By: Mary Mostert
March 26, 2002
On March 18th the FBI announced "Operation Candyman," a nationwide crackdown on Internet child pornography had netted "more than 89 persons in over 20 states." The FBI press release stated that those arrested in the operation "include Little League coaches, a teacher's aide, a guidance counselor, school bus driver, foster care parent and professionals in the medical, educational, military and law enforcement fields."
An Associated Press article on Operation Candyman the following day, however, reported a very different group being arrested. "Those sought or already arrested included two Catholic priests, six other clergy members, a school bus driver and at least one police officer."
This has led to an outpouring of articles condemning the Catholic Church. The major media response to Operation Candyman, in fact, is linking it to the Catholic Church and then to dire predictions that that major changes in the Catholic Church must be made. Articles even predict that the Church may not survive the current scandals involving priests arrested for sexual and pornographic abuse of children.
Yet, it appears from the FBI statement that more teachers and Little League coaches were arrested in Operation Candyman than priests. Where do teachers and coaches find children to molest? Usually in their classrooms or gyms at school.
Have we seen ANY articles condemning the Public School system, for example, and demanding "major changes" in the Public School education or the possibility that the schools cannot possibly survive the current scandals involving some teachers and coaches? Have we even seen a warning article urging parents to pay be vigilant?
Now, why, do you suppose, there is so much silence about teachers and coaches involved in sexual abuse and child pornography and so much noise about Catholic priests? Is there a problem with pornography in public schools?
Well, as a matter of fact, it's not at all uncommon. One of my young grandsons was inadvertently shown hardcore pornography in a class where the teacher, a woman, had taped a TV show over a pornography video to show her class. Then she gave the video to a substitute teacher when she did not come to class and at the end of the video, hardcore porn was shown to middle school kids.
The teacher who owned the porn not only was not arrested, the incident was never reported to the police by the school district. At first the district wasn't even going to tell the parents, until my daughter insisted other parents be informed. About a year later, in the same school district, a janitor brought a porn video to the school and played it in a classroom while he worked. Then he forgot to take the video out when he went home, so the kids got a second exposure to hardcore pornography. They fired the janitor but the teacher remains in the classroom.
Over the past 25 years there has been a spirited legal battle waged over First Amendment rights of those who have access to children. Do teachers have the right to involve children in or teach children sexual behavior in conflict with standards of parents or long-standing rules and laws pertaining to sexual behavior? The ACLU has filed one expensive lawsuit after another to defend the "free speech in cyberspace" when legislatures passed laws that protected children from Internet pornography. And, of course, the ACLU also was willing and able to sue the Boy Scouts of America all the way to the United States Supreme Court in an effort to force them to allow homosexuals to have free, unfettered access to young boys.
After several state courts ruled that the Boy Scouts of America had to allow homosexual scoutmasters, the Supreme Court upheld the Scouts right to their "morally straight" standard. Since that time there has been a massive campaign to destroy the Boy Scouts of America. Cities, Schools and the United Way were pressured to cut all ties to the Boy Scouts and push the "rights" of homosexuals over the concerns of parents. At least 39 United Way affiliates around the country have stopped direct community funding of the Boy Scouts.
Others, like Gavin Grooms, National Chairman of Save Our Scouts, began campaigns to support the Boy Scouts and raise money for struggling Scout units. Grooms position is a simple, common sense approach: "People who are attracted to each other should not be sleeping and camping together." That goes for male leaders of Girl Scouts, homosexual leaders of Boy Scouts, women leaders for Boy Scouts, homosexual leaders military men and seminarians.
Unfortunately, apparently the Catholic Church didn't use common sense on the issue. Vatican spokesman Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls spoke of a http://www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20020326.shtml>"link between homosexuality and sexual abuse by priests" which cannot be lightly dismissed
Most of the recent sex scandals now embarrassing the Catholic Church involve homosexual, not heterosexual, abuse. Yet, because of political correctness, there's been no mention of that by the multi-national news conglomerates.
We have been warned. If the nation is scandalized and horrified by the damage to youth caused by homosexuals in the priesthood, why is it unconcerned about homosexuals in other occupations, i.e. coaching and teaching, where the FBI have found many of those arrested for Internet child pornography?
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com