Not sure why the more mainstream chabad news sites haven't been covering this, but wow, just wow.
http://www.chabadinfo.com/index.php?url=article_en&id=30590
http://www.chabadinfo.com/index.php/jq/js/jq/css/ui-lightness/includes/tguva_popup.php?url=article_en&id=30592
Very sad, but hardly shocking.
I'm a first hand witness to hearing a teen tell kid "if you want to ruin so and so's life accuse him of molesting you"(Bh he didnt go through with it) I mentioned this to a prominent child rights activist, and he responded "loshon hara"
Without taking sides in any story, it does make me wonder about others
It must be mentioned that there is Halachic authority obligating public notification of an individual who poses a potential communal threat. Harav Elchonon Tauber of CA has paskened that the verse “Lifnei ever lo siten michshol” imposes an affirmative obligation to report any knowledge of alleged abuse to both the authorities and the community. This Halachic obligation does not have a “conviction” requirement, rather, an accusation is sufficient to trigger this responsibility.
Rav Tauber’s greatest example is if someone is rumored to be poisoning the food in a school, would we hesitate to remove this person from the school? Or would we begin to conduct investigations to challenge the veracity of the accusers? Of course we remove the person immediately. Somehow when the word "abuse" is involved, people get uncomfortable. "Abuse" = murder. If a person was an "alleged" murderer, would we hesitate to notify the community?
if such a person would be found innocent, the apology would deff. be much stronger and heartfelt and it would hardly ruin his life like this
side note: this belongs in the Tragic articles thread