It is quite clear that they were thinking of improper action. The mere fact that Courtney was called, very early on, demonstrates.
The original e-mail, and Schultz hand written note, stated:
3. Tell Chair* of Board of Second Mile.
2. Report to Dept of Welfare.
1. Tell JS to avoid bringing children alone into Lasch Bldg.
*Who is the chair??
It is right here on page 223.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/396512-report-final-071212.html
The email, saying the same thing, but in reverse order. It is on page 225. Anybody can check.
I'm gonna regret getting into this, but....
When you say
"It is quite clear that they were thinking of improper action." you lose me and almost everyone else.
There is no way I would ever believe, and no one with a rational, logical thought process could ever believe, that this specific collection of men (C/S/S/JVP) - all in strong marriages, all fathers, all with stellar reputations for doing both personal and professional things the right way, even when the right way is the harder, less-advantageous way, could find it in themselves to
believe that young children were being sexually molested and raped... and then make a conscious, collective decision to allow it to go on, cover it up on their end and hope that the approx. 20 people (and growing) who already knew about it would also decide independently to not take any further steps... and have no regard for not only the victims and any future victims, but also for the consequences of taking that course of action (these are men, especially JVP, whose daily mantra was about being held accountable for your action and making a positive impact on your family, your school, and the larger community! They simply would not and could not push all that aside for something so horrible.) And all that without any one of them offering a differing opinion or raising serious concerns or 'opting out' or taking a stand due to their own conscience. (Even now, with ample opportunities to 'flip' on the others to save their own skin - take the easy way out - none of them have.)
The odds of these things happening both actively and within their own consciences with this specific group of men is staggering.
Not one thing that they had done in their lives had pointed to that even being something that would enter their minds. Based on the kind of people they were/are, none of them would be able to face their wives and children if they made such a decision, let alone the more public faces they would have to hear encounter and explain to. I happen to know Curley. I'd be surprised if someone told me he had once stolen a pack of gum, let alone make these kinds of conscious decisions without regard for his lifetime of making logical, deeply considered, decisions.
That is why I believe that their actions match what they were told at the time, and why any knowledge gained either in 2001 or 3 years prior about 1998 actually led some of them to be even more convinced that it was nothing more than JS's infamous boundary issues and that anything beyond that needed to be given over to TSM or other investigative agencies. Schultz did state that CYS (or DPW) was informed, if I recall. So, they told TSM and likely made a call - took the harder course of action vs. doing nothing - and put it in the hands of the pros to investigate for something more than what they were told at the time.
Nothing beyond that makes sense when I consider the overwhelmingly human aspects of their logical thinking and actions. Any evidence we have seen so far supports that human aspect very well.
Just my opinion. But it's personal to me, because I believe in those men and what they stood/stand for, and because I can so easily put myself in their places and so easily and completely understand why they did what they did, especially while being at least somewhat naive to what the extent of the mess was behind the scenes in the towers of power in SC and TSM and Hbg.
