Maybe it really is just me, or just a handful of me's, but if my son shows me the kind of conversation he is having via email with a man who is not only decades older, but a SITTING MEMBER OF CONGRESS, I am not going to sit by and watch him chairing hearings on missing and exploited children, sanctimoniously passing legislation on finding and punishing these perverts all the while knowing he is one himself, no way.
That is like the rape victim who doesn't want to endure any more embarrassment or pain, won't prosecute because it means facing her rapist in court -- how many times have we heard the guy got X-number more victims before he was stopped? How many of these pages were to be preyed upon before Foley was stopped?? Who knows how many men are scarred for life, or worse, will BECOME PEDOPHILES THEMSELVES because these parents were "comfortable" and this LA MOC, the GOP Leadership didn't pull the plug when they were first notified??
If you felt that the people you spoke with were going to be proactive in making sure Foley couldn't get near more pages, that may be good enough for you.
They KNEW nothing happened, they KNEW Foley was not kept from any more pages -- the only way that could have been accomplished was for Foley to have been removed from Congress, either voluntarily or otherwise. They knew he continued in his role as chair of that committee -- they sound more to me like they just didn't want to make a stink, good GOP'ers and all. Sad, very sad.
Until this evening, I hadn't seen anything which stated that the parents contacted congress to make this stop. The events, as I understood them, were that the kid sent the e-mails to someone one the hill. It didn't even sound, originally, as though he were trying to make a formal complaint, but sent the e-mails to someone that he still knew there.
I'm not sure that the contact between the parents and the whomever from congress was as formal, or as serious as you are posting here.
Thank you so much. As a parent, I can promise you this would have hit the papers 10 months ago. Are people so concerned with stature or afraid of embarrassment that they would let this guy off the hook so as not to ruin their kids chances to be involved in goverment in the future? We found out that a neighbor and friend of ours had molested his daughter. The wife/mother wass waffling about the daughter pressing charges, even though the daughter wanted to. My husband went to the police to ask if there was anything he could do to get him off the street. Nothing, the charges had to come from the family. My husband told them, if you don't press charges, he will put a sign on our front lawn telling everyone that a child molester lived across the street. He is now doing 30 years. It makes you wonder how many other preditors are out there and people know but for fear of their own embarrassment or future don't say anything.