this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025

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Oklahoma Town Faces 75% Property Tax Hike To Cover Sexual Abuse Settlement (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 2 days ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

It’s very tough. We’re not the only school district in Oklahoma that has faced this, and certainly none of the Ninnekah residents affected this situation

Yeah, we can tell no one affected it. That's how dozens of victims stacked up over decades with no one doing anything about it. A predator doesn't rape that many children without people knowing. None of those people cared until it might cost them money

I'm not a fan of the US lawsuit culture, but it seems money is the only thing Americans truly care about

[–] lukaro@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

There's no seeming about it.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It's what we were bred, raised, taught, and enforced to care about. Even the church goers because those adapted to the culture as well.

Trying to break that mold is... full of resistance. There's a class of people that have become aware of this, prefer it, and act to maintain this system.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

If you argue it with any of these smalltown dinks, they'll tell you it's just the liberals molesting kids anyway, so the solution is to get rid of democrats. There is no amount of stats or math or logic that will sway this.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Oh I can attest to that. I used to have to convince people to not live in the sewage surfacing from their septic systems, or draining directly out of their RVs.

I can say from that experience: financial incentives were overwhelmingly the most effective and responsive tool. More than appeals to personal or public health, even.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (3 children)

Paying for public schools from city-level budgets and local taxes is one of the many things that I don’t think most Americans realize is weird about America. Normal countries fund their public schools from a national or regional budget so that kids from poor neighbourhoods don't get even more shafted than they already are.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 10 hours ago

Do other, big countries that have substates that insist upon slavery do it that way? Or is moneyflow also a massive political nightmare and fragmented because part of your country insists on doing it THEIR way? I wouldn't think most countries had majorities of areas that were only founded solely on slavery and so never really evolved efficient or moral or coherent government or people./s

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

you see its about producing cannon fodder for the military, prison labor,+ low wage workers its by DESIGN. Also it helps shore up conservative voters, since many of them are undereducated, plus are more prone to religious indoctrination.

Right after 08' crash, so many people tried to join the military as a result of the crisis(at the same time the military was drawing down once obama got in the WH, people with no directions/bad economy will try to join the military, even if they are in college. I was in a forum about people joining military(how they are denying people too).

Blue areas do fund schools better, but i dont think its that good either, i believe it still underfunded and people who are struggling often get shunted to classes that are practically useless teaching them anything(its where they shunt the kids so it doesnt affect the metrics for funding for the school).

math and english(essay writing)proficiency is very deficient in students from the 2000s, i read recently from the teacher subreddit its alot worst now.

[–] lukaro@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

The local high school in my rural town opted to buy a new fancy score board for the football stadium over needed text books. There were enough for each classroom, not enough for each class so students had to leave them in the classroom for the next class.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The US has always hated education. That's why the Department of Education was one of the first ok the chopping block.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 15 hours ago

it helps produce fodder for the military enlistees, prison numbers(used by red states to increase thier house seats), also low wage workers in dead end jobs, govt jobs are pretty much dead end jobs which is why people are reluctant to go for them, but you hear from parents nagging to thier children they should get them.

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Like most problems, this one is also solved by wealth redistribution from the billionaire class to regular people.

Every dollar that the local government should have had to pay that settlement is sitting in some offshore account, it makes more sense to pick a random billionaire and force them to pay out than it does to increase property taxes on people who live in their homes.

[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Billionaires don't live in their community and has no say in the local operations of their community. The purpose of a lawsuit is to 1) compensate victims, and 2) Discourage repeating the situation

Akins raped at least a dozen different children over more than a decade. That doesn't happen without other people knowing about it, but they stayed silent. He received a rather lenient 15 year sentence. Without some additional punitive measure, it'll just happen again. Townspeople didn't seem to complain when he was raping children, but now they're complaining that it'll cost them money

At least now they'll properly deal with sexual predators rather than ignoring the issue

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Doesn't change the fact that instead of robbing a random billionaire to pay for it because they can, they are robbing their residents who aren't billionaires and can't pay for it.

[–] l_isqof@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

He did manage to fuck just about everyone in the end...

[–] F_State@midwest.social 51 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Small town in Oklahoma......they're probably blaming their misfortune on the people that sued.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"Would Jesus have litigated??"

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 15 hours ago

jesus the litigator.

[–] F_State@midwest.social 17 points 1 day ago

I'm guessing IRL Jesus would have started rage flipping tables and whipping people with his belt.

[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Elect Republicans, get pedos.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 hours ago

Embrace moderates, get Republicans.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 63 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This headline is shit. It's just a masked type of victim blaming. What actually happened is that many town employees must have known about the SA, considering there were 14+ victims and SA doesn't happen overnight, and they did nothing for quite some time... So the real story is that the town faces a huge tax hike because its employees decided to cover up SA.

If they'd caught the shady bastard after the first or second assault, the legal bills would have been millions of dollars less. But they didn't, because it wasn't a priority.

As for who knew or should have known but did nothing, we don't know, but the town residents might want to dig into that.

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[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 116 points 1 day ago (1 children)

14 claimants, town of 800.... This guy molested 1.75% of the population, or 3.5% of the women/girls in town if averages hold. Jesus.

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What are the odds there is another victim, or two, who were too embarrassed, ashamed, or traumatized, to come forward?

[–] dermanus@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It could even be they were brave enough and there wasn't enough evidence. These are the ones that the prosecution could prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

I mean, there are probably some who didn't come forward too.

[–] homura1650@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

The rapist pled guilty to 10 criminal counts. It's not clear from the article how many victims that represents, as a single victim often results in multiple counts.

The 14 claimants come from a civil suit. The prosecutors have no say in who gets to sue. Further, the standard in a civil suit is propendrrance of evidence, which is far lower than beyond a reasonable doubt. And the defendant is the school, so it is likely that both sides would try to throw the rapist under the bus.

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[–] treesquid@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'd bet many members of this community ignored, dismissed and even helped cover up these abuses because that's what little conservative communities do: ignore and enable sexual assault because they can't admit that it's happening, and they'll sacrifice their vulnerable community members to keep up appearances for as long as possible.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 15 hours ago

they definitely are, on reddit last decade i saw one , where they basically ignored the accuser confronting the pedophile of the church(pastor) in public.

[–] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 53 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The former coach and alleged abuser

… then goes on to document a guilty plea and some horrific detail, I think at this point “alleged” is a bit

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He raped 14 girls and it states he was allowed to do this for years and is only receiving 15 years in prison.

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[–] aramis87@fedia.io 98 points 2 days ago (11 children)

The amount set a new record for abuse cases against school districts in Oklahoma, topping a $5-million settlement reached by Kingfisher Public Schools in 2023. [...] the district paid $500,000 from the school’s general fund toward the settlement, while their liability insurance paid $1 million.

Sounds like they were under-insured. The Catholic Church got away with it by having their insurance pay everything, and then declaring bankruptcy whenever someone went against the Church's actual assets.

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