Protecting Our Own: Prevention of Child Abuse in the Pagan Community
By Éilis Niamh, Guest ContributorOn March 26, Kenny Klein, a Pagan author and Wiccan priest of the Blue Star Tradition, was arrested on 25 counts of possession of child pornography. Like a large boulder crashing into a river, this news hit the Pagan community in waves that rippled out far beyond those who were unfortunate to interact with Kenny on an ongoing basis to impact, arguably, the communities of all who would call themselves a Pagan.
Well-known and traveled blogs such as The Wild Hunt (http://wildhunt.org/2014/03/allegations-emerge-after-pagan-author-charged-with-possessing-child-pornography.html) and T. Thorn Coyle’s blog (http://www.thorncoyle.com/blog/2014/03/28/predators-paganism-trigger-warning/) and many others, quickly began flooding with commentary on the subject.
Comments flew from all sides: there were those who finally felt safe to speak out about the times they felt threatened by the man or had been abused by him, there were strange side meanderings into discussions of cultural/tradition misappropriation, there were those claiming Kenny’s innocence until proven guilty and those wishing for his interminable suffering and many who took the opportunity to turn on one another. I will never understand the human psychology that transforms the comment section of any website into a frenzied fragmentation of community where the myth of our separateness, of which usually Pagans are well aware to ignore, flourishes and runs rampant and wild. I will say no more then about the in-fighting and outcry generated in our communities virtual comments and responses, and instead turn to what we might learn from this tragic and shocking situation.
What I do understand are the heart-wrenching, courageous, honest, and horrifying accounts of domestic and child abuse and molestation which Kenny’s ex-wife, Tzipora, and son, Joe Pax, finally felt able to tell, and in their own voices besides. What I do understand is that there is a glaring, gnawing, and persistent need for our communities to address issues of child abuse, whether it be physical, psychological, or sexual. We need to develop standards and best practices to implement policies which directly deal with, and increase awareness of, such abuse so that we can prevent it from happening to the best of our ability in the future. I understand that we as a community and as individuals need healing, but that words of comfort and concern and even a steadfast resolve to remember how to live the kind of transformative peace Tzipora Katz has admirably embodied through her actions and words will not be enough. I believe that an adequate response to this event in the history of our community calls for concrete steps toward changing how we conduct public events and festivals and any Pagan event at which a child is present.
As a community it is our responsibility to protect our children, know how to report abuse when we see it, know how to educate volunteers and others who will be working with, teaching, or watching our children, know about the resources we have and how to utilize them, and be proactive and communicative in disseminating this information to others. My aim in the rest of this article then is three-fold. First, I would like to share some of my own personal story of surviving abuse as a child and my passion for ending child maltreatment and advocating for the rights of children. I hope sharing my own background and knowledge will help others understand why this event struck home even though I met Kenny Klein only in passing and what happened took place far on the other side of the United States from where I live. We are all connected, and what horrors happen to the least of us happen to us all. Being involved in the healing of our community seemed not only what was needed, but to me became a spiritual necessity.
After sharing a bit about myself, I wish to address the two glaring issues which I see lie at the heart of what happened with Kenny Klein. These issues are child sexual exploitation—the trafficking and sexual slavery of children, and child sexual and other forms of abuse perpetrated by individuals with whom usually, but not always, the child trusts or is familiar. Both issues have come to the fore in this terrible and tragic sequence of events, and it is paramount that our community understands and responds adequately to the potential of either occurring again, however we might want to wish otherwise.
My Story
My story begins when I was six months old. My mother needed to attend a class for graduate school, and so she dropped me off with a neighbor’s nanny who had watched me without incident twice before. This time would be different. When my father heard that the nanny had called the police because I was “sleeping” and she could not wake me up, he got to the house before the law enforcement officers and recognized that far from sleeping, I was in a coma. I had been violently shaken, apparently simply because I did not stop crying. I remained in a coma for eight days; I was paralyzed on the right side of my body; I suffered seizures, and became totally blind in both eyes from bilateral retinal detachment.
