Category: Uncategorized

He finally announced he’s retiring.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I bet that as soon as disgraced Mater Dei High School football coach Bruce Rollinson is retired and sitting on his Lanai on Maui, we will suddenly have “robust investigations,” “appropriate sanctions,” and “healing and renewal” of the athletics programs at Mater Dei.

From the Orange County Register:

Rollinson’s coaching future has been under intense scrutiny since late last season when allegations of hazing in the Mater Dei football program surfaced in a lawsuit filed just before the CIF-SS Division 1 championship against Servite. The incident was investigated by Santa Ana police but charges weren’t filed.

Rollinson pressed forward. He didn’t miss a game even as additional concerns about the conduct of his players came to light.

There were videos showing Mater Dei football players acting out simulated sex acts on other players. There was a report about a Mater Dei basketball player who was allegedly beaten by two Mater Dei football players during an off-campus event in 2019.

And it gets worse … here and here.

From the LA Times

Player One was initially told by teammates not to “snitch,” but when the school’s officials figured out what had happened, they apparently didn’t want to openly acknowledge the reason for the injuries, and his parents weren’t called for 90 minutes.

When his father finally spoke to Rollinson the next day, the coach dismissed the incident as child’s play, saying, “If I had 100 dollars every time these kids played, ‘Bodies’ or ‘Slappies,’ I’d be a millionaire.”

Rollinson also is accused of telling Player One’s father that he couldn’t discipline Player Two because his father was an influential local youth football coach who had worked with several players at Mater Dei.

But the school did administer punishment. In a move as outrageous as any sucker punch, the school actually suspended Player One for fighting, a suspension that was eventually rescinded.

Oh yeah. Then there was that time he physically assaulted a female athletic trainer half his size.

What did the Diocese of Orange have to say?

“The Diocese of Orange is grateful for the decades of service Bruce Rollinson has made on the field as a renowned football coach at Mater Dei High School, and for his off-the-field contributions as a man of Catholic faith who guided generations of student-athletes as a mentor, teacher and community leader,” Diocese of Orange spokesperson Jarryd Gonzales wrote in an email.

Gee. If Rollinson had killed someone, they probably would have named a parish after him.

Good riddance …

This week, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reported that allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church TRIPLED in the past year.

There is only one reason for this huge increase in reports: Statute of Limitation Reform. Survivors in many states (California, New Jersey, New York, Arizona) now have the right to come forward in the courts to expose the men and women who abused them and the institutional actors who covered it up.

Let’s talk about the major questions this report raises:

Why didn’t these survivors come forward sooner?

They may have come forward years ago … but the church would never tell us.

We don’t know whether or not many of these survivors had previously come forward to church officials. The church was not under any legal scrutiny to come clean about reports until legal reforms forced the issue.

In other words, Catholic Church officials could have known about every single one of these reports. But it wasn’t until this year that survivors could force public disclosure through the justice system. Bishops have no choice now but to report the cases that have been filed in the courts.

The problem? We still don’t know how many other predators are still hidden because the survivors were abused in states with predator-friendly laws.

But these reports are “decades old.” Are they still relevant for child safety?

YES.

First, we know that it can take survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) decades to come forward about the crime. CSA is a crime of shame and secrecy, and predators use every weapon in their arsenal (many times through predatory grooming) to ensure that victims stay silent just long enough for the predator to escape the law.

But here is what we also know: child sex predators do not retire. If it takes a survivor 20 years to come forward about the abuse, and the predator was 35 at the time of the crime, that means that the predator is only 55 years old now. Not only that, but the predator will most likely have a trail of dozens of other victims and 30 years of abuse ahead of him/her.

“Decades old” allegations are the ones that expose predators hiding in plain sight in YOUR neighborhood. Plus, the men and women who covered up the crime are still conducting “business as usual,” continuing to protect predators working with kids RIGHT NOW.

What about church-run compensation programs? Aren’t these exposing predators?

No. The church wrote these programs in a way that they have no obligation to publicly expose any of the credibly accused. They punted that responsibility to the victims.

Since most victims in the program are not represented by independent attorneys, they have little to no platform or support to have a press event and warn communities of the danger.

Why “Bittersweet?”

For every survivor who is brave enough to come forward and report, other children are made safer from abuse. The shame is that the church continues to refuse to come clean on its own and that predators and those who cover up the abuse are continuing to prey on the most vulnerable: our children.