June 11, 2012
I have to admit – I was very surprised. Just like most of you, I’ve read the stories about Catholic priests and child sexual abuse. I knew there were so many cases of abuse and coverup by Catholic clergy that the lawsuits led to bankruptcy filings by a number of Archdiocese. Like many people, I was initially shocked but upon learning all the gruesome facts, but eventually came to terms with the understanding that Catholic priests regularly preyed on schoolchildren in sexual assaults. It became part of my world view that Catholic priests carry on a history of inappropriate behaviors with children and thought it was a secret part of that culture.
Suddenly, this weekend, I read about the elite private prep school Horace Mann in New York, a school recently named second in a Forbes list of top prep schools in the country and regularly named in the top ten. It turns out that in this school for the privileged, multiple teachers engaged in sexual behaviors with numerous students, everyone keeping the incidents quiet for years. At least three teachers and coaches have been identified as engaging in the molestation from 1978 until 1994.
Reportedly, the school dealt with the incidents very discreetly, in two cases letting the teachers go though without any warning to other schools to which they thereafter moved, and in one allowing a teacher to remain. The school is accused of failing to report the molestation to police or to parents.
My world view has changed. Yes, I’ve heard the Sandusky story and the other stories of molestation in the Boy Scouts, public schools, and other institutions where adults have access to children. However, this one is different.
I genuinely thought that elite schools to which admission is highly selective rose above the others. I believed they were places where children were protected, kept safe, nurtured, taught by the highest quality of educators. I thought they were places in which we all aspire to educate our families.
I’ve learned that my view was idealistic – and that child abuse reaches the most apparently golden of places.
This story was the subject of a recent New York Times cover article and has led to widespread press coverage and commentary by victims who have come forward to share their stories. Here is an interview with an alumnus who wrote the recent New York Times story: Behind the Cover Story: Amos Kamil on Sexual Abuse at Horace Mann