As a child, it was sometimes difficult for me to reconcile my future with the intentional violent abuse perpetrated by another. The consequences of this abuse, the disabilities I must now contend with, have had a tremendous impact on my life. All too often, I have understood what it is like to be the first one: I was the first one to teach people about blindness before they could learn about me. I was the first one to advocate to be mainstreamed at my school, to insist that I be treated equally, and to fight to be allowed to take classes regardless of my disability. I often felt, and I still sometimes feel, very alone. It has never been easy, but I try to focus on the positive aspects of my life and keep things in perspective. I have not and will not let life’s challenges stand in the way of my pursuing my goals and realizing my dreams. In fact, I have realized many of my dreams already. I gave keynote speeches around the country at child abuse prevention centers, at conferences to end child maltreatment, and for organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Child Welfare League of America. I also graduated from Stanford with honors and am writing a dissertation on human flourishing and the need for a virtue of interdependence. I wish I could say I represent the norm of what is possible after a person is abused as a child, but unfortunately I remain in large part an exception.
Some Statistics
Most Shaken Babies, if they survive at all, suffer significant brain damage and often incur multiple physical and mental disabilities. Shaken Baby Syndrome accounts for the most common cause of death by child abuse in small children. There are an estimated 600 to 1400 cases of SBS per year, and as with many other forms of child abuse, there are no standard methods for gathering these statistics and variables can range over orders of magnitude. The same problem that plagues attempts to quantify how many children become victims of shaken baby syndrome also plague the issue of child sexual abuse and determining the incidents of child trafficking. The American Psychological Association puts forward that one reason for the lack of statistics and studies on the sexual abuse of children is the lack of any standard or agreed-on definition of such abuse. Child sexual abuse, they note, is also often under reported. Men especially are sometimes encouraged to be proud of their early sexual activity regardless of whether it was consensual or constituted rape. Men and women suffer from shame and if they have been abused repeatedly, they may begin to internalize that such abuse is deserved or that they were at fault. Children who are sexually abused suffer many short term and long ranging effects from post-traumatic stress, psychological and behavioral problems, sexual dysfunction, social challenges, night terrors, and chronic health issues.
Unlike other types of crimes, sexual abuse is usually perpetrated by someone the child knows, loves, and trusts. Immediate and extended family members or friends of the family are most often the people who become the child’s abusers. If both a child’s parents are abusive or if the non-abusive adult in the situation feels powerless to leave with the children, then usually the children will be placed in foster care. Sometimes such children run away, both from their abusive homes and from their equally abusive foster homes. And quite often such children wind up on the streets and then find themselves living a nightmare in which they are used as prostitutes, sold to sexual tourists, or become the victims of child pornography.
In fact a recent report on the sexual exploitation of children concludes that the majority of children who end up in this form of slavery are often the victims of extensive sexual abuse. This cycle of abuse and victimization is one cycle we ought to seek an end to. Tragically, sexual exploitation and slavery of children is on the rise, and not just in developing countries. For example, California has the highest incidence of child sexual exploitation in the country. San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles, with their international airports and complex highway systems, make the transport of children in and out of the state and country a relatively simple matter. Children are moved often in order to evade detection. When children do get “rescued” from this kind of abusive situation, which experts have likened to that found in concentration camps or among prisoners of war, it is usually not the case that they finally find some loving home to finish growing up in. Instead, sexually exploited children are often arrested for prostitution and thrown in prison, enduring the harsh juvenile justice system, rather than getting the healing they desperately deserve. Others are processed into new foster homes in which they are abused, run away, are taken in by a pimp (often the same one) and showered with false promises, isolated, starved or beaten into submission, and…. repeat.
Child sexual exploitation usually begins anywhere from eleven to thirteen years of age for boys and from twelve to fourteen for girls. Eighty-five percent of sexually exploited children are victims of incest, ninety percent had been physically abused, and ninety-eight percent reported emotional abuse. There are no Amber Alerts for such children. They have little in way of family or adult support, and so they become shadows of themselves, ghosts that no one sees who, as one survivor puts it, are raped and molested repeatedly and thrown away. (Walker, K., (2013). This very well could be the reality every day for the children whose pictures were found on Kenny Klein’s computer.
Widespread Internationally
In 2004, UNICEF identified 480,000 child pornography websites. Studies indicate that the demand for child pornography has been increasing. Furthermore, the children depicted are now much younger, and the images depicted are much more violent than in the past. Researchers have found that people who view child pornography are usually sexually abusing children themselves.
