It could be a year from now before two men alleging abuse at a beloved Snow Camp summer camp find out if they will have their day in court.
“You just have to accept that the supreme Court sets its own schedule,” said Bobby Jenkins with the Lanier Law Group handling a lawsuit over the old Camp Frontier on Bass Mountain Road.
Jenkins is not handling that suit but he is handling one before the Supreme Court of North Carolina that will decide if it goes forward.
Camp Frontier is one of those old-school summer camps with horseback riding, canoes and archery dating back to the 1960s.
From 1985 to 1987, two men, one from Burlington, now in their late 40s say a counselor there used his position of trust to isolate them on campouts, sexually abuse them and threatened them to keep it a secret beginning when they were 11.
Many cases of childhood sexual abuse go unreported. About 10% of American children are abused before they turn 18, according to the Darkness to Light Foundation, but just 38% of victims tell anyone and less than half of them tell an adult or authority, and an even smaller percentage of those cases go to law enforcement.
“It’s a unique class of victims,” Jenkins said. “It’s not like a car accident when you know what happened right away.”
A lot of those victims don’t say anything about what happened until well into adulthood, but many victims have painful consequences like substance abuse and mental illness.
The two men suing over the Camp Frontier allegations say they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety and abuse of alcohol and drugs, all of which affected their professional and personal lives depriving them of potential earnings and the cost of treatment, according to the suit.
While criminal felony child abuse charges don’t have a statute of limitations in North Carolina, civil suits had to be filed within three years of the abuse until the N.C. SAFE (Sexual Assault Fast reporting and Enforcement) Child Act gave alleged victims two years – 2020 and 2021 – to sue over abuse and go after compensation.
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The Lanier Law Group is not the only one to bring suits like this one but it has probably brought the most, Jenkins said, including at least two in Alamance County.
This suit is going after the counselor the plaintiffs accuse of abusing them at least 10 to 15 times each and the county, state and national YMCA organizations.
The defendants in several suits like this one have challenged the constitutionality of the SAFE Child Act.
“The argument is, once the statute of limitations has expired the defendant has a vested right in that defense,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said that argument is based on a case from the 1930s that he calls “confusing and antiquated.”
There are still a lot of steps before the State Supreme Court even decides if it will have a hearing on the constitutionality of the SAFE Child Act, Jenkins said. Several members of the court will also face elections this fall, though Jenkins wouldn't guess how that could affect the timeline of his case. He said it should be settled by next fall though is optimistic the court could have it done earlier.
In the meantime, these plaintiffs and defendants will have to wait.
"Their lives are largely on hold until the court makes its decision," he said.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Alamance County's Camp Frontier faces allegations of abuse in the 1980s
