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The South Dakota Legislature has again had the chance to vote to open the statue of limitation for survivors of child sexual abuse.    The politicians again have voted it down, unlike 14 other states in the country.

This is nothing new.  They went so far in 2010 as to pass one of the most restrictive laws for survivors in the country.  They do this despite examples of ongoing abuse such as at the  St Paul’s Mission School. When will the South Dakota Legislature start protecting the children, not the predators?

There are so many examples of the opened statutes leading to positive results:

  1. Justice for those that have been denied for so long,
  2. Predators (and those that protect them) finally being called to account,
  3. The Church and other organizations have been forced to release lists internally kept of those credibly accused;
  4. Most of all, children are protected by identifying the wrongdoers and stopping this from happening in the future.

It is a shame that South Dakota Legislators continue silence the survivors and protect the predators.

The Catholic Church has suggested that survivors come to them for help.  Past history raises questions as to how much help is available from the church.  See:

Why Survivors of Clergy Sex Abuse Shouldn’t Rely on the Catholic Church

Sexual abuse and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.

2 Comments

  1. Gravatar for christine
    christine

    Thank you for this opinion piece.

    When i read that South Dakota Legislators once again voted to protect the catholic church assets instead of the people the church harmed.. i felt sad..

    The legislators used the same old lies to defend their stance of no financial justice to past victims... the lies from the catholic church playbook about memories fading or false memories.. and prove once again they are deceived and puppets of the church liars..

    New York State finally made the Child Victims act with one year look back window law.. last year.

    How did they finally do it?

    A victim of hospital abuse Gary Greeberg,, financed a campaign to RID NY legislators of those who kept caving to the catholic church lobby and he got several new legislators in place who don't listen to the old boys child rape cult lobby..

    It seems like perhaps South Dakota needs to elect some new people who are current and committed to making things right for older child victims and all victims of child sexual abuse...

    Many years ago when this same result happened, i contacted one of the South Dakota Legislators by email to ask him WHY he did what his church told him instead of what god says .

    He told me to mind my own business.. (i worked on bills in California and Hawaii. for past victims)

    This is my business.. i make it my business to get justice for those dear people that you try to erase.

    The catholic church in my opinion is the worlds largest child rape, genocide and racketeering cult.

    Time to vote it's puppets out of office. .

    1. Mike Bryant

      Thank you for reading, commenting , and being part of the fight.

Comments for this article are closed.