Thursday, October 12, 2006
Our first allegiance is to our children
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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I was already slack-jawed from the emerging details of the House of Representatives' inertia in handling early complaints that then-congressman Mark Foley was being "over-friendly" with teenage boys who worked as pages on Capitol Hill.
Then, closer to home, came this week's news report that a student teacher complained 11 years ago about Blacksburg teacher Jonathan Utin's alleged inappropriate behavior toward students. Utin was arrested last month on charges of raping and molesting an Ohio girl between 1998 and 2002.
Pardon my obvious observation, but in each case somebody dropped the ball -- and it wasn't the children.
We are quick to urge young people to "tell" when someone "bothers" them. In many instances, the children don't say anything out of fear or stigma.
But if they do bravely come forward, or confide in a friend who alerts someone, or if an observant adult notices something that raises suspicion, we need to take the allegation seriously.
If we do nothing, we betray the children.
Our lack of action or urgency serves only to enable the predator to continue to prey on children.
Some House Republicans are trying to shift attention from Foley's gross misdeed and the slow response of House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
They seek to portray the leak of Foley's sexually explicit e-mails to the young pages as part of a Democratic "October surprise" before next month's pivotal congressional election.
But as a respected local businessman said to me the other day, take politics out of the equation.
"This is about pedophilia," he said.
He's right, and that's where our focus should be -- not over who's leading in the polls but in the safety and protection of our children.
Whether you want to call Foley a pedophile, an Internet predator or a dirty old man, he imposed his lecherous sexual desire on minors.
After his arrest, Utin told authorities he had molested several children over the course of at least 30 years. However, he faces charges only in the Ohio case.
In 1995, a student teacher from Virginia Tech complained to her supervisor about Utin's behavior toward students.
It is unclear if the complaint was investigated then and apparently is unrelated to the case for which he has been charged.
As adults, we have a responsibility to protect the children.
Nothing should push us into action quicker than the legitimate suspicion that a child is being abused.
Shanna Flowers' column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
