Chris Davey just updated his LinkedIn profile to inform his rabid followers (or am I the only one?) that he is now Chief Strategist for Publicis.Sapient. Which sent me on a search for related news...which is when i uncovered the man himself in a company video...
NORTHAMPTON -- When business owners and community members talk about downtown's empty storefronts, one person's name comes up more than any other.
Eric Suher owns six of the 14 vacant spots on Main Street and the core roads that connect to it, city assessor's records show -- the most prominent of which is the former space of Spoleto at 15 Main St.
For many, the popular Italian restaurant's 4,000-square-foot location, with its faded burnt-orange awning and the Iron Horse Entertainment Group fliers in the windows, has become synonymous with Suher's perceived neglect of his downtown Northampton properties. It has been empty for nearly four years.
Contrary to rumor, Suher maintains, the space isn't vacant because the rent is too high.
"If I feel like someone is going to be great for the town, rent is secondary," Suher said in an interview with MassLive, adding that two "fairly substantial restaurant groups" are considering the property.
Suher said he's been waiting for the right tenants to fill the space. There's been a lot of interest in the property, he said, but from "unqualified retailers."
He said he won't consider tenants who don't have enough financial backing to "weather the ups and downs of the retailer-restaurant cycle."
"I don't think Northampton needs any more nail salons, tattoo parlors, tie-dye or T-shirt shops," he added. "I don't think adding more of these certain stores, just for the sake of filling the vacancies, is what's best for the city."
The Holyoke businessman said he's toyed with the idea of splitting the former Spoleto space in half, as it is so much larger than the typical storefront on Main and Pleasant streets.
"Every time we look at that, someone comes along who seems like a promising fit," he said.
Suher has three vacant properties on Center Street, two of which -- numbers 21 and 24 -- he says he expects to fill by the fall; A building he owns at 47 Center St. is also vacant.
Northampton pedestrians share thoughts on empty storefrontsWhen a few retailers left the city's core in late 2015 and early this year, residents and visitors alike began to question the financial well-being of this 28,000-person community that has made a name for itself as the Pioneer Valley's pillar of arts, culture and food.
He has come under fire for holding onto liquor licenses for properties that have sat vacant for years, including those for the former First Baptist church at 298 Main St. and the Green Room at 26-28 Center St., which opened in the fall of 2014.
The Northampton License Commission stripped him of his Green Room license in summer 2014, expressing unhappiness with the progress of the then-unopened bar and church projects. But Suher opened the cocktail lounge soon after, and transferred his license there from the Baptist church.
There are about 38 liquor licenses in Northampton. But because the city has reached the quota set by the stated Alcohol Beverage Control Commission, bar and restaurant owners have to wait for one to become available.
Suher said the 15,000-square-foot Baptist church site, which is slated to become an event venue, should be completed by the end of 2016.
Suher also owns the Pleasant Street building that houses Diva's Nightclub -- which announced last week that it will close in the fall -- as well as several local music venues including the Calvin Theatre, Pearl Street Nightclub, the Basement and Iron Horse.
When a few businesses left Northampton's core in late 2015 and early this year, residents and visitors alike began to question the financial well-being of this 28,000-person community that has made a name for itself as a pillar of arts, culture and food.
Pat Goggins of Goggins Real Estate, which represents many downtown spaces, said Suher is, in many ways, an asset to the community.
"Most downtowns would be happy to have someone such as him, who is as active a participant in owning properties over the years," he said. "As a practical matter, it's real green dollars he's spent."
But, Goggins said in a general statement on downtown Northampton businesses, "It's just not good to have vacant buildings."
Hank Ross, a local realtor, has a differing opinion. He explained that a storefront that sits vacant has a perceived rent potential, one that assessors base a property value on. But if a landlord lowers rent to fill a space as quickly as possible, the building's value will likely decrease.
"If everyone drops rent prices, the whole value of the downtown will go down," Ross said. "It's a downward spiral."
Members of the Northampton Arts Council, the Downtown Northampton Association and the Chamber of Commerce are looking at ways to make vacant spaces available for pop-up cultural exhibits.
Northampton has already home to such a pop-up: "Play Like A Girl," a multimedia perspective on musician and Institute For the Musical Arts founder June Millington, was displayed in the former Hempest storefront in February.
