Community Of Jesus Subject Of Child Labor, Trafficking Suit

 ORLEANS – A federal lawsuit filed last month against the Community of Jesus and two other local nonprofits alleges that the community resorted to unpaid child labor and trafficking in building its performing arts center. 

 The Community of Jesus, Arts Empowering Life, Inc., and Performing Arts Building Foundation, Inc., are listed as defendants in the complaint, which was filed July 17 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

 The plaintiff, Oliver Ortolani, is one of a number of boys that were “subject to forced labor and trafficking” through their role in helping build the community’s performing arts center, it’s alleged in the complaint.

 “During their time constructing the Center, Ortolani and the other children had no way of refusing to perform the intense manual labor that Defendants demanded,” according to the complaint. “The worksite was in the middle of a forest, encircled by barbed-wire fences and a locked gate that the boys could not unlock.”

 The complaint further alleges that adults supervising the work had children up earlier than 5 a.m., “gave them 10 minutes for breakfast” and had them working “nine to 16 hours a day without proper safety gear, training or breaks.” It is also alleged that child workers were “assaulted” or “shunned by the Community” if they complained or showed “even mild frustration with the harsh regime.” 

 Children also were allegedly kept out of school under the pretense that the work on the center constituted “educational coursework,” according to the complaint. Community members also hid children from government inspectors when they visited the project worksite, the complaint alleges.

 Jeff Robbins, the attorney representing the Community of Jesus, called the complaint "frivolous" when reached by phone Friday, noting that Ortolani’s parents were both directly involved in the center’s construction. Robbins said Ortolani’s father was a principal foreman on the project, while his mother was involved in overseeing several facets of the project, including the volunteer labor.

 “The mother, who was the person who helped directly manage the project, whose name is on every document managing the project, managing the volunteers, signed waivers not only on her behalf but on behalf of her son stipulating that they understood that this was voluntary, that they wanted their son to do it,” he said.

 Robbins said the mother, identified in the waivers as Ellen Ortolani, also signed similar waivers for her two other children that also worked on the project.