Where are Hollywood’s Mandatory Reporters?

 

@goldwaterwoman posted about 16-year-old Reese Witherspoon’s sexual assault by a Hollywood director and Witherspoon’s anger at agents and producers who told her to remain quiet. In the comments I wondered why producers, etc. aren’t mandatory reporters. I’d like to expand on that idea.

I teach high school in California and just to be hired by a school I have to be finger-printed and pass a background check. Changing schools requires repeating the process. Every year I sign a document stating that I know my duties as a mandatory reporter and understand that I can lose my credential and job if I do not report suspected abuse. Every few years I have to go through training to recognize signs of abuse or neglect in my students. Every coach and parent volunteer has to pass a background check and go through training.

Mandatory reporting is imperfect because false allegations will lead to a good-faith report, and predators frequently are sneaky. A few years ago, I learned that a teacher who taught a few doors down from my room had “an inappropriate relationship” with a student. I had no clue even though I’d gone through training. And yet my school has reported abuse and helped our students.

Hollywood’s predators employ procurers and pay off their victims. Apparently Harvey’s behavior was an open secret and he isn’t an anomaly. Agents, producers and others protect the predator and not the victims. What a disgusting system.

So why isn’t everyone in Hollywood and the music industry a mandatory reporter? Why aren’t agents protecting their clients? Wherever children can work in Hollywood, every employee, every crew member should be a mandated reporter. Maybe background checks, finger printing, and training can be part of guild membership. Bright people can work out the details.

Can California’s legislators write and pass legislation requiring the entertainment industry to protect children and report criminal behavior? California is a Democrat controlled state. Hollywood funds the Democrats. California’s elected Democrats need to hold Hollywood accountable. California voters need to hold our elected officials accountable, too.

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There are 14 comments.

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  1. Clavius Thatcher
    Clavius
    @Clavius

    This is a great suggestion for reform. And imagine Hollywood having to deal with real government oversight.

    • #1
  2. TheRightNurse Member
    TheRightNurse
    @TheRightNurse

    I think wherever adults are acting as a parental figure or someone who is supposed to be interested in a minor’s wellbeing, there should be some governing laws.  Isn’t that why we have child labor laws?

    • #2
  3. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    danys: Wherever children can work in Hollywood, every employee, every crew member should be a mandated reporter. Maybe background checks, finger printing, and training can be part of guild membership. Bright people can work out the details.

    I rather do like the idea.

    • #3
  4. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Clavius (View Comment):
    This is a great suggestion for reform. And imagine Hollywood having to deal with real government oversight.

    Given how much they’re subsidized by taxpayers, there should be quite a bit more oversight.

    Or stop giving my tax money to kiddie-diddlers. Do that, too.

    • #4
  5. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    A great suggestion! It is well past time for an independent commission to conduct a comprehensive research study and issue a “John Jay” style report for Hollywood to recommend all necessary steps to stop this predatory behavior and prevent its reoccurrences.

    And then share it with all teachers in the public school systems for their needed reforms.

    • #5
  6. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Vengeance Regulating. I wonder if in 2020 Trump will give a speech in LA saying in that in the next decade he hopes to have gotten rid of the entertainment industry completely and replaced it with new age renewable YouTube entertainment.

    • #6
  7. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    danys: Can California’s legislators write and pass legislation requiring the entertainment industry to protect children and report criminal behavior? California is a Democrat controlled state. Hollywood funds the Democrats. California’s elected Democrats need to hold Hollywood accountable. California voters need to hold our elected officials accountable, too.

    I suspect there are many laws on the books protecting actor children from Hollywood predators. Are they enforced? Are the crimes even being reported? For example, Reese Weatherspoon claims to have been raped at the age 16 in 1992 by an older director. It was a crime then, and it’s a crime now with plenty laws on the books to protect her. Yet, it was unreported for reasons known only to Ms. Weatherspoon and her family.

