into the situation here, we suspect these two families who’ve reported abuse and cover-up will not be the only ones,” she said, referring to the Doe and Black families, who testified about inappropriate sexual conduct of ESD teachers in the civil trial.
The protest, or “news conference” as Clohessy called it, was sparsely attended and lasted 30 minutes. About midway through, an ESD security officer and spokesperson Julie Clardy approached the small gathering of protestors and media and asked them to leave the school’s property. ESD issued a statement condemning the protest.
ESD officials call SNAP demonstration disgraceful and offensive
(DALLAS, September 29, 2011) – ESD officials today said a short demonstration by SNAP today outside the school is a disgraceful and offensive action staged as a way to exploit the results from a recent trial for their own publicity purposes.
“Clearly their actions and their news release demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge about the court proceedings,” said ESD Board Chairman John Eagle. “To invite the news media to an artificial protest outside a school that is in session is a shameful act and an obvious attempt to manipulate the news media.”
(Editors note: The SNAP protesters were on private school property and were approached and told they could not be on ESD property. During that discussion, with the pool camera rolling, David Clohessy (from SNAP) delivered rapid-fire questions to the ESD representative asking her, “Who told her to remove them from the property?” It’s gotcha journalism with no journalists on hand.)
37 comments to "Trio of SNAP Advocates Speak on ESD Campus"
These people don’t care about their daughter or the truth. All they want is the money.
I agree with you Avid.
Eagle’s confrontational and insulting statement was directed at a not-for-profit group of sexual abuse survivors.
ESD comes off looking like they didn’t learn anything from this verdict. At the least, ESD needs to hire a professional damage control company. These comments by alleged parents (hi Nancy!) certainly aren’t going to do anything to help with the school’s image either.
Keep posting, Nancy. Your comments will live online forever and will be what prospective read when they do their online research. Something tells me that Fr. Swann would be happier if you crawled away from the computer and stopped trying to be ‘helpful’.
Snap leaders are supported by members like myself. They don’t make money from their activism, unlike the lawyers. I hope your comments come from ignorance, which can be rectified, and not blind arrogance, for which their may be no cure.
Keep in mind your silence only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511
snapjudy@gmail.com
“Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests” and all clergy.
http://www.snapnetwork.org/
ESD must have just shot off this rediculous statement in another state of panic and desperation. John Eagle? Where is FATHER SWANN? Is he still running the school? Or is it you now? This is unbelievable. This was not a hoax. There are real people out in this world of ours who are seriously concerned about this issue. You’re alienating and embarassing more and more ESD families on a daily basis. MR. EAGLE, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO???
Why is it only Nancy brings up the money? She still doesn’t get what this case was about. Maybe she can google the name Jay Lemberger.
Thank you to the Doe family for the courage to step out of the light.
It’s good ESD has been forced to review their policies, but not good enough. Without the scrutiny of this case, it’s doubtful any meaningful review would be a priority. There is something missing in the culture in spite of all of the resources and celebrity they bring to bear. In order to successfully espouse Christian values, principled decisions and hold students to standards of excellence, adult leadership must model the same behaviors. I have faith there are sensitive and far-sighted families at ESD, but the disingenuous testimony of its leaders combined with a lack of humility and accountability throughout this entire process eclipsed all reason. Surely Dallas could have expected so much better from the names that haunt the halls of ESD- beginning with a sincere apology to all who have been hurt by their goofy decisions and public statements.
May I assure you, as others have, that we were not paid to come out to the press event. I am a resident of Dallas and a member of the Dallas chapter of SNAP, which is a wonderful organization that has provided me with much support, and I feel honored to get a chance to stand up for another survivor.
This culture of victim-blaming is a big reason why a lot of abuse survivors don’t come forward. Thank you to everyone here who has stood up for the real victim in this case. You may never know how great an impact you have made simply by voicing your support for her.
Does Eagle not understand that SNAP is there to support other abuse victims who have not come forward? It was an effective demonstration – I’m guessing all the ESD students and parents now know about the organization and how to reach them.
The trial was not about the abuse – it was about the cover-up. It was about how much additional damage the cover-up caused the victim and how the existing policies and procedures foster abuse.
So who paid for the plane tickets? Just asking.
Me, I have spoken at local and state events only and have always paid my own way–driving alone or carpooling with other members.
Stop trying to demonize a group of which you obviously have no understanding. It must be difficult for someone so cynical to recognize courage and truth. On a Christian campus how sad is it that it took outsiders to come in and speak for those who had been hurt, and to challenge the religious authorities. On whose side would Jesus of Nazareth be speaking? There is no doubt in my mind he would have been holding up the innocent, the abused, the demonized, and challenging the religious institution that protects the abusers and ignores the evil of abuse.
