Alright, so like, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, they all got together and like, decided to approve this huuuge sex abuse settlement. It’s the biggest one in U.S. history, coming in at a whopping $4 billion. And get this – it’s for victims who were abused as kids in county-run juvenile facilities and foster homes. The vote happened on Tuesday, and everyone was on board with it.
The victims have been fighting for this for years, claiming that no one has ever really paid for all the messed up stuff that went down in those facilities. There are nearly 7,000 claims in total, with most of them being about abuse that happened from the 1980s to the 2000s. Like, that’s a lot of claims, right?
One of the supervisors, Kathryn Barger, was all like, “I can’t believe the people who were supposed to take care of these vulnerable kids ended up being the ones hurting them. It makes me so mad and disgusted.” Can’t blame her for feeling that way, you know?
The victims shared their stories about how the county didn’t really do much to stop the abusers. It was basically open season for these predators in the facilities. And the worst part? The staff hardly ever faced any consequences for what they did to these poor kids. It’s just so messed up.
But now, with this settlement, there’s hope for some closure for the victims. Adam Slater, one of the lawyers working on the case, said that this money might help them move forward with their lives. Let’s hope so, right?
This settlement is like, way bigger than any other sex abuse settlements we’ve heard of. The Boy Scouts one was $2.46 billion, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid about $1.5 billion, and there were others too. But this one takes the cake.
L.A. County has a huge budget, like $48 billion huge. They’re planning to pay for this settlement by taking out bonds and using up their rainy day fund. The victims will get all the money in the next five years, but the county will be paying off those bonds for the next 25 years. That’s a long time to be in debt, if you ask me.
The county is trying to prevent this kind of abuse from happening again. They’re doing things like better screening for foster parents and probation officers, and they’re getting rid of group homes. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s like, why wasn’t this stuff in place before?
The supervisors all voted for the settlement, except for Lindsey Horvath who was MIA. They’ve got some ideas on how to make sure this never happens again, like making it easier to fire people accused of abuse and tying department heads’ salaries to how well they handle these cases. Sounds like a plan, I guess.
Oh, and get this – while all this was going down, there was a strike happening with about 55,000 county workers. They’re not happy with how the county is handling contract negotiations, but the county is saying they can’t offer big raises because of this settlement and other costs they’re dealing with.
So, yeah, it’s a big mess, but hopefully, this settlement will bring some justice to the victims. They deserve it after everything they’ve been through. Not really sure why this matters, but hey, that’s the news for ya.