    • #7
  8. Peter Meza Member
    Peter Meza
    @PeterMeza

    https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2011/pen/part-4/11164-11174.3/11165.7 sets forth the mandatory reporters.

    • #8
  9. danys Thatcher
    danys
    @danys

    Peter Meza (View Comment):
    https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2011/pen/part-4/11164-11174.3/11165.7 sets forth the mandatory reporters.

    Thank you for the link, Peter. I skimmed through it and didn’t see anything that looked like it pertains to the entertainment industry.

    • #9
  10. danys Thatcher
    danys
    @danys

    Valiuth (View Comment):
    Vengeance Regulating. I wonder if in 2020 Trump will give a speech in LA saying in that in the next decade he hopes to have gotten rid of the entertainment industry completely and replaced it with new age renewable YouTube entertainment.

    I’m not certain I understand “Vengeance Regulating.” My general instinct is not to turn to government to solve problems. But here, it’s alleged that crimes have been committed and  a legitimate role of government is investigating crimes and seeking justice.

    I’m not advocating mandatory reporting out of vengeance; rather children are being seriously harmed and it appears there is very little being done to protect the children in the entertainment field. This is entirely different from protecting children from “harmful”  Doritos and plastic knives which, in my opinion, are silly regulations.

     

    • #10
  11. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Ummmm,

    Where were the parents of these minor children, while their innocence was traded for fame and red carpet glory?

    Children are mandated to attend school, and school staff are in loco parentis. Thus the stringent regulations.

    Children are not mandated to be Hollywood fodder, however enticing the rewards.

    • #11
  12. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    While there are few groups I would more like to see subjected to more government regulation than those uppity “better than you” Hollywood types, I wouldn’t want to see an expansion of the category  of mandatory reporter of abuse, and I hesitate to even dignify that atrocity with the legitimacy of implying that having mandatory reporters is a good idea.

    Doing something about suspected abuse is a good idea, though I’m not convinced that “reporting” through official channels is always best. But making the reporting mandatory creates secondary risk that makes the basic job harder, and creates legal risks that drive people away from roles at which they would be good. I have seen multiple people in my church decline to take roles at which they would be good because those roles are “mandatory reporters” and the people judged the risks that someone would accuse them of making a mistake too high.

    • #12
  13. Little My Member
    Little My
    @LittleMy

    Two things: I remember hearing that Shirley Temple’s mother was very much on the ball in protecting her daughter in Hollywood — and it was a wild and crazy place for child actors back in the day. One story was that a director wanting Shirley to cry real tears in a scene suggested to her that her puppy had been run over by a car. Shirley’s mother, when she found out about it, laced into him with fire and tongs over that incident. I suppose it helped that Shirley Temple was a major earner for Hollywood; probably things were rather different for the occasionally-employed or merely hopeful child actors.

    Re mandatory reporting: as a medical person, I once had the sad duty to call social services over a suspected case of child neglect and abuse. It was a daunting experience. I had no proof, other than the usual signs we are trained to look for, but the social worker was apparently more interested in establishing that I was not a nosy neighbor seeking to cause trouble. It was a wasted phone call; when the social worker eventually came to visit the family, the father simply slammed the door in her face. A few weeks later, the father kicked two sons out of the house, and they lived in a tent in the woods for awhile. Their mother went around to all the neighbors asking that no one feed them, so they would have to return home. In a community of Jewish mothers, you want people not to feed kids? I asked her. Shortly afterward, the boys did return home, but have since had a history of mental illness and criminality.

    I have exactly zero faith in the ability of social services to “help” such distressed families. All they can do is make a note in some file, stressing that they made the mandatory visit to the family.

    • #13
  14. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    Little My (View Comment):
     

    Re mandatory reporting…I have exactly zero faith in the ability of social services to “help” such distressed families. All they can do is make a note in some file, stressing that they made the mandatory visit to the family.

    Not quite true, I know of at least three families who had children seized by the state for flimsy cases of  alleged “abuse”.

    “Zero faith” is too much.

    • #14
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