Don’t look away from abuse signs

Looking at the world as mirrored by the victims of child sexual abuse has been a horrifying experience. Even worse than reckoning with the fact of their suffering is the realization of how easy it’s been for their adult protectors to look the other way.

The plain truth is that we read far too often the accounts about cases such as the Kamehameha Schools students abused by a pedophiliac school-connected therapist and, nationally, the stunning revelations about a doctor who sexually preyed on young female gymnasts.

The stories signal a need for everyone, from government officials to family members and all with at least partial custody of children, to sharpen legal protections and their own awareness of danger signs.

The most recent development to burst into headlines was Wednesday’s sentencing of Dr. Larry Nassar, a Michigan State University physician, to 40-175 years in prison for decades of abuse. Nassar was convicted of molesting more than 150 girls and women, including some Olympic champions, whom he tended while he worked as a team doctor for the university and USA Gymnastics.

The answer to the inevitable question — How did this happen? — took the form of resignations. Both the MSU president and some members of the U.S. Olympic team leadership gave up their posts.

All of this brings to mind earlier sexual assaults on children, most notoriously the 2012 criminal trial and conviction of serial rapist and retired Pennsylvania State University football coach Jerry Sandusky. In that case, boys enrolled in Sandusky’s youth program became the targets for abuse. Pedophilia is a scourge that inflicts pain on the young and vulnerable, regardless of gender, and that is a national disgrace.

Closer to home, the case of the late Dr. Robert Browne, chief of psychiatry at what was then St. Francis Hospital and a therapist under contract with Kamehameha, is at the center of a legal battle being waged by advocates for 34 victims.

The final outcome of that court action is unclear, but leaders at the school in particular were under attack for failing to intercede on behalf of the children.

More recently came the distressing news that a loophole exists in the state law on promoting pornography to a minor. That weakened the case against one man, who allegedly showed a pornographic video to a girl during a sleepover with the man’s daughter. The existing law is written in such a way that did not clearly disqualify the man from exceptions granted a parent or guardian.

That needs to be fixed; fortunately, state Rep. Scott Nishimoto has introduced legislation to clarify the law, and the House should hear the measures: House Bills 1850, 1851 and 1852.

The perpetrator allegedly presented the pornography to the girl and then propositioned her, an act of undeniable abuse, regardless of who commits it.

The 2018 Legislature, newly convened, also seems moved to widen the pathway for victims pursuing relief in civil court. State Rep. Linda Ichiyama has introduced HB 2189, which deserves full consideration.

The measure would increase the period when a civil suit may be brought from the current eight years to 22 years after the 18th birthday of either the minor victim or the offender, whichever comes later. It also would allow lawsuits to be filed up to 10 years — instead of the current three-year limit — after the victim has reasonable opportunity to discover psychological injury has resulted.

Bolstering the legal framework of protections is an excellent remedy, but the law can only do so much. It is up to all of us, the parents, guardians and supportive adults to take notice of the child’s environment at all times.

And when we sense something wrong — or, more to the point, when the child sounds an alarm — our duty is to listen, and to act swiftly in their defense.