The Cape Cod Times reported Sunday that Rick Braschler, director of risk management for Kanakuk, will speak at a seminar April 12 to help a camp that has also been rocked by scandal.
Braschler, of course, was hired before the latest sex scandal to hit Kanakuk, the filing of felony sex charges involving underage children against former staffer Lee Bradberry, 22, Auburn.
Next month, he will also offer a workshop to teach camp leaders and others in the community willing to pay $100 how to protect children from predators. But the training goes beyond criminal background checks and establishing protocols to report abuse.
"We need insight into how does a person with bad intent infiltrate an organization and then gain trust so they can follow through on their bad intent," Braschler said
An attorney for Camp Good News, which was forced to shut down last summer due to a sex scandal, says Braschler was brought in because "Who better to understand the issues than someone experiencing them firsthand?" he said.
If that is the rationale this should make the workshop even better for Camp Good News, since it will now have a speaker who is once again actively dealing with a sex scandal.
21 comments:
The last statement in this article is absolutely asinine.
Did you not learn from professors who had experience in what they were teaching? How did you learn to change a tire?
You make this worker out to be a bad person or bad at his job. If a crime happens in Joplin is it automatically the fault of the police? Come on Randy - stick with the facts of the stories.
Go attend the training before bashing it.
8:49 PM,
Let's be real clear here. Joe White is not the police. The local law enforcement and prosecuting attorney are doing an excellent job investigating the ongoing crimes at Kanakuk Kamp. Joe White has been the enabler. Joe White allowed the kamp rules to be broken repeatedly. Joe White was aware of Pete Newman's behaviour and chose to look the other way repeatedly. Joe White's greed allowed him to not fire Pete Newman after blatantly improper behaviour, because Newman was his number one kamp recruiter. It is repulsive that Joe White is now trying to make money off the sexual molestation and sodomy crimes that happened to the young kampers.
Are you kidding me? Kanakuk Risk Management? I'll give them a big fat F for effort here. This is ridiculous. You send someone who is continuing to fail at their job to teach someone else how to do what??
Kanakuk hasn't found ANY of these cases. Every single event was a result of someone else reporting. The only reason they found Pete Newman was a tip from a parent and vigilant prosecuting. Ed Ringham was prosecuted from another parent tip down in Orlando. The latest Lee Bradbury case, They didn't know anything happened until HE CONFESSED!! Don't let the story go too far. The only reason Kanakuk terminated him was because it was at the end of his contract. If I were Kanakuk I wouldn't send my Risk Manager across the street for a hamburger in fear someone at McDonalds hear what he has to say.
Didn't the latest Lee Bradbury case happen when the Risk Management people were aware of the monster Pete Newman? Ummm....Ironic?
"We need insight into how does a person with bad intent infiltrate an organization and then gain trust so they can follow through on their bad intent," Braschler said
Hey Kanakuk Kamp, how did that previous exercise in psychology work for you? I will tell you: the child molester outwitted the doctors. Under the direction of Dr. Joe White, an evaluation of Pete Newman was conducted by Dr. Gary Smalley. Pete Newman was deemed as no risk to young boys and continued his employment at KK.
Yeah, the issue here isn't with initial screening, it's with supervision. There's no way to be sure that any employee isn't a pedophile. Therefore, you make strict rules against 1-on-1 counselor-camper time. Ever. Every "private talk" with a camper must take place with people around. If a counselor takes a kid aside where they can't be observed from a distance, the counselor is reprimanded and questioned. Pedophiles are psychopaths, and very good at avoiding detection. So instead of trying to "find the sickos" you just eliminate any behavior that might allow a sicko to abuse a child, no matter how trusted the particular adult involved is. If Kuk wasn't hyper-vigilant about "alone time", especially after Pete, then no amount of new procedures excuse them.
It's actually sad that there is no longer a place for one-on-one attention, but it's the world we live in now, and nothing is more important than protecting kids.
Gary Smalley isn't a doctor, just a friend and fractional jet partner with Joe White. Gary Smalley was Pete's "counselor." *awesome*
Kanakuk's "risk management" was all word, no deed just to shut up the detractors.
Joe White thought he could hire Lee Bradberry to "fix" what Pete did to Lee. *epic fail*
11:41 -
I cannot disagree with your first two paragraphs, but don't know the basis for the third. I was a counselor who eventually made it to leadership staff at Kanakuk, and I don't think Joe White ever had any say in my hiring/promotion/etc. Why would Lee's hiring be a "Joe" thing, and not a Collin Sparks thing?
Joe is making "special" arrangements for Newman's victims, i.e. Lee Bradberry.
I was there and saw both Lee and Pete there during the summer of 2008. I think Pete should confess all the systems he "set-up" because it gave him access to alone time with kids. He was there 10? Years? How did he arrange things? Even day:day decisions/programs/systems. Who better to know the camp's weaknesses?