Suher said he's not opposed to potentially lending his empty properties to the arts community, but added that many of his spaces are undergoing renovations and it's "not so easy to show sites when there's full art installations inside of them."
Guerra said he is galled by how long the former Spoleto spot has remained empty.
"If I were a landlord of a nice piece of property downtown that's empty, I would lower my price to a point where I would get somebody in there," he said. "If the price isn't something I can live with in the long run, I'd give a short-term lease."
"Some of these buildings that have been sitting empty for this long, it's almost criminal," Guerra later added.
Guerra moved from the 15 Main St. spot to 1 Bridge in 2012. He said his mortgage for the new building is less than what his rent was at the former.
Adam Dunetz, owner of Green Bean and the Roost said "some really prime, beautiful locations are decaying visually and spiritually" in Northampton.
"Spaces that once felt vibrant and were part of Northampton's rich character are sitting vacant for years," he said. "It's very disheartening."
Suher said it's easy to point fingers at his choice to keep some buildings empty.
"As the building owner, I'm the most qualified to make that decision for the long haul," he said.
What is the best way to choose a college? And what do we know about the connection between what matters in college and who succeeds in the job market? And more importantly, how does the choice of a college lead to a more fulfilling life?
Let's start with some observations on trends in the college search process.
Selecting a college has become a family decision. For most families today, choosing a college is considered among the most important decisions they will make. Parents often are involved in every phase of the process.
Families are searching for value. For parents, this often will be one of the biggest expenses they will have, along with the purchase of a home. Parents also are looking at a rapidly changing job market and believe this decision will impact their child's earning potential (and, hence, everything else) for the rest of their lives. Parents are trying to figure out what they can afford and what will open up the most doors for their children.
The college search process often is being driven by anxiety, which can lead to panic. Anxiety comes from the lack of information about admissions (can my son or daughter get in?), and value (what will it cost, and what will it do for my child?). That panic is leading to a lot of pressure early in high school to focus on the search process. And during senior year, it can increase to a level that is both unwarranted and unhealthy.
Let me suggest a different way of thinking.
There are more than 4,000 colleges in this country, and there are, at the very least, 1,000 colleges where students can get a great education and go on to do great things with their lives.
Rather than starting by asking about value--which often leads to unwarranted anxiety, the wrong questions guiding the process, and bad choices--start by asking about fit.
What does that mean? It means asking questions that help you to determine which college will meet the needs of a particular student.
In his recent book, Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni argues that our anxieties allow the college search process to be driven by an industry composed of test prep companies, tutors, and numerous and conflicting rankings. Among his best pieces of advice is simply that college is less about where you go, and more about doing the right things once you are there. He dedicates his book as follows:
"To all of the high school kids in this country who are dreading the crossroads of college admissions and to all the young adults who felt ravaged by it. We owe you and the whole country a better, more constructive way."
So what do we know about what matters in college? In How College Works, Dan Chambliss and Christopher Takacs argue that students benefit most from going to a college where they quickly form friendships with peers and develop a close mentoring relationship with a faculty member. Students who go to a college where relationships don't form quickly and don't sustain and deepen over time, get very little out of college. The authors write:
"Without the motivating presence of friends, teachers, and mentors even the best-designed, potentially most valuable academic programs will fail. So students who want to both enjoy college and get the most from it in the long run must find at least a few good friends, and a couple of great teachers. A great mentor--a trusted adult advisor, if one can be found, adds a tremendous advantage."
Chambliss and Takacs are picking up on two central points. The first is the critical importance of mentorship (which I will come back to). The second is a point made by Andrew Delbanco in his book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, about what he calls "lateral learning." The simple idea is that students learn a lot from one another. So it is important to go to a school with motivated students who bring a diversity of views, experiences, and life perspectives. And it is important that students take advantage of it. Relationships form the core of the college experience.
The Gallup Organization and Purdue University have done extensive research to create The Gallup-Purdue Index, which measures what matters in college. Two important findings are clear:
Faculty mentorship is crucial. Students who have a great mentor have double the odds of thriving personally and professionally. In other words, having a faculty member who cares, who connects with you and catalyzes you, is the key to academic engagement. This is profoundly important and happens far less often then it should. The Gallup research suggests that as few as 14 percent of all graduates have that experience. Simply put, it makes no sense to go to college if you are not going to become academically engaged.
