17 July 2012
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018To 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 is signed below by one hundred Horace Mann alumni from the classes of 1959 through 2007] | |
| David Ambaras ’79 Andrew M Ansorge ’70 Mary Louise Cannon Apadula ’79 Abigail Aronson ’87 Kate Aurthur, ’87 Ed Beck ’64 Stephen Beer ’79 Sarah Birnbaum, ’87 Peter Blum ’70 Gordon Bock ’72 Alexander N. Bossy ’83 Clifford Brody ’75 Peter Brooks ’66 Allan Burke ’67 Jeremy Burns ’93 David Buskin, ’61 Herb Callender ’76 Nicholas V. Chen ’75 Charles Chessler ’79 Alex Citron ’71 Elizabeth B. Cooper ’79 Fosca D’Acierno ’88 Julie Shmalo Datnow ’87 Sara Rosenfeld Dassel ’85 Rachel Dickstein 88 Betsy Drapkin Michelle Dumitriu ’95 Clare Dooley 85 Arthur Drooker ’72 Skylar R.H. Fein ’86 Martin Fenton ’72 Carole Kline Feuer ’79 Stephen L. Fife ’71 Mark Finkel ‘72 Eric R. Finkelman ’75. Hal Fischer ’68 Margaret L. Frank ’78 Jessica Fridman ’91 Kate Geis ’87 Geoffrey H. Genth ’82 Patrick Gibson of 78 Jessica Gould jeremy szold ginzberg ’69 Robin Gise ’90 Vicki Lan Goldstone ’90. Laurie Gordon MD ’87 Peter Greer ’71 Lisa Grossman ’92 Debbie Gruber ’87 David Gutterman ’84 John Haber ’72 Ele Hamburger ’83 Dean Harris ’68 Albert Herskovits Jonathan Himoff ’81 Lance Hoffman ’75 Rob Hollander ’72 |
Elizabeth Leef Jacobson ’79 Jen Kaminsky ’95 Sam Kanter ’64 Gerard Kiernan ’85 Kim Dooley Kittay ’87 Jay Kooper ’91 LarryKurzner ’79 Edward Lay ’78 Marc Lerner ’89 Merrill Lewen ’80 Rebecca Linden ’85 Chris Macri ’89 Joshua Malina ’84. Gregory Mishkin ’88 Michael S Mishkin ’59 Erica Modugno ’89 Jodi Nass ’78 catherine newman ’83 Robert Nisonoff ’82 Mariana Olenko ’85 Peter M. Oppenheimer, Ph.D. ’75 Cari Lewis-Osborne ’88 Joseph R. Osborne’88 Michelle Packles ’90 Kirsten Paige ’07 Jamie Parish ’79 Peter Park ’89 Elizabeth Slaybaugh Picard ’85 Alison Pollet ’86 Dean Preston ’87 Christina Propst ’87 Gita Rebbapragada, ’95 Narasu Rebbapragada ’89 Umaa Rebbapragada ’93 Michael Rosen ’79 Charlotte Rosenberg ’83 Debby Rovine ’87 Josh Russell ’75 Marina Rustow ’86 Joanna Samuels ’88 Shira Sanders ’81 Suzanne Schecter ’80 Mitch Schonfeld ’73 Allison Schultz ’84 Rachel Schwartz ’87 Tom Seidner ’70 Jen Slaybaugh ’88 Mark Allen Smith ’68 Gustavus Stadler ’84 Natasha Steinhardt ’90 James Strickler ’66 Alice Swenson, ’89 Alexander Turoff ’84 David Vogel ’73 Raphael Winick, ’84 Sophia Ahsen Wolf ’85 Jennifer Berman Yoken ’89 |
I am so sorry about what happened to him. I was abused in 1970. my dad graduated in 1940 and this opened up a can of worms, as I am sitting here at this moment trying to support a 15 year old whose dad died of cancer tonight, What a fallen state of affairs, So sorry for him and your family.
My father, named above, born nyc 1910, graduated from HM early, probably ca. 1925 or 1926. (He was particularly brilliant, and ultimately was not allowed to matriculate at Columbia U. until a year later.)
He was sexually abused at HM and this so warped his personality and personal relations that he was never able to function normally as husband or father, and suffered several breakdowns during his otherwise distinguished career as professor of medieval French literature and civilization.
I want to contact other alumni contemporaries of my father, if any still are alive and willing and able to talk with me.
Thank you very much.,
Mary Misrahi Rancatore
Newburyport, MA
Ms. Rancatore,
I’m so sorry to hear this. Until receiving your note above, the earliest solid reports I had heard of abuse at HM were from the 1950’s. But I will pass this on to others so see whether anyone else has any information.
Peace,
Joseph Cumming ’77
on behalf of HoraceMannSurvivor.org
I support this letter. Please add my name to the signatories. Thank you!
I’m sorry that I missed signing on to this letter, but I’ve been in the process of selling my house and moving …
Count me among the people who have signed ex-post facto.
— ESG
just cuz i cant be bothered w space bar doesnt mean i wanted my name in lower case.
Jeremy, I’m afraid that was an oversight. Please forgive me/us.
— Marg