Sad story on Miss Hall’s school in Vanity Fair today.
Edited to add: just adding a trigger warning that this story includes graphic details of sexual and emotional abuse.
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As an early 90s BS alumna, I’m sad to say I know far too many stories that sound just like this one. Some have made it to the national press; most have not.
Just one of the many reasons why I’m so relieved my daughters had no interest in boarding school.
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Just pointing out that abuse happens everywhere, not unique to boarding schools. Plenty of scandal at non-boarding institutions as well.
Does anyone have a gift link to the article as it’s behind a paywall?
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Sorry ChoatieMom, I was able to read it without signing in or being a subscriber so I didn’t realize it would be behind a paywall for some.
I was able to read it too.
Incredibly sad. Wow. Very well written and engaging. What a sad story.
You’re absolutely right, of course.
My daughter’s large public high school district recently settled a significant and large multi-year case involving a sexual predator athletic coach who was (at first) defended and protected by fellow teachers and the parents of kids he coached. The abuse occurred over a decade ago, but you are sadly correct that no environment is immune.
Having kids at home, I’d like to think, gives a parent more opportunity to see or sense of anything like this might be going on, but the truth is it can - and does - happen everywhere.
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Agree, can happen anywhere for sure.
I will also say public schools do have, IME, more procedures, safeguards, unions and rules. This has its pros and cons, but IME (I know many people who work at prep schools and BS), BS is a lot more fuzzy. Heads of school have a lot of discretion and authority and only accountability to cops, and their board (who is usually pretty physically and operationally removed).Hiring and firing is often at the whim of the head, etc. This is different operational dynamic.
I am not arguing anything is more or less likely at BS (I don’t have data to support) but as an adult, I found some things I found out about a few BS behind scene very offputting as a parent. (I attended a BS and looking back I am completely floored what they allowed in 90s, and what their priorities were ,etc as admins).
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The only thing is, now boarding schools are hyper-aware of boundaries and any remotely inappropriate behavior.
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Other than the unions, I don’t think one can say that BS has fewer of these than the LPS. And one could argue they have more - at least now. Decades ago, that may have been a different conversation.
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Not my experience (even from what I hear recently from peer parents and people who work at some) but they are ALL different. That is true.
Do you have relatives or close friends (won’t say which, it is a small world) that have worked at both in last 10 years at same time? I have. Note, I agree there are a lot of schools and they may all be very different. I only have insights to a couple, they definitely could be outliers.
I do*; and the schools I am familiar with are incredibly careful about ANYTHING that could be remotely considered inappropriate. Possibly because the school is still feeling the reverbations of teacher sex abuse from the 1980’s and early '90’s.
*ETA At boarding schools, not public schools.
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I am not talking (only) about that.
I won’t list schools but in 10s I know of teacher/student relations brushed under rug (despsite cops being involved) at a BS.
The big difference with BS and public is incentives of leadership - who they need to make happy – A few rich donors or the general public? Anyone who thinks it works otherwise at some schools is naive IMO/IME.
Heads have a lot of discretion to make exceptions, ignore rules, etc.
Boards aren’t subject to same public disclosure rules as a school board, etc.
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Sure, I guess they could, but the risks, nowadays, of sweeping something under the rug are enormous. Any cover up, if discovered, would immediately end the career of any Head of School and severely damage the school itself. Are some Heads and Boards so clueless? I guess it’s possible but not at boarding schools that have their act together.
And, insurers (facing tens of millions in potential litigation costs) require training and procedures, even if a Head of School isn’t focused on the issue.
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A crime is typically the work of an individual bad actor. Horrendous. A cover up is a damning failure of culture straight to the top.
Both are awful, but they indicate different issues and should be scrutinized accordingly.
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I don’t disagree.
I think BS and prep schools are super insular in many cases though and a lot of more back scratching IMO than public schools can have. When board members have students and are alums and big donors and personal friends etc, they look other way…
Also, as noted I have weird insight due to a known person that worked both at LPS and BS (at same time) and safety rules were WILDLY different. (this was in 2010s). They wouldn’t have sent a kid to the BS because of it.
note, I would not say I would never send a kid to BS. I would, but I would do a TON of due diligence and try to get behind scenes info on actual rules and procedures and the heads relation with the board, etc, who is on the board, and what their policies and procedures are, etc.
Fwiw, I think that the roles of, and expectations for, adults in a residential community are vastly different so while the goals of the rules are the same, the rules themselves need to reflect that difference.
A teacher at an LPS would not host a pajama party in a dorm nor sit with a student in the hospital. An adult in a BS might do both. Still with the same expectations of propriety, but the “rules” would need to provide for that.
A cover-up or denial at any school is wrong. Also note that these situations are difficult to investigate.
I’m so sorry for the girls impacted in this situation, and I hope that whenever situations like this come to light, it provides both healing and a path to doing brtter.
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Yup, yup, and yup.
I am gobsmacked when I look back on my time at a GLADCHEMM in the 90s. Some of the teachers that we all knew were just off, were indeed proven to be waaaaaay off (criminally so), in stories that broke in the nat’l news. We all had gut feelings about certain teachers and relationships, and about who knew what. The Ms. Hall article reminded me very much of a specific situation at my school back then. Everyone knew he was doing it, but he was the eccentric mad professor par excellence and he was celebrated for that eccentricity even though it made everyone uncomfortable.
Many boarding schools have long histories with these eccentric-type characters - who often live on campus in residential settings in a supervisory/parental role. That level of access is a big distinction with LPS.
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I forgot this thread existed until the posts started up again. This was in the news last month