OT: legal obligations

[Christopher Browne]

On Jan 16, 2008 8:53 PM, Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> As well they should be, though it appears to be the fine for this is
> only $1000. My experience with some schools (both as a student and -
> previously - as a staff member) is that they will often sweep issues
> of violence or other distasteful activities under the rug, trying to
> deal with them (poorly) internally rather than face the embarrassment
> of the publicity.

The cost of dealing with it "straightforwardly" is a whole lot higher
than $1000...

A relative of mine had a somewhat similar situation brought to him,
where someone was accused of pedophilic behaviour, and he took the
matter to the police.  The guilty individual is now incarcerated, as
seems pretty proper.  The police were quite complimentary of the
relative's handling of things.

Unfortunately, the price, to my relative, was painfully high in the
personal terms of having been drawn into the case as a witness and,
much more painfully, as a focal point for members of the community who
had been affected, directly or indirectly, by the guilty individual.
I think the worst part was that a number of people were actively
nonsupportive - they would much rather that the matter had been swept
under the carpet, rather than being publicized, and thereby causing
"organizational embarrassment."  (Their sole injury was that
embarrassment.)

There has been a lot of hurt over quite a number of years, and that
came for doing the *right* thing.

I quite understand how someone could prefer to evade that sort of thing.

It's not a good thing, but getting drawn into this sort of problem
draws everyone involved into a very ugly place, and that comes at
considerable personal cost.
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