Hehehe…I usually have a complex opinion. That is, I can see different sides of the issue. I still don’t believe that purely based on a child’s say so we should involve the police.
That said, I want to light molesters on fire.
But as a community, with just a little bit of money, we could do so much.
1- Community wide investigation of why our rates are up, how is a molester born & breed? Speak to the ones in prison; most are repentant and will cooperate.
2-School liability – based on a number of guidelines. If you follow them, you have no liability. If you didn’t, you get your pants sued off. Anchor it in law. It will make schools cooperate afterward ( as opposed to the current situation, that they have a major incentive not to cooperate because of the endless liability, and therefore they just ship off the molester. Say, no, legally you are OK if you did your job beforehand – and clearly define what there job is – background checks, yichud rules, video cameras).
3- Prevention – a place for potential molesters to run to. therapy, medication, employment. True, aries, many will not take it. But some will. Some will ask themselves if sing sing is worth for a decade. Some will wonder what the hell is wrong with them.
Some are horrified at what they came close to doing. x400. That’s worth my while. If I can get 10 molesters off the streets of NYC – how many kids have I saved over decades?
4- Clear, acceptable Halachic guidelines of when you are allowed to go the police, signed off by the big league poskin, publicized in english to everyone. Explaining the mitzvah of taking action when action is warranted. A promise of confidentiality and community protection.
5- An independent task force that can take complaints, maintain a black list of educators (even if we don’t have enough to lock em up), and tasked with tormenting them until they mine in new zealand.
Price tag? Five million, max. That’s chump change – we could cut out fifty percent of cases. That’s the moq proposal.
And now you have an answer to our original question. People were silent because:
of being unsure of when they can report someone
of unsure of what the burden of proof was
unsure of destroying a community school
unsure of destroying an otherwise wonderful person & his innocent family
so they just quietly fired him. but that didn’t do the job.
Kerosene?
I think we could really deal with those problems. And this is why people weren’t evil for not reporting – merely, terribly wrong.