When I was an elder in the early 2000's, it was right about the time of the Barbara Anderson/Dateline NBC report, and I remember attending a two-day elders school. I believe Don Adams gave a part about child abuse, and from what I remember, he prefaced it by saying something like 'Unfortunately because some local elders acted wrongly in handling child abuse cases, it has caused huge problems' and so he went on to outline what to do in cases of child abuse, i.e. 'call legal.' Again, this is by no means verbatim, but it's the gist of what was said.
The court documents in the Conti case reveal something else. This was not the act of a few 'rogue' elders mishandling a child abuse case. THIS CAME FROM THE TOP DOWN.
So, for any of you current or ex elders out there, do you remember any statements like this at your elders school in the early 2K's? Effectively, the Society was throwing local elders under the bus instead of admitting responsibility.
I wonder how many elders serving today would 'appreciate' this information. . .
The correspondence between the local body of elders and the society can be found here, pages 20-23: http://apps.alameda.courts.ca.gov/domainweb/service?ServiceName=DomainWebService&PageName=itree&Action=27363155