Rebecca Surendorff - Ohioans For Child Protection - podcast episode cover

Rebecca Surendorff - Ohioans For Child Protection

Mar 28, 202521 min
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

The podcaster did not provide a description for this episode.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Seven six. Happy Friday to you. By the time, it's please welcome to the fifty five Percy Morning Show for an outstanding organizational, Hilands for Child Protection. Rebecca, sirandor Rebecca, welcome to the program. It's a real pleasure to have you on today.

Speaker 2

Oh, thanks for having me back on. We really appreciate how you've been staying on this story.

Speaker 1

Oh. I was outraged, just simply outrage that this pervert, disgusting piece of human excrement had the nerve to request a lower sex offender status after what he did and his plea agreement. Well, I saw that he was in front of Judge Gizon. There has been a development. She said, how about no boiled down in her order here that was just released the other day. First off, before we start into the details about this horrific guy, let my

listeners know about Highlands for Child Protection. I'm curious to know how you got involved with it, if I can ask that.

Speaker 2

Yeah. So back in twenty nineteen, my four kids were students at Saint Ignatius on the west side of Cincinnati, and father Jeff Drew had been assigned back in twenty eighteen to the parish and this wasn't my first encounter Withdrew in my life. He'd actually been my grade school music teacher and music minister when I was a student at Saint Jude.

Speaker 1

Oh wow.

Speaker 2

And I had no idea when he was assigned to our parish the very well documented past that he had, mostly because many of the events took place in my childhood and a lot of weird things can be misfiled

in a child's brain. So while I saw some of the graving activities such as him massaging boy's shoulders and then sticking his hands under their shirt down through their collar, along their back, I saw it so frequently and there was one reacting to it around me that those kinds of events are very easily messfiled to a child.

Speaker 1

Of course, they don't. Children don't have life experience, they don't understand what's appropriate and inappropriate, and they certainly don't have a grasp of the law.

Speaker 2

So fast forward to my four children in the school that he's essentially the superintendent of. Because he has higher and fire authority over the principle and the teachers, he would be the final voice in deciding if a child is being suspended or expelled. So that really is a position of authority to be a pastor at one of

our Catholic schools. So basically, my classmate Paul bravely stepped forward in the summer of twenty nineteen and came forward about the abusity suffered from father Jeff Drail And that's when we saw the nine charges happen in the arrassed and me and some other moms like Teresa den Whinnie Herman, we decided that there must have been a larger failure place that a man like this was running our school.

And that's when we did our first public record request and realized that there was much more to this story and that he had a well documented past spanning three decades, three counties, from how protective service calls about him, countless parents reaching out to the archdiocese, three criminal investigations in Butler County, and through all of this he was never placed on leave. There was no investigation within the church

as to how this all came to pass. That he was running the largest elementary Catholic school in the state of Ohio, and we thought, you know what, the state of Ohio also allowed this to happen. We need to go look at our lawmakers in Columbus and started dressing Ohio's child sex abuse laws because it turns out that while we speak frequently about abuse in the Catholic Church, the big story is is that one and four k one of four girls and one in thirteen to one

and twenty boys. It depends which study you look at, are being sexually abused before they turn eighteen, And to look at Ohio more specifically, we just saw this out as the Girls Report come out last year and their climate survey found that were above the national average for girl abuse. Over twenty percent of Ohio girls reported some form of sexual violence in the prior twelve months. And to put that into perspective, can you imagine if one in five cars have been stolen in Ohio. So we

decided that more needs to be done. So for five years we've been advocating up at the state House, just a group of parents, mostly moms, asking lallmakers to truly treat this public safety issue at the level it needs to be. And so we saw the governor sign the grooming bill earlier this year. But we're still advocating for things like statute limitations reform.

Speaker 1

There's so many questions I've got I know it's okay. First off, on a fundamental basis as far as legislation is concerned, why did it You've been advocating for this for such a long time. This seems to be something that should have been on the books now for decades. Why and what resistance did you get? Why did it take so long to actually get pen on paper and make this a criminal violation? And how come they have the statute of limitations haven't been changed. I mean we're

talking about children here. I mean they need to be protected more than any person on the planet. Adult police can can rationalize, have an understanding, take acts and steps to protect themselves. I mean, these are the most innocent of all. Why was there any resistance at all to get in this moving forward or more quickly so?