The second part is getting involved in a co-curricular activity. Students who had experiences such as a job/internship, long-term school project, and/or were extremely involved in co-curricular activity had double the odds of being successful. Yet, sadly, only 6 percent of graduates had this kind of college experience.
Notice I did not say a dozen co-curricular activities, which is one of the many bad habits we are encouraging in high school students in preparation for the college admissions process. Students are better off doing one or two things really well, especially in college. Bring a passion, and find a passion.
The question is, how do you find a college where your son or daughter is likely to become immersed quickly, develop a close mentoring relationship with a faculty member, and get involved in sustained co-curricular activities that allow them to find good friends and develop strong life skills?
First, prospective students and families need to start with some self-reflection. Spend less time focused on finding the right college, for that is the easier part, and spend more time up front reflecting on your son or daughter and where they are in their own personal development.
Second, know your family finances and understand how much colleges really cost. The sticker price, meaning the listed tuition, is not helpful. Here is what you need to know:
How many years does it take the average student to graduate? At Denison, like most private colleges, it is four years. At some public universities, it often takes five or even six years (hence, an extra year or two of tuition).
You also need to understand the discount rate, which is the average percent of tuition students receive in financial aid. For example, at Denison tuition is listed at $46,250, but we have an $800 million endowment and use our resources to invest heavily in our students. Our 59 percent discount rate means the average student pays less than half of the listed tuition.
And you need to know if the financial aid is for need or merit. Need-based aid will generally be given to families with a household income of less than $150,000. Merit aid is awarded without regard for income; it is based on a student's profile, GPA, and other special attributes.
In other words, when you are visiting colleges, ask questions not about the list price, but what families with students like yours actually pay.
Third, find a place that matches your son's or daughter's interests. One of the mistakes prospective families make is selecting a college because of very small differences in price. Fit is most important. It does not make sense to go to a college that is slightly cheaper if the fit is not right. A number of studies have been done on student debt. My own view is that debt of less than $30,000 after four years (which is about the price of a car) does not negatively impact a student. It is worth it to get an education that is the right one for an individual student.
If your son or daughter plays a sport or has a passion for an artistic endeavor, choose a college where he or she will be able to pursue that passion. Don't go someplace where they only will be able to watch others perform. Choose a college where they will be likely to make the team, be cast in a play, join a music ensemble, and have a chance to pursue their passion.
This is also true for students who want to major in the sciences. So much of the value of undergraduate work in the sciences comes from hands-on research. Choose a college where undergraduates get to conduct their own research and where it is built into courses. Be wary of places where graduate students replace professors in classrooms and knock undergraduates out of the labs.
Fourth, the college tour matters. Visit a range of different kinds of colleges. Try not to be strident with your views. Ask your son or daughter questions, as opposed to offering observations. Where do they feel comfortable?
Ask an admissions counselor about the size of the endowment per student. Endowment translates into the financial resources a college can spend on providing student experiences. On the tour, ask about the mood on campus. You want to be someplace where faculty, staff and students are proud of the college. And get off the beaten path by going to the student union and asking students for their views on their experiences. Finally, once you get accepted, go back to campus if at all possible and take advantage of April visit days. Let your son or daughter spend the night at their top two or three colleges, and tell them to go with their gut.
Focus on your son or daughter. Encourage him or her to reflect on the type of college that will create the kind of experience outlined by Chambliss and the Gallup-Purdue Index, a place where they are most likely to make good friends, find a faculty mentor, and become engaged academically and in co-curricular activities.
And make sure you, as a parent, understand the finances of what it will cost for your child to go to that particular college. It is more complicated than it appears. Denison has a $46,250 price tag for tuition, but most families pay far less. In many cases, Denison may be less expensive than a public university.
And lastly, remember that getting into college is the easy part. Making the most of it is the hard part. Parents and students expend way too much energy worrying about getting in and selecting the right college, and not nearly enough focusing on how to transition into college and how to take full advantage of the amazing colleges we have in this country.