Sadly, children are not just being exploited through pornography but are sold to “sex tourists,” people who come to the United States with or without the sole intent of having sex with a child. They are also sold to human traffickers in other countries or to other traffickers in the U.S. (Walker, K., 2013). Even if, as individuals, we can’t effectively rid our country or the world of such unconscionable violence toward and maltreatment of our children, we can at least be as aware of it as possible and do what we can to protect our own communities from having any part in the vicious cycle of abuse and exploitation. Ignorance in this case cannot lead to bliss but rather leads to complicit consent to the atrocities occurring everyday around us. Facing such truth is harrowing, but I believe, inextricably part of our responsibility as co-inhabitants of our world. We can take immediate steps toward preventing sexual abuse from occurring or going unnoticed in our own communities, and in the remainder of this editorial I outline a realistic and practical way to do just that.
Prevention
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (hereafter NCMEC) provides an excellent framework for any youth-serving organization to follow in order to utilize the best practices and policies toward the prevention of child sexual abuse. One issue that did seem to come up repeatedly in the comment section of almost every online discussion among Pagans regarding Kenny Klein, was the need for transparency, responsibility and effective standard procedures in handling complaints and reports of possible and actual abuse. It was disturbing, to say the least, when adults, who claimed to have been victims of Kenny Klein as children, used the forum of the internet to voice, not only the sense of violation they felt due to inappropriate behavior on Kenny’s part, but also, their anger and feelings of betrayal at having reported the incident years ago to trusted adults who proceeded to minimize, dismiss, or deny their experiences. To ignore a child who reports abuse to a trusted adult is an instance of responding to cruelty with cruelty, the ultimate lack of empathy, and is about as life-unaffirming and ego, rather than earth-centric, as you can get.
As individuals, we should be held accountable for our own destructive actions. And, as with other institutionalized social problems, such as poverty, sexism or discrimination, we must acknowledge and take responsibility for our systematic and collective failures that allow adults like Kenny to “get away with it.” Child abuse is a systemic problem as much as anything, and so I submit that if the Pagan community adopted some version of the NCMEC’s procedures, we will have gone a long way toward ensuring that sexual and other forms of abuse will not occur in a Pagan community. By Pagan community, I mean every Pagan organization, festival, group, and network who at any time believes children will be present, attend, or need child care at an event. I believe it is our responsibility within all these contexts to develop standard protocols, training, transparency, and trust that such guidelines will be implemented and followed no matter how small or diverse the group or gathering turns out to be.
The NCMEC, in conjunction with the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, hosted over fifty of the largest youth-serving organizations in the country in March 2013 to discuss strategies for the prevention of child sexual abuse. I cannot adequately address every point made in the NCMSEC’s report here and encourage anyone interested to read it in full (Center for Missing & Exploited Children; “Safe to Compete: An Introduction to Sound Practices for Keeping Children Safer in Youth-Serving Organizations,” http://www.missingkids.com/publications/PDF24A). They determined that there are six essential components that any prevention program should have. These are as follows:
- Organizational Self-Assessment
- Child Protection Policies
- Employee/Volunteer Screening
- Employee/Volunteer Training
- Response and Reporting
- Community Engagement and Empowerment
With consideration of what has come to light surrounding not only Kenny Klein’s use of child pornography but also his repeated abuse of our children, an assessment of what is and isn’t working within Pagan groups such as child-inclusive covens, organizations such as PantheaCon, and Pagan festivals and public events is urgent and necessary. The process as outlined is five-fold. Pagan groups and organizations should make an assessment of existing policies along the following lines keeping in mind, of course, what is already covered within federal law:
- Organizational culture and attitude toward child protection
- Input from affiliate organizations (e.g., are organizational policies clear and easy to follow?)
- Who is responsible for implementing which policies
- Factors unique to the organization: size, location, activities planned, number of staff, and the age and gender of event participants.
Policies that are clearly and consistently intolerant of child abuse are crucial to child abuse prevention. It’s not only important to clarify who must adhere to the policy but also specify concretely which types of behavior constitute abuse, making sure to include emotional and verbal forms of abuse as well as physical within the definition. So often the detrimental effects of sexual innuendos toward a child, manipulative comments, emotional blackmail, and the wearing down of a child’s self-esteem are much easier to dismiss than cuts and bruises, but all are forms of abusive behavior. Furthermore, once abusive images of a child are online, they cannot be retracted. The child will have to live with the permanence such photographs make of his or her abuse and they will have a devastating impact on all aspects of life —work, social, romantic, and emotional. Such policies and procedures seem even more pressing to develop in the aftermath of discovering that a Pagan, considered an elder by Blue Star Tradition, was engaged in viewing child pornography.