Speaker 2

I do think with the grooming bill, a lot of it is because this was This is amongst fun the early efforts in the United States to criminalize grooming. This is actually already illegal in places like Australia and England for the last twenty years, but in the United States we were at the forefront here of Ohio to asked for dreaming to be criminalized, and to be well done. We didn't want something that has been a drag innocent

people into court. So part of that is because we were first in grooming, for the most part, statue limitations reform. There's some powerful interest in our state that have been pushing against that. We did a partial reform back in two thousand and six. And if it wasn't for the efforts of the victims from two thousand and four to two thousand and six on statue limitations reform, my classmate Paul would have had the court doors shut on him.

The lesser known part of this story, though, is that there had been an effort to expand statue limitations more fully because the average age disclosed abuse is age fifty two when you've been on child victim. Well, there's a second known victim in the Jeff dra case, and there has been indicators that there are more victims, But the second victim that came forward with similar evidence abused in the same school building over at same time period. He

was just arbitrarily that little bit older. So the court doors were shut. If both victims would have had their day in court, would we even be talking about Jeff Drey being released next year?

Speaker 1

I imagine not? And so my listeners have a full accounting of what happened to Paul Nyer this so and so Jeff Drew pleaded guilty in twenty twenty one to repeatedly raping Paul when Paul was nine and ten years old. And it happened in the late nineteen eighties and nineties when Nira was a student in Altar Boy at Saint June, Bridgetown,

where Drew happened to be the music teacher. I and that you know that what brought that You brought this to my attention and having on the programs, because this guy had the audacity to seek a lower level sex offender status in spite of the fact that his plea agreement which locked him up for seven years, he said he would register as a what is a Tier one sex offender, so he has to register regularly and everybody gets in the neighborhood gets a notification from the police

lettinghim know who he is, where he is, and what he looks like for the protection of the children that are in the neighborhood. That he had the nerve to do that, I just I want to throttle the guys thinking about it.

Speaker 2

And I wonder like how is he affording all this legal at.

Speaker 1

Oh, there's another good question, and you know, another looming question of the background of this for rebeconcerned Dorf. Maybe you've been able to get to the bottom of this. You said that they the church had known about his antics, if I can call them that, for a long long time before he was finally finally got busted. Aren't Isn't

that criminal in and of itself? If you're you're facilitating or otherwise covering up the molestation of children, you are in as far as I'm concerned, as guilty as the guy committing the acts.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

I think enablers are key allowing the fenders access our children, and that is another area of the law that I would like to see our lawmakers. Well, they first that when it's repeated within an institution, and he had people that truly have the power to stop.

Speaker 1

It, they facilitated, They put him in contact, close contact, in a position of authority about around a bunch of young children. Mean, yes, it's like you're asking for this to happen again. Lives to be ruling.

Speaker 2

They fixated offenders average one hundred and fifty victims in

their lifetime, and they ascend into their geriatric years. So it's vitally important that we take a look at this problem and we try to approach it from every level that we can, from comuma, informing things that work with youth, having stronger luves, having our statue limitations reform, and one survivor rightfully pointed out to me that since Ohio is one of the handful of states left that provides the statue limitations to protect child defenders, he likened us to

being a sanctuary state for child sex abuse because we're one of the few states left in the whole country that we're running a clock that you'd get off scott.

Speaker 1

Free, especially when you're being held by the folks that are enabling you to have presents around children in a position of authority. Let's pause. We'll bring Rebecca sore indour fact from Ohiolands for Child Ohlands for Chold Protection. You can find them on Facebook, of course, Ohiolands for Child Protection. Let's pause from them, We'll bring you right back. I want to mention Bud Herbert Motors. They're gonna treat you

great for lawn equipment. Just think Bud Herbert Motors. I know you got the box store around the corner where they sell inferior products, and they are sold by people who have no interest in your happiness with the lawn equipment you buy, and they know little about the equipment they're selling. When you're working with but Herbert Motors, you are working with one of the fifth generation family members. You will be working with a Herbert family member. The

name is on the building. They protect their family's good name and reputation because they sell only the world class brands. They service what they sell. They'll deliver it to you and they'll treat you a service with a smile. They know everything there is to know about what they sell

John Deere, x Mark Steel, handel power equipment. I had a wonderful, wonderful experience, and I always like to give thanks to west Side Jim Keefer because after my terrible box store experience, he's the one that brought them to my attention. So I feel blessed to be able to do it here on the fifty five krs in morning show. Thank you Bud Herbert for sponsoring the program, but also for letting me recommend you too. Are you folks to my listeners? So Budheerbertmotors dot com is the place to go.

