The Catholic Church and Big Ten
universities—though different institutions— have custodial relationships with
minors. They also have a legal role called parens
patriae—essentially, the role of a guardian to ensure the well-being of
minors entrusted to their care.
With that backdrop in mind, consider
the following:
Michigan State University: The school has agreed to pay $425 million to the 332 victims
represented in current litigation, with another $75 million set aside in a
trust fund that could go to future plaintiffs.
Penn State (Sandusky abuse case): As of November 2017, Penn State has paid out an
additional $16 million to people with claims they were sexually abused by
former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, raising the total amount of
payouts to more than $109 million.
The Los Angeles archdiocese in 2007 paid $660 million to 508 victims.
More generally, from 2003
to 2009 there have been at least nine major settlements with archdioceses in
the U.S. involving over 375 cases with 1551 claimants/victims, resulting in
payments of over $1.1 billion.
Common threads in these horror
stories are lack of supervision of adults charged with caring for minors,
ignoring complaints, and attacking complainants while protecting the abusers.
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