To protect our children, it is vital to address how the organization/group will deal adequately with child supervision, issues of privacy, and chaperones. Finally, but certainly still of the utmost importance, each group/organization needs to define and implement standards of conduct and procedures surrounding the ethical use of social media and the internet. Organizations and groups are encouraged to revisit and reshape these policies consistently within some agreed-upon time frame. Stagnant policies that do not grow with the organization, addressing its evolving needs, lose effectiveness. Re-evaluation of these policies on an ongoing basis is a sign of a group’s strength, and need not indicate that the policy is inherently problematic or flawed. Groups and organizations where there is care of and contact with children and youth are strongly encouraged to formulate a simplified version of the policy and distribute it to everyone involved—parents and teachers, staff and volunteers, attendees and staff. For example, it would be easy enough when registering for PantheaCon to have to read and print out the conference’s policy for child protection before attending the conference and to make it part of the training of any volunteer that she also read the policy, know how and when to report signs of abuse, and understand her responsibilities. For people who are specifically assigned the task of looking after children at a ritual or festival these steps toward prevention are even more needed.
Recommendations
Given my own history of child abuse at the hands of an unlicensed care provider, conducting background checks on volunteers and childcare providers at public Pagan events is an issue very close to home. The nanny who caused my blindness was convicted of child abuse, given a one hundred thousand dollar fine, two thousand hours of community service, and allowed to be a nanny again. In response, my mother created a program called Trustline (www.Trustline.org): a program implemented by California’s Department of Social Services, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, to screen unlicensed child care providers (babysitters, nannies, on-site caregivers, activity facilitators) through a background check against the California Criminal History and the FBI. Even though it is a voluntary service, meaning that the only people screened are those who voluntarily submit their fingerprints, there is a nine percent denial rate. A person who is denied through the Trustline Registry is a person who has something in their background which prevents them from caring for children, such as murder, assault and battery, rape, kidnapping, or child abuse/molestation. I urge that any Pagan organization or group located in California avail themselves of the Trustline Registry whenever putting on a festival or conference to which kids will attend, or hosting a public ritual that includes volunteers needed to oversee activities for children, or has an organized form of child care. While there is a one time fee to become part of the Registry, once a person is cleared for Trustline, there is no cost to an organization or family wanting to check to see if the provider continues to be cleared. You can find information about Trustline as well as other useful programs and organizations dedicated to the prevention of child abuse on the Resources page.
Although groups like the Council of the Phoenix are talking about how to better protect children, I am at present unaware of any systematic attempt to address the issue of child abuse within the Pagan community in a systematic way. While I understand that the Pagan community is made up of autonomous groups, I believe we have a collective responsibility to protect our children by developing standards that are as rigorous as those adopted by schools, and other community organizations.
I want to belong to a world where children are no longer subjected to exploitation, a world where children are recognized to be as human as adults. Let’s create a world in which children will no longer be shadows of a too complicated problem to solve, part of a knot too twisted to untie and, therefore, left alone, minimized, dismissed, displaced. In our communities as Pagans, may we come to value children as highly as adults and may our changed attitude toward, and fierce protection of, our children find a resounding expression within our communities in the outer world as well. Let us continue to raise awareness, rise in outcry, and raise our children with love and compassion until our children’s pain is healed, until our children’s voices are heard, until every broken childhood is mended and every child knows in their bones the way of their belonging. So be it.
Resources: American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children 407 South Dearborn Suite 1300 Chicago, IL 60605 312) 554-0166 (312) 554-0166 FREE http://www.apsac.org/ National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Charles B. Wang International Children’s Building 699 Prince Street Alexandria, VA 22314-3175 24 hotline: 1-800-THE-LOST FREE http://www.missingkids.com/ Child Help USA 15757 North 78th Street Scottsdale, AZ 85260 (800) 4-A-CHILD (800) 4-A-CHILD FREE http://www.childhelpusa.org/ Prevent Child Abuse America 332 S. Michigan Ave Suite 1600 Chicago, IL 60604-4357 (800) CHILDREN http://www.preventchildabuse.org Child Welfare Information Gateway (formerly National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information) Children’s Bureau/ACYF 1250 Maryland Avenue, SW Eighth Floor Washington, DC 20024 (800) 394-3366 (800) 394-3366 FREE http://www.childwelfare.gov/ TrustLine – an invaluable resource for parents. TrustLine is a database of nannies and baby-sitters that have cleared criminal background checks in California. It’s the only authorized screening program of in-home caregivers in the state with access to fingerprint records at the California Department of Justice and the FBI. That’s what makes TrustLine unique. It’s also easy to use and effective. To check if a provider is registered on TrustLine or to register, just call 1-800-822-8490. www.trustline.org.