ESD: Abuser had not abused in the past. Overseers did not know of abusive tendency. Man was married, with children, and an apparently contented wife. Was immediately suspended when knowledge of improper relationship was discovered. Not invited back. Not transferred, No attempt to rehabilitate.
Parallels? How are these cases similar?
Mona@ I don’t know why you are calling me New Nancy. New Nancy was the name I gave the new Nancy because I was the first Nancy and I wanted it to be clear that I wasn’t talking to myself in my posts. LOL. Are you New Nancy now Mona? I guess I don’t get it.
Mona, sounds like the people at the top of SNAP are all paid so that at least in part answers my question. They didn’t pay for the plane tickets. I am sure you think you are doing good and good for you. I have never heard of SNAP before and I don’t know what they have done in the past and don’t much care but I can tell you if this is what they stand for now I am not impressed. Looks like they are just doing stunts for money.
I think the case is extremely sad in many ways, but I hardly think that ESD is the only guilty party here. While reading about the case I couldn’t help but wonder where this girls parents were when she was out at all hours of the night, up late talking to her teacher and sending him naked pictures, and being abused right under their noses.
I also find it interesting that people are so surprised that ESD didn’t want a scandal on their hands. They fired the teacher and told him that he would never work as a teacher again. That is hardly similar to what the Church did with the priests who abused children. The awarded $9 million dollars was for what amounts to a wrongful expulsion, and I think that is a steep price.
Has the Doe family offered any of that money to help other victims of sexual abuse? What happens when a child from a poor family is abused by a teacher? This sort of thing happens all the time in public schools and since those parents can’t get expensive lawyers it doesn’t get taken this far. Has anyone heard of offers by this family to actually aid other victims of abuse? Victims without a wealth ridden private school to go after in civil court? Perhaps before you applaud their humanitarian efforts you should think about the fact that they didn’t go after their daughters abuser, they went after the entity with financial backing. They didn’t take the abuser to civil court because of the abuse, they went to court over an expulsion from a school. Because the ESD did in fact remove the teacher as soon as the situation came to light and they provided counseling to the victim.
Is it sad that this young woman was a victim of statutory rape by a man abusing his power of authority over a 16 year old? Yes. Could the school have handled things better? Yes. Does any of this have anything to do with SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by PRIESTS)? No, not really.
Auntie Cairo- a teenager is still a child psychologically, and is no match for an intelligent, skilled, adult predator. Her age is irrelevant, and it does not diminish the seriousness of the abuse, nor does it relieve the abuser of any blame.
The similar thread for me was trusted institutions acting in polar opposite ways than I was raised to expect.
As far as I know, the priest who abused me for years as a teen had never abused other girls. They even told me that the priest had been treated for liking boys, not girls,so I must be lying. Predators might have a preference but when they get a victim, any victim that they can dominate will do.
I worked at the church in the youth office and also worked at the Cenacle Retreat House. I was a devout Catholic. Priests and Bishops were supposed to be like Jesus. Yes, it was upsetting when I was raped for years, but the devastation of “telling” and then being called a liar by bishops, other priests and a cardinal pretty much sank my ship. My little sacred world fell apart.
The common thread is the criminal ways the trusted instituitions handled my case. While the priest raped me, I felt gang raped by people at higher levels in the church. They blamed me.
At any rate, as an adult, I contacted the Office of Youth and Child Protection who then had me sit on a task force to rework how special panels failed the victims. Kathleen McCheney who ran the OYCP was a big help back then. There were good people in the church…just not the ones calling the shots on my case. As a devoted Catholic, I was blown away by the instituition.
Here’s where SNAP comes in for me. The diocese moved the priest who raped me to a church in Oregon after the Houston Chronicle did a story on my case in 2004. It was not the church who notified the Oregon people about the priest, it was the work of SNAP who followed these events. My guess is that SNAP prevented other teens from being abused.
In my experience, the criminal reaction of the trusted institution is the part that completed the destruction of my foundation.
I was then attacked by the false memory people. As I fought back against them, I was shocked to find that high up people in our country sat on both the false memory board and the Executive Board of the Office of Youth and Child Protection for the Catholic Church.
It’s like “telling” your family and they push it under the carpet. Same as “telling” about the priest and the church pushing it under the carpet. Which was then the same as “telling” people in the judicial branch and the just said it was not their area. In my case, three areas overlapped. Family, Church and Country. If you look up Project Paperclip (MKULTRA) and their use of children in the Omaha area (of Nick Bryant fame)…you’ll see a good example of institutions all doing the same thing. Look the other way, silence the victims and then pushing it under the carpet allowing the cycle of violence to children to continue.
Long Story Short…SNAP has been the only group in my seven years searching for justice to actually show up and listen to me and help me.
I wish their were more people like the ones in SNAP. They give me hope for our world.
God Bless Emily
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