RJ Harrington continues to work on his new company: NationalCarCharging and likes to wear branded clothing when in public. Can't begrudge him that! He also won a raffle for subscribers to the DA Club of the Rockies blog and was able to take his son to his first college lax game at defending national champs Denver Univ! Big wins all around.
At the same time he was sad to have missed Nate Nourse during his last minute ski trip to Colorado...Hope it was fun, Nate!
(Update from Nate: "My friend and I skied 7 mountains in 11 days, driving from central Pennsylvania and back. We logged 5,000 miles driving and almost 100,000 vertical. Next year our goal is 10 mountains in 14 days. Hopefully we’ll catch up with you then.")
It's the time of year when Hardie Jackson and the gang at EvoShield drive all over Florida and Arizona to outfit the MLB teams at Spring Training. Lots of fun pics and videos on their FB and Twitter feeds!
Soon you will have received your recent DEERFIELD magazine...Even though the Class notes being published are more heavily curated - the Class of 1983 had the centerfold!!! (insert sophomoric thought here...) The great response to my original post about reaching 12K feet in Rocky Mountain National Park was a noteworthy thing and is a terrific display of what staying connected can mean for us as a group. While I wish we heard from many more of you, I'll take this as a sign of the value of the blog...
The magazine went 1 for 2 with Leigh Guyer in the issue (and has been notified). On page 96 he is identified as the winner of the previous issue's crossword puzzle prize, but on page 70 he is mentioned as a member of the Class of 1984. Still, that's a bunch of mentions!!!
It may come as a surprise that one of our classmates attended a letter signing for a talented high school athlete who is choosing to play college soccer at Vanderbilt.
Or it will come as no surprise when you learn it's Hardie Jackson's daughter who did the signing...
Time for John Houghton, Hardie, Rob Rigsby, John Sory and Jim Wareck to find some of those old stories and photos about her dad!!!
The main building at Deerfield Academy. A former student filed suit Tuesday against a former teacher there and three others claiming continued emotional distress as a result of sex with the teacher in 1979 when the student was just 14. (THE REPUBLICAN FILE)
DEERFIELD — A California man has filed a $40 million lawsuit that claims he was sexually assaulted more than 35 years ago when he was a 14-year-old student by a Deerfield Academy faculty member.
The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston by former student Moss Krivin, names former instructor Peter Hindle and three unnamed "John Doe" defendants. It seeks $10 million from each of the defendants for the ongoing mental and emotional distress as a result of the assault.
Hindle was employed at the academy from 1959 through 2000.
The suit alleges that in 1979, Krivin, then known as Moss Steinberg, was sexually assaulted by Hindle and that the three John Doe defendants were responsible for hiring and supervision of people employed at the academy and that they should have known about the abuse and done something to prevent it.
Krivin was a student at Deerfield Academy from 1979 through 1981. The abuse is said to have occurred in 1979 when he was 14.
The suit alleges that sometime in 1979, Hindle invited the student to accompany him to his dormitory residence, and once there, they engaged in sexual conduct. After they finished, Hindle instructed him that what had occurred "was to be kept secret by the plaintiff and that (he) must not tell anyone about it."
The suit claims that as a result of the incident, Krivin continues to suffer from "emotional distress and physical harm" including thoughts of suicide, depression, sadness, anger, anxiety, sleep disorder and panic attacks. The suit also claims a financial hardship caused by years of medical and therapeutic care and treatment, a long-term loss in earning capacity and other damages.
Hindle, reached at his home Tuesday afternoon, said he did not know about being named in the lawsuit until he was informed by a reporter. He said he had no comment, and said he did not have an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Two weeks ago, the academy agreed to a $500,000 settlement to end a lawsuit filed in federal court in Connecticut by a former student who claimed he was sexually assaulted by another teacher, Bryce Lambert, on dozens of occasions in the mid-1980s.
Lambert died in 1997, and no charges were ever filed against him.
The lawyer representing Krivin in this suit, Mitchell Garabedian, of Boston, was also the lawyer in the Lambert case. Garabedian is the attorney who represented numerous victims of clergy sex abuse in the Boston Catholic archdiocese.
The academy in 2013 disclosed to students, parents, and alumni the allegations of sexual misconduct by faculty and launched an internal investigation. It later unveiled the results of that investigation that acknowledged some incidents of faculty engaged in improper sexual activity with students and that the school could have done more to prevent it from happening.
