10 August 2012

Institution Don't Get It

I've written previously about my horror at the revelations of systematic sexual abuse of students at the Horace Mann School in New York City.  My heart breaks for the victims.  My stomach retches at the response from the institution, Horace Mann School.

After two months of silence, save three empty letters from the Head Master, the Board of Trustees Chair wrote an entirely unsatisfying reply. All is in the past, he says. The past isn't the responsibility of the Board today. Are you kidding?!

Horace Mann School's Board of Trustees doesn't get it.

Once again, the leaders are the victims.  I don't know who they are, but a group of men and women who were sexually abused as children at Horace Mann School have come forward with unbelievable intelligence and grace.

Their general comment to the public:
The survivors of sexual abuse at the Horace Mann School welcome any and all initiatives that individuals are willing to undertake on our behalf. We ask that people who want to support us consult with us first, since we can help guide these initiatives to make sure they best support our needs. We note that no individual act can substitute for action by the school itself. We continue to ask that the Horace Mann School administration and Board of Trustees honor our request for an apology, compensation and an independent investigation.
That is a statement I can respect.  Steven Friedman's letter, crafted by the institution's PR firm and lawyers, doesn't garner respect.  It wreaks of institutional-ass-covering. (Please excuse my language. This is so very upsetting.)

Replying to the Horace Mann School Board of Trustees only formal response, the Survivors' Group, with it's usual aplomb.
The survivors of sexual abuse at the Horace Mann School welcome outreach by the Board of Trustees, although we are disappointed in the amount of time it took the Board to generate a response to our requests, which we first made on June 21, 2012.

While any gesture of outreach is positive, we are disappointed as well that this response does not address the requests we made in June and have repeated since: an apology from the institution, compensation for the survivors, and an independent investigation.

The investigation by the Bronx District Attorney’s office does not constitute an independent investigation according to established best practices. Nor does the NYPD investigation, also in progress. These investigations are not voluntary. The model for an independent investigation is the Freeh Report conducted by Penn State, which was voluntary, was funded by the school itself, and was not restricted by any constraints, such as the statute of limitations, on its ability to see its inquiry through to its conclusions. An independent investigation conducted by special outside counsel retained by the School for that purpose is especially appropriate and necessary in light of the facts that have come to light concerning the involvement of predecessor School Heads and Boards of Trustees in failing to respond to and/or suppressing reports of sexual abuse. These failures and suppressions would not necessarily be the subject of the DA’s or NYPD investigation.

We are disappointed as we have been in the past that the School and the Board choose to communicate in detail with the community as a whole before communicating in any substantive way with us.

We continue to assert our requests, and hope that a fully satisfactory response will be forthcoming from the School and the Board in future.
My admiration for the Survivors' Group, their strength,  their eloquence, their dignity, is great. In this situation, healing should be lead by the institution in which criminal abuse took place.  In their absence, who leads the cause? The same children who were victimized.

To the Survivors' Group: You have my admiration, my respect, my thanks.

David Rakoff: You Will Be Missed

So sad to learn of the death of essayist, David Rakoff.

Neurotic, funny, observant, warm. I imagine I knew him.  I always bring the audio version of one of his books when I travel anywhere I might be stuck somewhere uncomfortable for a long time. Just listening to his voice reading his essays, makes almost everything okay.

To his family and friends: thanks for encouraging him to share his thoughts with the world.


David Rakoff, Mordantly Comic Essayist and Actor, Dies at 47. New York Times, 10 Aug 2012, bu Margalit Fox.

David Rakoff, a Storyteller Who Laughed at the World and Himself. New York Times, 10 Aug 2012, bu Dave Itzkoff.

17 July 2012

ESPN Commentator Steven A. Smith: My Newest Hero

The newsy part of this video is nothing special, but the discussion by ESPN commentators - particularly Steven A. Smith, my newest hero - should be viewed.

[I can’t say I feel the same respect for other ESPN voices.]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:8170187&startTime=00:16

Letter from More than 100 Horace Mann Alumni: Sent to the New York Times today



17 July 2012

The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

To the editor:

In private communication with more than two thousand Horace Mann School alumni, we have learned of many more instances of sexual abuse by past teachers. We are shocked by their sheer brutality and number. The school has not acknowledged the truth of the abuses, but we can. We call for an independent, thorough investigation.

We have urged the school to apologize to our classmates who were abused and we are appalled that those school trustees who were aware of abuses at the time and ignored them, as recorded in the New York Times, have not resigned. We have demanded their removal.

Justice and healing can begin with accountability, transparency and truth.

[This letter was signed by Horace Mann alumni from the classes of 1959 through 2007. View the list of names here.]

12 July 2012

Freeh Report re: Sandusky & Penn State

The Freeh report is out and I applaud Penn State Trustees for releasing it to the public.  That's more like transparency, particularly as the report is quite critical of the Board.

Speaking of Boards of Trustees, transparency and childhood sexual abuse ...

How about the Board of Trustees of the Horace Mann School?

It is always good to learn from one's mistakes and from those of others.  Here is an excellent lesson for Horace Mann's Trustees:  
In 1998 and 2001, the Board of Trustees failed to exercise its oversight and reasonable inquiry procedures.

After the Sandusky investigation became publicly known in late March 2011, the Board did not independently assess this information or further inquire, up to and including the May 12, 2011 Board meeting.
Today, a group of more than 20 survivors of sexual abuse at Horace Mann published their second letter to that school's Trustees.  Their first letter of June 21st received no response.


    To: Board of Trustees of the Horace Mann School

           Don't make the same mistakes.


From the Freeh Report: Key Findings re: Penn State's Board of Trustees