The front page of the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and three full inside pages, were devoted to numerous women telling how they were sexually exploited by the director of the Allentown based Cadet Drum and Bugle Corps. The women, spurred on by the current Me Too movement, paint a sordid picture of what was considered a local success story. It takes enormous courage for a woman to speak out and have her name and photograph end up in the paper.
Although, both he and his attorney deny any criminal wrongdoing, and he resigned on Thursday, this abuser had been band director since 1982. Some of the victims were teenagers at the time of the alleged assault. Considering how long he was in that position of power, expect to see more women come forward.
ADDENDUM: Those interested in the sordid details of this story can find such in Sunday's Inquirer. My interest is the backstory, that the Cadet board was informed back in January of the allegations. That allegation was made anonymously, and demanded that the director resign back then, or the story would be made public. Furthermore, a comment in the Morning Call suggests that the local newspaper may also have been previously informed of the allegations.
UPDATE: The above post was published at 5:03 this morning. At 7:05 am, two hours later, The Morning Call came out with a second apology from the Cadet board, acknowledging that they could have shown more sensitivity to the victims in their initial statement. Perhaps, The Morning Call will divulge if the newspaper indeed had prior reports of these abuse allegations?
I agree it takes courage to come out in public and admit to being sexually assaulted. Also, there were hints that the Morning-Call knew about it and did nothing to report it.
ReplyDeleteLets agree the Morning-Call is a former informative news source. Not anymore. They don't even print their own paper. If it wasn't for their local news staff, who strive to report everything possible, this paper isn't worth the price of purchase.
This is why I usually cull every news source in the valley. The recent hiring of Captain Alsleben as Chief of Police is not a popular choice within the ranks of the APD. This should have been reported by the MC, but it was left alone; and a cheer leading article was drafted. I know blogs like this, which is not partisan and bias, will address this issue head on.
Please don't put me in the position of defending the Morning Call....or this cadet group of whom I knew very little. But, are we really going to encourage individuals or groups to blackmail organizations with unsupported information if it doesn't take an action the blackmailer wants? Slippery slope, folks.
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