The report named both Hindle and Lambert, and disclosed the college confirmed instances where each had sexual activity with students. In Hindle's case, he admitted to having sex with one student, and there was strong evidence to suggest involvement with at least one other student, according to the report.
Sullivan issued a statement in August that said he was unable to prosecute allegations of wrongdoing from 25 years ago because the statute of limitations had expired.
Deerfield Academy spokesman David Thiel said Tuesday he was aware of the suit but had not read it yet. Hindle had not had any affiliation with the campus in many years, he said.
"Obviously, the safety and welfare of our students is the most important responsibility we have," he said.
"We empathize with the survivors. We are trying to respond with as much compassion, understanding and transparency as we can," he said.
Text of lawsuit filed by Moss Krivin vs. Peter Hindle
A four-week residential summer program for students entering seventh and eighth grade, the Experimentory at Deerfield Academy allows students to delve into project-based, interdisciplinary learning—right here on Deerfield’s campus.
Course pairings for Summer 2016 include Theater & Electronics, Culture & Architecture and Design, and Music Composition & Film Production.
Deerfield Academy settles case alleging 1980s abuse for $500,000
Posted: Jan 13, 2016 10:14 AM MSTUpdated: Jan 13, 2016 10:14 AM MST
(Image Courtesy: MGN Online)
By MICHAEL MELIA
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A western Massachusetts prep school has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former student who said he was sexually abused by a faculty member in the 1980s.
Plaintiff's attorney Mitchell Garabedian provided details of the settlement with Deerfield Academy on Tuesday.
The plaintiff alleged in a lawsuit filed last year in federal court in Connecticut he was abused by faculty member Bryce Lambert while on trips to Connecticut for golf and squash matches against other prep schools. Lambert died in 2007.
A 2013 school investigation found evidence Lambert had sexual contact with two students.
School spokesman David Thiel says he won't comment on the settlement out of respect for the plaintiff's privacy.
The Associated Press generally doesn't identify people who say they're victims of sexual abuse.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Well, 2015 will soon be only a memory, like all the years, days and minutes since May of 1983 when we were together as a class. Here's to a 2016 worth remembering...
The best part of this blog is seeing how we gather on purpose or impromptu and almost always share a story and a laugh.
Kudos to Sean Nottage and Chris Davey for connecting at the Brick Church in Old Deerfield for Christmas Eve service and then at the living creche in the barn behind the Deerfield Inn. Lots of tradition in that town....
Also, huge congrats to Adam Feiges for helping get the LA crowd together for some laughs in Manhattan Beach. In the photo are Wareck, Tenenbaum, Feiges and Weir. You figure it out!
I'm at Equinox getting in a quick workout before some work. So I'm in a hurry.
In between sets I head to the sit-up bench. But they're both in use. So I head down one floor to where there is a secret, third sit-up bench I know about. And when I get there, some Will Ferrel-looking dude is in this bench too.
So now I'm exasperated. Don't these people know I'm in a hurry?
This is "New York Hank." He's uber impatient. I'm all thinking, "Will Ferrell-looking dude had _better_ get his ass up outta my bench."
At which point Will Ferrell-looking dude looks over at me, and...
Well, actually...
It _is_ Will Ferrell.
And he does get his ass up outta my bench.
So now I'm feeling like I've got The Force or something. ("This is not the bench you're looking for.")
I go over and I'm like, "Do you mind if I work in, one quick set?"
And he's, "Sure!"
So I climb into the bench, which is a bit of a production because it's a decline bench, with those things you have to lock your legs and ankles around and I have to arrange some plates on my chest, etc. So then, finally I am ready.
And I look at him. And I say, "Now, don't make me laugh. I can't work out when I laugh."
Well, Whit was person enough to come forward and Deerfield has become the new playbook for old sex abuse scandals. But now the playbook is open again at St. George's and Eric Petersen and Will Hannum '82 are reading it as fast as they can...
Former student forces R.I. prep school to confront its past
SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF
Anne Scott, photographed in the Cambridge office of her lawyer, Eric MacLeish.
