O P I N I O N

THE SOAPBOX

Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.

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I was a child in the custody of the state of New Hampshire when the abuse began. The people who were paid to protect me did the opposite, and for decades the state looked the other way. I carried that alone for years. No acknowledgement, no accountability, and no voice. 

When I finally had the chance to come forward through the YDC settlement fund, I did. Going through the settlement process with Judge John Broderick as claims administrator changed something for me. For the first time, what happened to me was taken seriously by someone with real authority who wasn’t looking to minimize or dismiss what I’d been through. The process wasn’t easy, but Judge Broderick treated it with the independence and gravity it deserved. 

That settlement was life-changing — not because of a dollar amount, but because it gave me back something I thought was gone forever: a voice. For so many years, the state took that from me. The settlement was an acknowledgment that what happened to me was real, that it mattered, and that I deserved to be heard. 

Last summer, the state changed the rules, transforming what had been, in my view, a fair and impartial process into one I believe is now subject to political interference. The changes — making the fund administrator a political appointee answerable to the governor, and giving the Attorney General veto power over settlement offers — feel to me like a betrayal of abuse survivors. Shortly after, Judge Broderick left his role as claims administrator, citing the governor’s abrupt changes: 

“What will happen now is the governor, under the statute, will get to appoint an at-will administrator, who she can remove for any reason or no reason at any time, to hear these cases,” Broderick said. “Unlike the job I held, where I had authority to make decisions, the new administrator will only have the authority if the attorney general’s office — the lawyer for the defendant, the state — approves.” 

Victims came forward because we were promised independence. We gave up our rights to go to court because we believed the process was protected from this kind of intervention. After years of waiting, it’s well past time for the survivors in the settlement fund to have their chance to be heard without influence from politicians. 

A lawsuit challenging the sweeping changes is on appeal, and proposed legislation would undo them. But in the meantime, by published accounts, the fund is severely underfunded, with claims in limbo and no concrete plan to restore it to a level that gives survivors confidence their awards will be paid. 

As Judge Gerard Boyle assumes his new role as claims administrator overseeing the settlement fund, I can only hope he will be the fair and balanced voice this process demands. The survivors who have come forward are not abstractions. We are real people who endured real horrors, and we took a leap of faith that the system would finally treat us with dignity. This process deserves an administrator who will evaluate claims on the merits, stand up for the integrity of what was negotiated in good faith, and advocate for adequate funding so that every survivor receives what they were promised. 

The state created this fund because what happened at YDC was indefensible. The state negotiated these terms because it wanted survivors to trust the process. I spent too long feeling like what happened to me didn’t matter to anyone in power. The settlement process gave me a small piece of myself back. I don’t want other survivors to lose that chance — to be heard, and to recover a small piece of themselves. 

Nothing can right the wrongs of the past, but New Hampshire faces a pivotal choice: give abuse survivors a chance to restore their hope and dignity through a fair and impartial settlement fund process, or fail us again. 

Michaela Jancsy is a YDC abuse survivor who lives in Rochester. 

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