Elite New York School Apologizes for Decades of Abuse but won't Launch an Investigation or Name Names
- Horace Mann, the elite Bronx private school issues a public apology to its victims
- Board members who served when abuses were reported have been removed
- Victims say school leaders knew about the abuse but failed to stop it
- 10-month investigation identified at least 12 possible abusers but can't prosecute
- Settlements made with 27 of the 32 victims totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars
By AP/Daily Mail UK, May 2013
The Horace Mann School, one of New York City's most prestigious private schools, has apologized for more than three decades of sexual abuse perpetrated by some of its teachers and administrators, according to a letter posted on its website on Friday.
'We sincerely apologize for the harm that was caused by the teachers and administrators who abused anyone during their years at Horace Mann School,' wrote Board Chairman Steven Friedman and Head of School Thomas Kelly in the three-page letter. 'These unconscionable betrayals of trust never should have happened.'
The Bronx district attorney's office and the New York Police Department launched an investigation into allegations of abuse at the school after a New York Times Magazine article last summer that said the academy was plagued by teachers who sexually abused children in the 1970s.
Horace Mann: The school made a public apology for decades of sexual abuse
Public letter: The school has been heavily criticized for its near silence on the issue up to now
Friday's letter apologizes for abuse by former teachers and administrators between 1962 and 1996.
In March, Horace Mann reached settlements 'worth hundreds of thousands of dollars' with around 27 alumni who said they were abused, though the school didn't comment on the payouts at the time.
In April, prosecutors said that while there was a systemic pattern of suspected sexual abuse at the Bronx school, however,
those people could not be prosecuted because the statue of limitations on the crimes has passed.
In the letter Friday, Friedman and Kelly said the school had hired a private mediation firm which presented the board of trustees with impact statements from 31 individuals who described their abuse. They said settlements have been reached with 'the great majority' of those individuals.
The apology will hopefully grant some solace to the hundreds of former students who, prompted by the initial Times story, came forward online and elsewhere in the press to share their own disturbing tales of abuse.
Out of court: The school has reached settlements with roughly 27 of the 32 victims worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
The letter promised to effectively remove board of trustee members who served when the allegations were ignored and announced the creation of a new student safety policy and advisory board.
Still, it did not offer one of the victims' chief demands: an independent inquiry into the over 30-year period of abuse.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who says she represents 22 men and three women who said they were victims of crimes including anal and vaginal rape by more than a dozen teachers and administrators, last month asked for an 'independent and transparent' probe.
The scandal was disclosed in a June 2012 New York Times Magazine article written by a former Horace Mann student..