Give him a call and tell the Herbert family. Brian said, how when you do the treaty, great and you'll be glad you took me up on my advice. The number is five one three, five four one thirty two ninety one five one three, five four one thirty two ninety one fifty five KRC. Are you the breadwinner in your house? Life insurance covers the cost of living in case you're

not there to provide. Are you a stay at home parent? Gentlemen, and weather forecast, is some rain out there going on, but after ten o'clock it just be partly clouding all the while, all way up to seventy six and breezy as well. Partly cloudie overnight sixty for the low seventy four Tomorrow SI with clouds and a chance of spotty rain in the afternoon, and then you get rain likely

overnight with a low of fifty eight. And then I kind of really rainy Sunday with showers in the morning and then afternoon evening thunderstorms which may be severe at times. Seventy two for the high on Sunday. Right now, it's fifty two in time for a traffic update from.

Speaker 3

The UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctor's Day, we honor the UC Health physicians who are leading breakthroughs for better Tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. And accident on I two seventy five northbound before Ward's Corner road locks your left shoulder and intermittently the left lane traffic is stopping go from State Round twenty eight. I'm also seeing heavy and slow traffic on I seventy five southbound. You're the Reagan Highway and seventy five northbound between Buttermilk

Pike and Fort Washington Way. I'm Heather Pasco in fifty five krc.

Speaker 1

The talk station seven twenty fifty five KRCD talk station hard for seniors in studio after the bottom of the hour at the bottom of the hour, looking forward to having them and doing great work for seniors that are in senior facilities. In the meantime, Ohioan's for Child Protection Rebecca Sorendorf on online talking about this Jeff Drew guy, this pervert pre to music teacher who was busted for and pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping a gentleman named Paul Nyer.

He is still in lock up. According to the reporting from who is in Gift credit to WCPO, he's in the Noble Correctional Institute, which is described as a medium security prison for men in Caldwell, Noble County, and expected release date August seventeenth, twenty twenty sixth I imagine Judge Gibz probably as offended as I was the idea that he had the audacity to seek a lower level sex offender status when he got out. But no, she said, you

got to register with the Sheriff's department. I guess every I said, every ninety days for the rest of his life, he has to register's addressed with the Sheriff's Department, and then they have to send out photographs to the community letting everyone know where this guy lives and what he looks like. Also, is that.

Speaker 2

Correct, Yes, that's part of the agreement.

Speaker 1

Good. We should.

Speaker 2

But I want parents and grandparents out there to realize too that for child sex abuse, in part because of our statural limitations and the delay and reporting, that we have a really low conviction rate around these crimes. So for every person you see on an offender registry in your community, just know that there's probably another you know, fifteen to twenty five offenders in your area that go completely unnamed.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and you know, with with online communication and kids gaming all the time, it just creates more and more opportunities for these groomers to have access to children and parents are oblivious to what's going on when their kids are in the basement playing games and that I know that's one vehicle because I've read so many articles about it. That's how they gain access and gain confidence.

Speaker 2

Great, and we actually saw research at the University New Hampshire that shows about one in six kids are being exploited online and about sixty percent of that exploitation is someone who already knows that child are in their offline life, so they're presenting many times as another kids really a

love interest. This happens a lot to our team boys and they think they're communicating with a girl of their age and they start exchanging images with them and it quickly turns into that they're being blackmailed with their money or further images, which Ohio just made sextortion illegal last year. And this is why we need to be fast tracking this kind of legislation, still being thoughtful about it, bringing the right people to the table. But each bill shouldn't

be taking five to twenty years to pass. So we connect it with Senator Blessing and Representative Rachel Baker, and

we've asked them to start a sexual Violence Caucus. We're still working out exactly what the name is going to be, but we need a place where our lawmakers are going to come together with those on the front line in our state, from law enforcement to the good people at our schools and those working at places like Madison, and get these people to the table and start mapping out where's our system falling short for our kids and what can we do up in Columbus to make sure that

it is a safe place to raise the family in Ohio and that our children aren't being exploited at this rate.

