Jesuit abuse lawsuit filing deadline is November 30

Most people on reservations will trace domestic violence to the boarding schools. There is a deadline to join a lawsuit for abuse suffered at Jesuit boarding schools. Please read below if you live in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, or Alaska, or know someone who does. Contact information is listed as well.

This is from an email I received today.

Jesuit abuse claim deadline is November 30, 2009

By Mark Matthews
Victims of Crime Services Department
Warm Springs Indian Reservation


If you know someone who has been abused by a Jesuit priest, Jesuit employee or volunteer, or at a Jesuit school in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana or Alaska, then you need to know that the deadline to file a claim is November 30, 2009. This could be sexual or physical abuse from the Boarding School days or more recently.

Survivors of priest sex abuse, and physical abuse, are both Native American and Non-Native American. Many known pedophile priests were assigned to Indian Reservations, parishes and schools outside reservations in Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Alaska, where they committed abusive sexual acts, including rape. The same offender could abuse children in several different locations over many years. There were several occasions where the Church would transfer a pedophile priest to another location when a priest was suspected of physical or sexual abuse. In these situations the pedophiles would often abuse again.

As authority figures the Jesuit priests, teachers, employees and or volunteers who abused children told their victims that children would not be believed. Survivors of abuse at Jesuit institutions in the Oregon Province are able to come forward now as adults to file a claim against the Jesuits, but the time to find a claim has a deadline.

The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, includes the states of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The Society of Jesus Oregon Province have filed for Chapter 11 protection in US Bankruptcy Court in response to a lawsuit in which 63 Native Alaskan victims alleged they were sexually abused by Jesuits.

Attorneys who will accept Jesuit abuse victims as clients filing claims in this bankruptcy case include Portland attorneys: 1) Kelly Clark, telephone (503) 306-0224; E-mail kellyc@oandc.com, and 2) former Madras resident Erin Olson, telephone (503) 546-3150; E-mail eolson@erinolsonlaw.com.

For more information about Jesuit abuse claims & the November 30, 2009 filing deadline, go to: www.bmcgroup.com/sjop and or http://www.jesuitabuse.com/jesuit_sex_abuse.html.

This article’s information was provided by a letter sent to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon from the Society of Jesus for the Oregon Province, and the above referenced websites and attorneys.

This information is submitted to the tribal community as a public service by VOCS, the Warm Springs Victims of Crime Services Department., which is partially funded by grant # 2006-VR-GX-0017(awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime/USDOJ) & FVPSA grant G-07PBORFVPS (awarded by the Admn. For Children & Families, USDH&HS). Points of view in this document are those of VOCS & do not necessarily represent the official position of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the US Departments of Justice or Health and Human Services, nor are they an endorsement of the mentioned law firms.