Monday, May 15, 2017

GUAM DAILY POST: Guam Catholic school sued

"The civil complaint accuses the archdiocese and St. Anthony of causing parents or guardians to entrust their children to Catholic school teachers and specifically to Caluag, resulting in B.W.J. participating in out-of-school activities with Caluag and spending one or more nights at the teacher's home." FULL STORY HERE

*****
I myself have had SERIOUS hesitations about some of the faculty some Catholic schools embrace, which is why I have chosen NOT to send my kids to one (except for a brief experiment with St. Thomas Aquinas). 

I have no doubt that the accusers account is true and I hope he finds justice. I also hope that Catholic schools stop flirting with disaster with their peculiar hiring practices. (I'll leave the details of that for later.) 

Meanwhile, though, more parents (and guardians) need to STOP believing that the word "Catholic" in front of the name of a school is a guarantee of anything, including actual Catholic instruction. 

Sadly, I believe this accusation is just the beginning of an avalanche of accusations agains Catholic schools, a perfect place for predators. 




13 comments:

  1. Maestro Ray is still teaching music to kids today. Frightening.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I knew it would be just a matter of time before a non-clerical abuse case surfaced. This former St. Anthony School teacher was highly regarded as a musical mentor and director of school performances and had a captive group of kids under his direct care and guidance. He was not only a faculty member of St. Anthony but other schools on island as well. What better circumstances for a sexual predator to be in. Although he has only been accused of this single case, I can almost guarantee that he had other victims who have just not come forward. He has continued his work with other young people in his present situation in the Philippines and who knows how many kids he has abused since.

    I wouldn't be surprised if additional cases of child sexual abuse get reported from victims within the public schools and other private schools. Child sexual abuse is not confined to the Catholic Church and Schools and the law that allows former child sexual abuse victims to sue their perpetrators and institutions that were complicit in their abuse also applies to other non-Catholic schools and private Christian schools. You can bet that there have been multiple cases of child sexual abuse committed by individuals (sexual perpetrators) within the public school and private school settings as well as other organizations that children become involved in, such as, boys and girls scouts, boys and girls clubs, big brother, big sister program and etc. There have been 65 cases of reported child sexual abuse so far and it is expected that this number will significantly increase.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A few weeks ago in the Post a statistic from 2016 was mentioned: 1,385 cases of child abuse reported in Guam. This number is staggering! If you include the unreported cases it just gets worse. It is heartbreaking to think of the suffering these young people have to endure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The perpetrator was probably protected because both his parents used to work in the chancery.
      Agnes

      Delete
    2. I remember the name from The Adrian's 1998 cry baby letter:
      https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5IW0Zxhdou0N1RBSG9RTFRVMVU

      Delete
  4. Is this Ray Caluag same guy whose parents were the Directors of Family life Ministry around 1992. If so then that guy was forever hanging around Archbishops San Ramon house.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tim, just this evening I re read the cry baby letter. It does raise a number of questions. For what reason would Archbishop Apuron pay such high salaries? I rather suspect it was money paid once again to buy silence or loyalty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adriana checking from St Paul's on live feed. Interesting.

      Delete

  6. Evidence supporting that Archbishop Apuron covered up abuse as recent as 1992 is becoming more obvious by the day. Not only covering up abuse but also did he pay people to keep silent on things they knew. More going on here. If Apuron knew of Ray which he did what part did Adrian have in all this? David was in Rome Apuron Adrian were BFF at that time covering up what?

    ReplyDelete
  7. where is he now?
    is he teaching?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Around Mr P at my (non-denominational) county council secondary school (in south-east England) in the late 1960s and early 1970s, things didn't look good.

    Also, the more I think of it, pondering the various dynamics I recall, the predecessor of my present Catholic bishop in my current region must have known of "goings on" in the church, or church schools, that probably began under his own predecessor, otherwise he wouldn't have "welcomed the Way".

    ReplyDelete
  9. what a disturbing story. from what the article says, caluag doesn't sound like he had any feelings of remorse or realization that what he did was wrong. i hope the person he abused will find healing and see justice. are there others?

    speaking of justice, i believe at least one judge will have to be recused from this particular lawsuit.

    with the musical productions he directed in those days, caluag helped raise the profile and prestige of st anthony school. some people will say that during caluag's time there, it was a transformational turning point for the school, from its days as a much more ...humble... parochial school to something much, shall we say, higher-profile. i can't speak to the time after that turning point, but i can say that before that, it gave kids a good Catholic education.

    ReplyDelete