Nearly a year has passed since the New York Times described how our trusted mentors at Horace Mann sexually abused us over a period of decades. In June 2012 Downloadable PDF of this letter
Third Survivors’ Letter
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Tag Archives: Accountability
A Message from Joan Bowen
Retired Horace Mann math teacher and administrator Joan Bowen, who was much loved by many students, wrote the following email to Joseph Cumming of the Survivors’ Group. She gave us permission to post her email both here and in the HM-related Facebook groups.
Dear Joseph,
As I have mentioned before, I do not know how to use Facebook. When I try to post a comment it does not show up and when I think I am sending an individual e mail it appears on the whole site. I am concerned that some alums are disquieted by the silence of teachers.
My feelings are strong on the abuse subject The few retired faculty with whom I am in contact share my views. The others may dislike Facebook as I do. Alums should not assume a lack of support for the victims or support for the School’s silence on the matter from their silence on Facebook. How could anyone not be outraged by the deeds of evil teachers and the ensuing cover-ups?
I am ashamed that the institution at which I taught for some 34 years has maintained silence on the subject and not led the way in investigating what happened, apologizing not only to the abused but also to the rest of the school community, and providing help to those who have suffered. One of my great concerns is that the current sex abuse education given to students does not stress the fact that pedophiles make their prey feel “special” and that it all has to be kept “secret”. Teenagers generally do not like to confide in their parents; this is part of growing up. I cherish my memories of Horace Mann. The students who were so bright and eager to learn, and the faculty who inspired them made the place a really great school. No student ever came to me to report abuse and I never heard of cover-ups in all those years. Every day I expect an announcement of investigation, acknowledgment, apology, and assistance to those abused by employees of Horace Mann. But none has been forthcoming. I hope the Board will soon take action.
You may post any, all, or none of the above as you see fit. Bless you for all your good work.
Joan
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 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 |
Horace Mann Alum Rob Hollander’s Letter to the New York Times
To the editor:
In private communication with over 2000 Horace Mann School alumni, we have learned of several instances of sexual abuse perpetrated by past faculty against students, some more egregious than those which have already been published. We are appalled that the school administration has failed to reach out to our classmates who were sexually abused. Our demands for an apology on behalf of those classmates have been met with silence. We are also appalled that those school Trustees who were aware of those abuses at the time and ignored them have not resigned from the Board. We have demanded that they be removed.
Justice, accountability and healing cannot be complete without these first steps.
[signed by ?# of Horace Mann alumni listed alphabetically]
In his message to us, Rob writes:
I am gathering signatures for the letter below intended for the New York Times. If you wish to sign, please email me at indicating your desire to have your name included.
I intend to list the signatures in alphabetical order including non survivor alumni and survivors alike. I do not need a great many signatures, but I don’t wish to exclude anyone. Alternatively, the signatures can be compiled and submitted by other means — a webpage or by some other person. In any case, I would like to get this moving quickly, since newspapers do not print letters that are no longer timely.
(I’ve kept it short to increase the likelihood of getting it published.) Thanks to Christina Propst for her wise emendations.