The abuse of people in vulnerable people at all stages and walks of life may soon become the defining characteristic of our society to historians of the future. Everyone is familiar with all the sad allegations (and proven misdeeds) against the clergy, and everyone is probably at least familiar with the burgeoning cases of confirmed rape, pedophilia, etc., coming out of Hellyweird and Washington, but there is a new situation that few have heard of that needs to be monitored now, too.
Typically, predators are at least still cognizant of the realities of getting caught, and they tend to focus their activities on people they suspect are powerless, unwilling to talk, or incapable of being believed---such as the mentally ill. Here is an article that portrays, in gruesome detail, just such a case that took place recently in a Social Services/Mental Health setting in Elgin (Kane County) Illinois:
Here is an excerpt that hopefully won't turn the stomachs of those who choose not to read the cited article:
"(Christy Lenhardt) is charged with 14 felony counts alleging sexual misconduct with a person with disabilities and official misconduct following a lengthy Illinois State Police investigation. If convicted, Lenhardt faces up to five years in prison. She also would be eligible for probation. The criminal charges relate to allegations from November 2014 to last July and involve the first patient who sued Lenhardt. In a federal civil rights complaint filed in November, Benahdam Hurt of Aurora accused Lenhardt of making him her 'sex slave' during a nearly three-year relationship that included regular trysts in her office and his bedroom in the state-run facility."
(Lenhardt...courtesy of facebook.)
As of the time of the article, Lenhardt was still a social worker in GOOD STANDING in the State of Illinois.
This, to me, is very reminiscent of what happened to many others in various settings who were abused while under the "power," sway, influence, or custody of those who they should be (and supposedly ARE ) able to place their greatest trust. How sad! Too my knowledge, this is not a pandemic yet in the social services milieu, but given what we've seen within the Catholic Church (for example) we currently have no way of knowing how severe the problem may eventually turn out to be. Coverups are typically underway in almost every such case, and there is no one less likely to be believed than those who have been adjudicated insane. Even worse, there is no way that society can gain control over such a situation short of increasing training requirements (and constant reviews) of people in these positions. There is also the very real problem of FALSE REPORTING by individuals to which nothing nefarious has happened, but who may have a bone to pick with people who have power over them.
The country is truly in a fix here. If there is one thing we don't need, it's additional training/monitoring costs for social services which already are bankrupting the nation.
Our forefathers warned us what would happen if we ever became a people who lacked morals. Here are a couple of quotes in that direction:
"America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."...Alexis de Tocqueville.
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." ...President John Adams.
We have truly become a people/civilization for whom/which our founding documents can probably no longer effectively maintain us. We must return to goodness and morality, or fall, violently as surely as all past empires before of us have fallen who rejected public virtue in pursuit of selfish desires.