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United States: The social attitudes of times past have once more risen to bite the Catholic education system in the arse. This time it's nuns who are in trouble.
Nine former students of a now-closed Massachusetts school for the deaf filed a lawsuit on Tuesday saying they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused by the Roman Catholic nuns who operated the institution.
The plaintiffs, all of whom are deaf and mute, said they were raped, fondled, beaten, stuffed into lockers and had their heads submerged in toilets by nuns. The plaintiffs were ages 4 to 18 at the time, specified in the lawsuit as 1944 to 1977, while they were students at the Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph, a suburb of Boston. The school, which was operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, closed in 1994.
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court here, names 14 nuns, one priest, a staff member and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, the retired bishop of Brooklyn who had served in the Archdiocese of Boston, as defendants. It seeks unspecified monetary compensation.
And there'll be none of that foul sign language for you, young man.
Mr. Garabedian said many of the students had their hands tied behind their backs for trying to use sign language, which was discouraged at the school in favor of oral communication.
Perhaps you were wondering why the parents didn't step in. As far as they were concerned, it was embarrassing enough not to have bred a cheerleader or date rapist football star, so the nuns were well within their rights to beat some sense into their offspring.
James Sullivan, 55, of Boston, attended the school from 1953 to 1967. He said his head was slammed into a wall and a door one day, and he was slapped around and hit with a yardstick until he was bloody. When he told his parents, Sullivan said, they did not listen to him.
They felt the nuns were right, you know, they had to discipline me,he said.
I still have to argue that these kids moronic parents share at least some of the blame.
9 Students at School for Deaf Allege Abuse and Sue Nuns [BugMeNot]—New York Times, 12th May 2004.
Suit Claims Abuse by Nuns at Mass. School—AP, 11th May 2004.
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Comments
1: Posted by: Feòrag | May 14, 2004 11:55 AM
And then there's this piece of rank hypocrisy, which I was going to Prattle separately, but is better placed here. I want to send the evangelists a note which simply says "Matthew 7:3-5".
But since when did such people pay attention to the actual teachings of Jesus?
2: Posted by: Red Wolf | May 15, 2004 1:44 AM
I got as far as Catholic Evangelicals and my brain exploded.
I thought the Catholics had the policy of brain-washing their members from birth, assaulting strangers on the street about the wonder of their invisible friend seems a bit out of their jurisdiction. What? Did a loony fundie convert to Catholicism and bring his copy of How to win friends and influence people with him?
Evangelism, witnessing and similar activitites go by one name here—, and is no different from spam for viagra, penis enlargement products and pornography. We do not take advertising. If you want to advertise your imaginary friend, please spend your own money on your own web space to do so. Any attempts to use the comments section for advertisements will be deleted, and the perpetrator barred, unless they are particularly stupid, in which case I reserve the right to pinch an idea from Teresa Nielsen Hayden and delete all the vowels.
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