On April 23rd 2013 Horace Mann alumnus Joseph L. Cumming released the following statement about his abuse while a student at the Horace Mann School.
Horace Mann Survivor
A site by and for Horace Mann abuse survivors
On April 23rd 2013 Horace Mann alumnus Joseph L. Cumming released the following statement about his abuse while a student at the Horace Mann School.
The trustees have taken a hard line against the abuse survivors–it seems that many have resigned over the relatively small payouts to the survivors. The ones left I assume to be the hard-liners–the ones who want it all to go away–the ones who do not want to look any further into the situation with an independent investigation. In this way, Horace Mann is morally inferior to Penn State, which did (after some debate) hire Judge Freeh, former director of the FBI, to make a thorough report.
If I were in the position of the HM survivors, I do not know what I would do. The Trustees of HM are like the Nazis who minimized the Holocaust, and claimed “not to know anything.”
Thank you, Michael Katz, for your good question. I believe that the Administrator should report the allegation confidentially to the authorities and to the Head of School, who should report it to the Board. The Head of School should arrange a discreet but objective investigation. If the Head of School or his/her friends or family are personally implicated in the allegation, then the investigation should be independent, and the report to the Board should be able to bypass the Head of School.
It is true that sometimes children do make false allegations of sexual abuse, but it extremely rare. I have read a statistic that approximately 1 allegation in 50 turns out to be false. The overwhelming majority of people who come forward to report sexual abuse are telling the truth.
As per Mr. Katz—–The Administration or Trustee should put the safety of students first.
And shouldn’t that be “he said-he said” situation?
What should an Administrator or Trustee do when faced with a “he said-she said” situation?