References: Aloi, Peg. (March 27, 2014). Prominent Pagan Arrested for Child Pornography. PATHEOS. Retrieved: May 16, 2014: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/themediawitches/2014/03/prominent-pagan-arrested-for-child-porn/ American Psychological Association. Understanding Child Sexual Abuse: Education, Prevention and Recovery. Publications Reports and Brochures. Retrieved: May 16, 2014: http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/brochures/sex-abuse.aspx?item=8 Coyle, Thorn, T. (March 28, 2014). Predators in Paganism (Trigger Warning.) T. Thorn Coyle Know Thyself. Retrieved: May 16, 2014. http://www.thorncoyle.com/blog/2014/03/28/predators-paganism-trigger-warning/. Chadwick, D., (2002). Personal Conversation. Ending The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children: A Call For Multi-System Collaboration In California. California Child Welfare Council. Retrieved: May 16, 2013. http://www.youthlaw.org/fileadmin/ncyl/youthlaw/publications/Ending-CSEC-A-Call-for-Multi- System_Collaboration-in-CA.pdf.) Linderman, J., (March 26, 2014). New Orleans man booked on 25 child pornography charges. Nola The Times-Picayune. Retrieved: May 16, 2014: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/03/new_orleans_man_booked_on_chil.html. Pitzl-Waters, J., (March 28, 2014). Allegations Emerge After Pagan Author Charged With Possessing Child Pornography. The Wild Hunt. Retrieved: May 16, 2014: http://wildhunt.org/2014/03/allegations-emerge-after-pagan-author-charged-with-possessing-child-pornography.html Reece, R.,;. Kirschner, R.(1998). Support and Referral Service On Shaken Baby. In: Issue of National Information. Retrieved: May 16, 2014. www.dontshake.com/sbsquestions.html The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children., Safe to Compete: An Introduction to Sound Practices for Keeping Children Safer in Youth-Serving Organizations. Retrieved: May 16, 2014: http://www.missingkids.com/publications/PDF24A Walker, K., (2013). Ending The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Children: A Call For Multi-System Collaboration In California. California Child Welfare Council. Retrieved: May 16, 2013. http://www.youthlaw.org/fileadmin/ncyl/youthlaw/publications/Ending-CSEC-A-Call-for-Multi- System_Collaboration-in-CA.pdf. -System Collaboration In California,” (2013) Available at: http://www.youthlaw.org/fileadmin/ncyl/youthlaw/publications/Ending-CSEC-A-Call-for-Multi- System_Collaboration-in-CA.pdf.
Éilis Niamh is a philosopher, poet, and song-writer. She is a PH.D. student at the University of Arizona where she is finishing her dissertation on virtue ethics and human flourishing in which she introduces a new virtue called Proper Interconnection which speaks to our need to live interdependent lives and live them well. When she is not dissertating, Éilis participates in Quercus, a druid seed group of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, and writes poetry and the occasional short story for her blog, The Sound of What Happens. Follow her at www.thesoundofwhathappens.wordpress.com. In the past, Éilis attended Stanford University where she wrote a senior thesis which argued for the intrinsic worth of children within Kantian Ethics. Being an advocate has been part of Éilis‘s life since an early age. She became a child advocate at the age of three when she spoke before the California legislature telling them, “We need a big rule for grown ups”. Since that time, Éilis’s perspectives on the prevention of child maltreatment, human rights and especially children’s rights have been featured on national television, in newspapers, on radio and in the numerous keynote speeches she gives at conferences around the country. She continues to speak out for the rights of children and the need to end child maltreatment through her poetry and songs and through her work as an ethicist. Photos by L. Kinyon, 2013/14, all rights reserved.
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