14 claimants, town of 800.... This guy molested 1.75% of the population, or 3.5% of the women/girls in town if averages hold. Jesus.
What are the odds there is another victim, or two, who were too embarrassed, ashamed, or traumatized, to come forward?
It could even be they were brave enough and there wasn't enough evidence. These are the ones that the prosecution could prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
I mean, there are probably some who didn't come forward too.
The rapist pled guilty to 10 criminal counts. It's not clear from the article how many victims that represents, as a single victim often results in multiple counts.
The 14 claimants come from a civil suit. The prosecutors have no say in who gets to sue. Further, the standard in a civil suit is propendrrance of evidence, which is far lower than beyond a reasonable doubt. And the defendant is the school, so it is likely that both sides would try to throw the rapist under the bus.
The amount set a new record for abuse cases against school districts in Oklahoma, topping a $5-million settlement reached by Kingfisher Public Schools in 2023. [...] the district paid $500,000 from the school’s general fund toward the settlement, while their liability insurance paid $1 million.
Sounds like they were under-insured. The Catholic Church got away with it by having their insurance pay everything, and then declaring bankruptcy whenever someone went against the Church's actual assets.
Which is such bullshit because I remember reading in the early 2000s that the Catholic Church had over $4 trillion in assets, they could afford to settle all of their claims for a fraction of that, a very small fraction of that, less than 1% of that.
The thing that pisses me off is that, back in the late 1970's / early 1980's, the Church became aware they had a sex abuse problem and could be held liable. And instead of mocking the priests to places where they couldn't commit harm, they:
Increased their movement of assets away from individual churches and dioceses info separate ownership, so those assets wouldn't be forfeit in case of lawsuits;
Purged a bunch of documentation about abusive priests, shredding, burning, or throwing it away;
Moved the documentation that remained to secret local archives supposedly sealed by the confessional and clerical privilege, and then away from local churches and dioceses to the Papal Nunciature (Embassy) in DC where they're covered by diplomatic immunity;
Went out and bought a massive amount of specific insurance to cover any sex abuse claims that might arise - and got a very cheap price for it, too.
Continued their practice of moving abusive priests between dioceses and parishes, denying there was a problem to anyone who might ask and giving those priests the opportunity to give other victims.
Probably other shitty stuff, but those are the points I remember offhand (and it's more than enough). They never cared about their victims, only preserving their money and power.
Over a thousand years of experience in legal maneuvering, they existed before the laws and watched them form over the years.
They've got the asset strategy down pat, what they've never had a handle on is their human factors - since we're all such flawed and sinful individuals, and they have a tendency to recruit from the damaged end of society to start with... denial is their weapon of choice against the Devil.
Never mind Citizens United; the fact that corporate entities (and yes, churches count) are able to do shit like this just proves that they've been out of control going way further back.
Limited liability, as a concept, is a moral hazard. It should be abolished in all but a very limited set of circumstances where it serves the public's (not the shareholders' or any other private entity's) interest.
You don't get $4T in assets by giving it away to every altar boy who tattles...
We should take it all away from that pedophile ring. Why do they deserve to have tax free rape dens?
Ah yes the holy loophole.
This headline is shit. It's just a masked type of victim blaming. What actually happened is that many town employees must have known about the SA, considering there were 14+ victims and SA doesn't happen overnight, and they did nothing for quite some time... So the real story is that the town faces a huge tax hike because its employees decided to cover up SA.
If they'd caught the shady bastard after the first or second assault, the legal bills would have been millions of dollars less. But they didn't, because it wasn't a priority.
As for who knew or should have known but did nothing, we don't know, but the town residents might want to dig into that.
Wonder how many complaints were ignored before he actually got charged. Probably would have been much cheaper to act the first time, before he had dozens of victims for them to compensate.
This 2021 article paints a damning picture.
Oklahoma coach preyed on players while school looked the other way, lawsuit alleges — The Oklahoman
Back in the bad old days of the 2009 recession, I got caught in the churn and wound up at a temp agency to make ends meet.
One of my assignments was driving about 6 hours a day, from gas station to gas station to “buy” cigarettes. I never actually bought anything. What I did do, however, was wait until they asked me for either my ID or money. If they asked me for ID, they got a green card. If they asked me for money with no sign of ID’ing me, they got a red card.
It was a voluntary program by Philip Morris to curtail underage smoking. I don’t know what actually happened to the cashiers. I was told no one got punished. (And folks reacted with disappointment, but not sadness or anger. Folks with green cards reacted happily, though. So I assume it was an Incentive-based program.) These interactions got logged, and I turned in the log sheet at the end of the day.
Because we’re victims of our own experience, that immediately came to mind. I feel like we need to start blindly testing if mandatory reporters are reporting things they witness. I mean - no idea how that gets worked out. Seems horrible.
Small town in Oklahoma......they're probably blaming their misfortune on the people that sued.
"Would Jesus have litigated??"
I'm guessing IRL Jesus would have started rage flipping tables and whipping people with his belt.