Braschler needs to be fired by the KK board. How can you allow a "risk manager" to galavant across the country and profit from his "expertise" when clearly THE RISK IS NOT BEING MANAGED?? The camp needs to take action and clean house on upper management over there. Something is broken and it needs to get fixed!
Oh, and another side note: campers AREN'T allowed to be alone with counselors. There are strict rules against it. A camper can't be in a cabin with just a counselor, campers and counselors can't even SIT on the same bed. Okay? So before you throw accusations, ask any Kanakuk kamper and we'll tell you. Because unlike you, who are random because just typing at the computer without any knowledge, I actually know for a fact. So why don't you leave the Kanakuk analysis to kampers like me?
Before people speak into this situation I suggest going and spending a MONTH as a kamper at Kanakuk. I've been a kamper for now 5 years so I think I'm qualified to speak into this. There have been rules enforced as Kristina said before. I was having a hard time after one of the K-Life talks and I went to talk to my counselor about it. I sat on her bed and she sprang up right away and informed me the new rules about sitting on beds. I was astonished. Am I angry that one person had to go ruin Kanakuk's reputation? Yes. Do I think Joe White intentionally hired this kid knowing he'd do this? No. Do I think Kanakuk is trying to make the Kamp the safest place posible for kids where we can go and get away from it all for two weeks or a month? Yes. Joe White is one of the greatest Christian-Guy influences in my life and he's like a father to all the kids at Kamp. If you don't experience it first hand at Kamp for a month, shut it. You have NO idea what kamp is like and your ignorance is making you come across as rude, mean and sometimes stupid.
Is it a known fact that Lee Bradbury was a victim of Pete Newman? Are there others sexual abuse victims that are counselors at Kanakuk now?
Hi Madeline and welcome to this forum. A bunch of the commenters on here ARE former campers and camp parents. You seem quite young from your comments - i'd warn you to be as courteous as possible in dealing with posters on an anonymous forum like this. Many commenters have a long history with Kanakuk and are still frusterated and angry that more isn't done to keep counselors from having the availability to do such a thing. They're also concerned that many red flags were ignored re: Pete Newman.
I'm personally a 9-year camper and 6-year staff member who has concerns. While you had a great experience at Kanakuk (and I did, too!) that doesn't excuse any mistake that led to something as terrible as these acts. Calling parents (even if they are "anonymous") ignorant and stupid is of no help to anyone.
thanks!
Also, to address this: Lee Bradbury was NOT a victim of Pete's. A ridiculous rumor caused by just one of the many people trying to break the Kamp family.
"When the first red flag went off, the issue was addressed. Pete's behavior was unknown to ANYONE for a long time."
Except that camp acknowledged that years before the incident, he was playing naked basketball with ten year olds. I don't claim to be an expert on what sort of discipline happened to Pete at the time, but I saw a counselor at K1 get fired for MUCH MUCH less.
I don't mean to belittle you by pointing out age, but understand that I do have a little more insight than you suggest. You were 3 years old when I met Pete (at your age). I was on K1 leadership for four years, all of which during Pete's tenure as assistant director to Will Cunningham at K-Kountry. My brother-in-law counted Pete as one of his best friends and was a camp director himself. I knew Pete as an adult. He was a groomsman in my sister's wedding. My first summer, I had kids in my cabin who were in Pete's cabin the prior year. Kids called me (as a compliment) the "Pete of K1." I visited kids during the off-season, and Pete visited some of the same kids. The abuse happened for such a long time, including the time I was involved with Kanakuk and undoubtedly involved people I knew well. Now I am a lawyer and have represented clients (not related to Kanakuk) who have been abused by adults in positions just like the one Pete was in.
It's just not clear that "when the first red flag went off" things were dealt with properly. It's not clear exactly who did what to be culpable, and I do work very hard on this board to keep the very seriously "Anti-Joe" people from going crazy without letting it play out in court. But to say it's clear that Kanakuk has been above reproach is simply wrong. I can understand how Kanakuk could have been deceived by Pete. I certainly was. My family was. But there have been allegations that kanakuk knew more than I did and my family did. And until those are addressed, it's unfair to say it's "clear" kanakuk is above reproach here.
All of this goes back to Auburn and AUMC.
Pete Newman led a discipleship group at AUMC. One of the boys from that discipleship group, we'll call him Bob, went on to lead a discipleship group at AUMC when he was in college. Lee Bradbury was in this discipleship group. Bob had sleepovers with his discipleship group, and there was an incident where Lee alleged that Bob had "tried something" with him.
This incident was somewhat widely known within the AUMC and Auburn community. There additional aspects of the story which I've left out, because they may be rumors. However, all of the parts of the story I've included here are fact. I have no interest in "trying to break the Kamp family".
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