Extra Credit Blog “McMartin Preschool: Anatomy of a Panic”

The McMartin preschool trial took place in the 1980s and was prosecuted by a Los Angeles District Attorney. Members of the McMartin family who were in charge of running the preschool were charged with sexual acts against a group of children who were supposed to be in their care. This was the longest and most expensive trial in American history, after six years of criminal trials no one was actually convicted and the charges were dropped. The accusations alone caused a moral panic amongst parent and people in the community. It all started with one mother saying that her son was having nightmares, and trouble sleeping at night. From that point the chargers and victims kept growing. Most of allegations were made at CII (a child abuse prevention center). Puppets were used to encourage the kids to reveal what happened. I think that it was just a confusion between emotions, facts, and lack of realization that the victims were little kids. One of the first accusations was made by a mother who was later found to be psychotic. Likewise, law enforcement later sent out a letter to parents, directing them to question their children and try and see if they come up with any evidence. This itself is worrying because if each parent is questioning their child, their emotionally involved, which means that they are speaking to their kids with an underlying tone of suggestion. As they continue to urge their children to tell them something about whats happening at the daycare, eventually any child would just break and say anything to be left alone. Even with all of this lack of hard evidence, police continued to push this case. I can’t even believe it lasted a total of six years and then the suspects were simply let off. It was as if everyone just kept going in circles and frighten for apparently no reason.