Anne Scott entered St. George’s School as a 10th-grader in 1977, just a few years after the prestigious prep school first admitted girls at its campus in Middletown, R.I. She was a good student, and a three-sport athlete, from the suburbs of Wilmington, Del.
But a month after she arrived, a field hockey injury brought her into the orbit of the school’s longtime athletic trainer. He molested and raped her, and threatened to come after her if she told anyone.
For years, terrified and ashamed, she did not. Finally, in her mid-20s, her life a shambles of diagnoses and hospitalizations, she told her parents, who took her to see Eric MacLeish, an attorney who would later gain renown representing abuse victims of Catholic priests. It was his first sexual abuse case.
MacLeish filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million, but when the school pushed back aggressively, Scott backed off — and moved abroad to rebuild her life.
This year, almost 40 years after she first arrived at St. George’s, Anne Scott felt strong enough to pursue her unfinished business with St. George’s.
Reunited with MacLeish, she has sought not money but accountability from the school — an end to what she and her attorney call a pattern of coverup and denial concerning the alleged sexual assaults of multiple students at the school in the 1970s and 1980s. They have urged the school to launch an investigation, to inform alumni of its findings, and to set up a therapy fund for victims.
“This was the school’s dirty secret,” said MacLeish. “They’re an educational institution with a mission statement of respect and compassion, and they acted in a way that is completely at odds with that.”
St. George’s officials didn’t act immediately on Scott’s demand, but they did act. Months after MacLeish and Scott voiced their concerns — and shortly after the Globe contacted the school for comment on the case — officials sent a letter on Nov. 2 to alumni saying they had received “multiple credible reports of sexual misconduct at the school, ranging from unprofessional behaviors to outright sexual assault” by former employees. It also named Scott’s assailant.
It was a breakthrough moment. Scott’s courage has moved others to come forward this fall with their stories and their sorrows. And as the school completes its investigation, the full measure of this dark chapter may soon be known.
. . .
STEW MILNE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
A view of the chapel and old school at St. George's School in Middletown, R.I.
Founded in 1896, St. George’s has educated several Astors and Vanderbilts, Howard Dean, and Prescott Bush, father of President George H.W. Bush. Today, it has 365 students in Grades 9 through 12 and charges $56,000 annual tuition for boarders.
It is the latest in a string of New England prep schools that have had to deal with allegations of sexual impropriety, including Deerfield Academy, Fessenden, and the Berkshire School.
At St. George’s, in the fall of 1977, Anne Scott had been sent for treatment of her back to Al Gibbs, the gruff, cigarette-smoking athletic trainer, who began to assault her in his locked training room. He told her that if she reported him to anyone, he would come after her and that she “would be in trouble,” according to court papers. When she objected, “the trainer threatened to send a note to her coach and adviser, requiring that [she] return for ‘treatments.’ ”
ST. GEORGE’S SCHOOL
Al Gibbs, in a 1980 yearbook photo.
Her grades dropped. She called her parents begging to come home. For a while, she simply stopped talking. “I just kind of stopped caring,” Scott said.
Her sister Liz, who is four years older, recalls those days vividly. “I remember we sent off a happy, healthy, vibrant girl and when she came home for Thanksgiving, she was definitely changed. She was withdrawn, anxious, obviously upset, but we didn’t have any idea why. It was very scary for the family.”
She returned to school and, Scott said, the assaults resumed.
According to her therapist’s affidavit in the 1989 lawsuit, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, anorexia, bulimia, and major depression because of the assaults and was hospitalized several times between 1983 and 1987.
When she filed her suit against the school, Scott faced a different kind of pain, in the tactics of St. George’s lawyers. They told the court that Scott either could be lying or could have had consensual sex with the trainer, who was 67 years old when the assaults began. She was 15.
Court records revealed that four other girls had told school authorities that Gibbs had also molested them, MacLeish said.
School attorneys also sought to change it from a “Jane Doe” case and reveal Scott’s real name. “Maybe people will come forward and say the plaintiff is a, with all due respect to those in the court, has a tendency to lie, and that would be relevant, also,” said defense attorney William P. Robinson III of the Providence firm Edwards & Angell. (In 2004, Robinson was appointed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Robinson did not return calls from the Globe.)
