By Dave Pierre | February 22, 2011 | 18:49
On
Saturday (2/19/11), the Los Angeles Times published an article, "Ex-high school principal gets 8 years for
molesting four girls." The case involved Jonas Vital Silverio,
who had pleaded no contest to 10 counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years
old.
At first blush, the
story seems to be just another stomach-turning account of child abuse in our
nation's public schools. But buried in the middle of the article was a
troubling detail:
[
In 1995, Silverio was placed on probation for a misdemeanor
conviction of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
In other words, Silverio was serving as the boss at
One cannot help but
wonder: How on earth does a person with such a conviction on his record rise to
such a lofty position in a school?
Kudos
to the Times for at least including this important fact in its article. (Other local outlets didn't
note it at all.) But, again, this shocking detail only merited a passing
mention in the middle of the Times' story.
The lack of
investigative reporting of this troubling school case only reinforces the clear
and pervasive double
standard in the media when reporting cases or allegations of child
abuse. While the media has aggressively investigated and trumpeted decades-old
cases involving Catholic priests from just about anywhere in the world, it has
not been nearly as eager to report the massive abuse and cover-ups happening today
in our nation's public schools.
Surely if the Silverio case involved the Catholic Church, loads of media
outlets would have reported the story, and it probably would have garnered huge
national attention. It is not too hard to imagine the headlines:
"Catholic Church
allowed criminal child sex offender to rape again"
"Convicted Child Molester Found Haven in Catholic Church"
Just over a week ago,
the New York Times forcefully investigated a case
involving a Catholic priest across the country in
Yet where is the New
York Times on this current school story? And will the Los Angeles Times
follow up and investigate how someone with a "misdemeanor conviction of
unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" rose to the rank of high
school principal? Will anyone investigate this?
At the hearing for Silverio's sentencing, traumatized victims and families
spoke emotionally of the deep harm that the ex-principal wrecked upon them.
"This man has
stained my childhood forever," one victim said. "Because of him, I do
not trust anybody."
"I went to him
for help in his office once," the young woman added. "I ended up on
the floor with him lying on top trying to kiss me."
Don't our children
deserve better than this media double standard?
Lives are at stake.
(Oh. By the way,
there is another small detail to the story: Silverio
was not even a U.S. citizen. He'll probably be deported to the
-- Dave Pierre is
the author of the book, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic
Church. Dave is also the creator of TheMediaReport.com
and is a contributing writer to NewsBusters.org.