SOS used a documentary to highlight the prevalence of child sex abuse Monday.
SOS invited the community to attend the screening of “Magic and Monsters” at the Emporia High auditorium. Child Advocacy Center Director Ginny Samples says this highlights both Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month by revealing the story of the Minnesota Children’s Theatre Company, which had more than 100 children believed to have been abused by an estimated 20 teachers and staffers between the 1960s and 1985.
The theater company case dates back to the mid-1960s, when co-founder John Clark Donohue established the theater — after a guilty plea for indecent exposure to a minor in 1961 — and reportedly began abusing students. An investigation in the 1980s led to Donohue’s arrest, resignation and guilty plea for sexual misconduct, as well as the arrests of several other theater staffers.
Samples says it’s important for people to act if they suspect abuse.
The documentary screening also comes at a time when SOS is seeing increased need for its services. One of the possible reasons is awareness.
Civil lawsuits were resolved by 2019. The theater company also developed an independently-run victim therapy fund as part of measures to protect children. Minnesota passed a special child victims’ act in 2013, removing the time limit for starting civil lawsuits regarding child sex abuse allegations and giving survivors the ability to sue abusers and organizations that failed to protect them from abuse.
SOS offers a range of services for abuse and neglect victims, including crisis services, the Child Visitation and Exchange Center, the Child Advocacy Center and Court-Appointed Special Advocates or CASA. People needing services immediately can call 800-825-1295 or text SOS to 847411. People wanting to report potential abuse can call local law enforcement or the Kansas Protection Report Center at 800-922-5330.