Speaker 1

Amen to that. Is there any pending legislation or proposed legislations floating around behind the scenes in committee or anything right now that my listeners can get in touch with their elected officials and pressure them to move it forward.

Speaker 2

Not at this moment because we just started a new General Assembly, so they're all busy with the budget at this moment, okay, but we are working on getting these things started. I think one of the biggest thing that you can do is call your lawmaker and tell them that we should have statue limitations reformed, and that you ask for this sexual violence pocket, that they join it, that they support its work because it such a multi

tier issue at this moment. For example, many many states already require in their screening of educators that you check if there's child protective service calls on the individual in the father Just through case, we can see that he had child protective service calls in Montgomery County, Butler County, in Hamilton County, yet he had superintendent like authority at Saint Ignacious School while that's a religious institution. Ohio does not have that kind of protection in any of its schools,

whether religious or public, at this moment. But also we see that there's carve outs for things like aeronwall, which is body safety training for children. We got that in all of Ohio's public schools, but there is an exemption for all the private and religious schools in our state,

and we would like to equally protect every child. Parents have an expectation, whether they're sending their children to religious school they're choosing or a public school, that there should be equal protection from child sex abuse.

Speaker 1

And if you're a private school, why wouldn't you implement your own policies to keep these children in out of harm's way. I mean, that's a question worth asking. You don't need some legislator to tell you what to do. You're a private entity. Put these protections in place, jeez, Louise. And if you're a known if there's a known pedophile working for you, why don't you turn them into the cops and fire them and get them out of the presence of children. Oh this just gets my eye up.

I am sorry for getting on a rant here, Rebecca, but I don't understand any resistance to this type of reform. I just don't get it anyhow.

Speaker 2

You think it's going to take every day people stepping up to make it priority because it too quickly the attention goes elsewhere in Columbus and US everyday people we need to keep speaking up. Following our Facebook page when there's a specific though, we always share good what needs to do. Act But just let your lawnmaker. Now show up at a community event with them, or start visiting your local clubs. We actually are a bipartisan group. We

show up. Of course, you are the Republican clubs and every day people deeply care about this, but it isn't a front burner issue at the State House on a day to day basis.

Speaker 1

Well it should be in Rebecca Sorender, if you have a place open spot here on the fifty five Carse Morning Show. If legislation comes up you need support for it, you come on my program. You talk to my listeners about what's proposed and what we need to do to a call of action, we'll call it here, So you're

welcome on my program. I certainly appreciate the behalf of every child out there, the work that you're doing on their behalf, and I wish you all the best of luck and bring in some reform here to the state of Ohio.

Speaker 2

Thank you so much for staying on this and for public Christian overt Channel nine. She has just been on this case for years now and the iteam's been on it.

Speaker 1

That's great. I'm glad to know that as well. Rebecca. You take care of a wonderful weekend, and again, just give Joe a call if there's anything on the front will help you out. It's seven twenty eight to fifty five KC dot dot com Heart for Seniors up next,

wonderful organization they are. We're gonna hear from the good people from Hard for Seniors after I mentioned and remind you that imaging can be affordable as long as you don't go to the hospital imaging department where you're going to have to shell out thousands and thousands of dollars to get an echo cardigram, an MRI, a CT scan, an ultrasound long screening, cardiac scoring. They're all just outrageously priced. Echo cardiograms at a hospital thirty five hundred bucks, pay

extra for the radiologist report. Go to Affordable Imaging Services, where I can tell you you should not expect much overhead, but inside the building, the same equipment that hospitals use, run by medical professionals who've been at this for decades, and where you will pay and only five hundred dollars for an echo cardiogram and they can get you right in.

That's without an enhancement. If you need an enhancement, it's eight hundred bucks, MRI thirty five hundred dollars four thousand at a hospital, only four hundred and ninety five bucks at Affordable Imaging service. The same thing across the board, massive savings. Every thing works out great. I've had a couple of CT scans there. I'm getting another one coming up here real fast in April. And it's always been fine with my doctor. Have no complain about the quality

of the image of the radiologist report. And I save the heapload of money and you will too. You have a choice. Exercise at five one three, seven five three eight thousand. That's seven five three eight thousand online Affordable Medimaging dot.

Speaker 3

Com fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1

What's up

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android