The former coach and alleged abuser
… then goes on to document a guilty plea and some horrific detail, I think at this point “alleged” is a bit
Journalistic habit. You're supposed to say alleged until the sentence but afterwards you're just used to the phrasing.
He raped 14 girls and it states he was allowed to do this for years and is only receiving 15 years in prison.
Soo... counts fingers about one per year?
Paying for public schools from city-level budgets and local taxes is one of the many things that I don’t think most Americans realize is weird about America. Normal countries fund their public schools from a national or regional budget so that kids from poor neighbourhoods don't get even more shafted than they already are.
The US has always hated education. That's why the Department of Education was one of the first ok the chopping block.
I'd bet many members of this community ignored, dismissed and even helped cover up these abuses because that's what little conservative communities do: ignore and enable sexual assault because they can't admit that it's happening, and they'll sacrifice their vulnerable community members to keep up appearances for as long as possible.
He did manage to fuck just about everyone in the end...
We here in Kansas City are voting today to potentially recall our county executive over massively inflated property taxes.
This seems to be happening all over the place.
This specifically is literally a town of 800 still owing 6 million dollars after they spent their little coffers and their insurance paid out what it was going to pay. They are literally taxing the home owners exactly what it cost to pay the settlement I doubt that is happening all over the place.
This particular situation is a little more extreme, but you'd be wrong. Homeowners are seeing their property taxes raised by criminal percentages nationwide. Thankfully most are fighting back.
I'm shocked that it wasn't a cop.
How much longer can the people be robbed by the 1% before we take a stand? We're already at a tipping point and I believe things are only going to get more violent and deadly. This is trumps America and his administration is gutting the working class. While this isn't directly related to him, the town is taking a play out of his sex scandal playbook
Some coach diddles kids and the families and kids have to pay for it through insane tax hikes and less school funding? In what world does that make sense?
They already put the coach in prison for 15 years and probation for 25 years after that. Why punish the local community too? Yes, the families should be made whole, but not at the expense of objectively innocent tax payers and schoolchildren.
In a community that's small, there is no way many of these same families and homeowners weren't aware of that predator.
The community enabled him and now the community has to pay for that choice.
What's your alternative solution?
That’s a very judgmental take… you have insider knowledge or are talking you arse out? Man I wish that kind of shit never happen in my village because I’d be bundled with other peasants I might have seen at the baker for a brief 30 seconds while fetching bread once over 8 years and suddenly I would be enabling someone…
"...the alleged abuses were allowed to continue for years..."
If you've lived in a small town than you know that word of this was in many households that stayed silent.
That's just how small rural towns in America work on issues of abuse.
If you believe this was a completely contained secret, then I have a bridge to sell you.
But yes, many people who are completely innocent will be impacted. What's your alternative solution?
Here's the full quote:
Not only has the case caused outrage among the community, who discovered that the alleged abuses were allowed to continue for years, but it is now going to weigh financially on their shoulders.
It's clearly saying that the community did not know about the abuses and that the administration was allowing the abuses to continue for years.
Just asserting they know without citing evidence or precedent like a witch hunt is not enough to convince me. Keeping up appearances with outsiders is how these predators survive.
The four officials — the former principal of Ninnekah High School, a former superintendent, a former athletics director and a former secretary — were dismissed from the lawsuit as part of the settlement.
^Word of Akins’ relationship with Jane Doe No. 2 began to spread in the school district. Multiple adults and former students told authorities district staff were aware of the rumors but brushed it off, according to law enforcement reports.
I currently live in OK, Ninnekah is a tiny shithole in the middle of nowhere with like 700 people in it. If more than a couple of adults knew about it, the whole town knew about it.
a very judgmental take
This is a very judgement based situation. Schools I attended in the 1970s left single adults alone with kids in all kinds of situations that make this kind of abuse possible. Changing how they operate, making less private spaces available for abuse on school campuses to occur in, placing less trust in the individuals and relying on larger groups to ensure that behavioral norms are followed... all those are things that should have been happening 50 years ago, but apparently didn't in this small town. Maybe now they will, or maybe they'll just bury their heads in the sand until the next case comes along and slaps them with another tax hike.
That's the way the System supposed to work though. The local school district is supposed to be run by those citizens. They elect the school boards that set the policies and appoint the administrators. It's supposed to be representative government. The citizens are supposed to monitor what this board is doing and if they don't like it vote them out. Make their voices heard. Show up at school board meetings. That's their responsibility. If they don't want to do it then they have to live with the consequences.
The school was likely complicit in ignoring warnings. This is why board members should be held personally liable if they are negligent in their duties.
At this point I’d move across county lines to somewhere nearby that won’t have double the property tax rate.
You'd have to find someone to buy your house, which will probably be difficult, seeing as there's a massive property tax increase heading that way.
That's a really good way to put the victims in danger
This is why comprehensive, single payer public health (and education, infrastructure, police de-escalation and oversight, jobs, transportation, food, and and and) are an investment with incalculable ROI. This is why "render to Caesar."
also just gonna write this one down, but it's only a mild killing
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