But Judge Jacob Hagopian of the US District Court in Rhode Island denied the school’s motion to dismiss and admonished its attorneys that the teenager could not consent to such “detestable” acts. “It violates the criminal laws of the United States,” he said.
In the end, it was Scott who dropped the case. School attorneys had investigated and deposed her parents and were preparing to depose neighbors. “I was 27 years old, I had struggled, and then they came down on my family like a ton of bricks,” she said. “I just wanted it all to go away.”
St. George’s would not agree to the dismissal unless Scott signed a gag order that prohibited her from speaking about the case. MacLeish advised against it.
“The school did everything they could to intimidate Anne,” said MacLeish, of the Cambridge law firm of Clark, Hunt, Ahern & Embry. “It worked.”
. . .
STEW MILNE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
The school has 365 students in grades 9 through 12.
After she dropped the suit, Scott, who had earned a PhD in folklore and anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, moved overseas. She and MacLeish lost touch.
But the case continued to haunt him. Over the years, he tried to find Scott, who was working in maternal health in the West Bank, in HIV/AIDS prevention in Senegal and Bot-swana, and for a nonprofit in Indonesia. Independently, MacLeish, himself an alumnus of St. George’s, contacted the school in 2012, writing current headmaster Eric Peterson about the lawsuit he had filed concerning events at the school under former headmaster Tony Zane.
Around the same time, in 2012 or 2013, Peterson heard from another alumna. “She had been abused by Mr. Gibbs,” he said in an interview. “She asked for help with counseling costs and we gave it.”
In 2013, Scott returned to the United States. She now runs a nonprofit in Virginia. “I’ve worked very hard to get strong,” said Scott, who is 52. “You live with it and you get better at managing it, but the damage runs deep.”
At Scott’s and MacLeish’s urging, the school sent two letters to alumni, in April and August, saying it was launching an investigation into possible sexual misconduct. Scott and MacLeish told the school that the letters failed to give specifics or offer relief to victims.
But the most recent letter, sent Nov. 2 and signed by Peterson and board chair Leslie Heaney, finally named Gibbs, who died at 86 in 1996. It also said there were two other perpetrators who no longer live in Rhode Island, but did not identify them.
The letter apologized for what happened and for the school’s failure to respond. It also said it will establish a fund for counseling costs related to the sex abuse and will arrange victims’ support gatherings.
Scott said that for her, the latest letter resolves the major issues. “I was really heartened by it and sensed a shift toward action and clear, concrete steps,” she said.
But she and MacLeish question the independence of the school’s investigation, which is being conducted by attorney Will Hannum, whose law partner is St. George’s legal counsel. “It’s an inherent conflict of interests,” MacLeish said.
Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig, who has known Scott since they were students at Penn, has signed on as co-counsel to MacLeish. Lessig, who was abused by the choir director as a student at the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J., said St. George’s needs to make therapy support “immediately available and not filtered through a lawyer.”
Scott said it took Hannum more than a month to respond to her request for therapy costs, and when he did, on Dec. 9, he said that she “may be eligible” for assistance, and asked for documentation.
Scott was upset. “It’s distressing on so many levels to submit to the school’s authority to make a determination on whether or not they will reimburse me . . . I’d rather pass than place the school in that position of power over me ever again.”
Peterson, who arrived at the school in 2004, said he hopes the investigation will conclude by the year’s end. He told the Globe that the two unnamed perpetrators were male faculty members who had left the school by 1988, and that their victims were male. According to his letter, the school is working with law enforcement “with respect to next steps” regarding them.
“The heart of the issue for me is that the school today is trying to do what’s right and trying to help alumni who need it,” he told the Globe. He declined to say how many victims have come forward since he sent out the letter.
After the school’s first letter in April, Peterson told MacLeish that tens of women came forward to complain about Gibbs, a fact that Peterson confirmed to the Globe, though he says not all were “firsthand reports.”
But one firsthand report came from Katie Wales, class of 1980, who went to see Gibbs after a horseback riding injury. He began to molest her and took photos of her naked in the school’s whirlpool, she says, which he then circulated among the boys at school.
“The taunting by the boys was horrible,” said Wales, 53, who lives in Granby, Conn. She said she went to see Zane in 1979 about Gibbs. “He told me I was crazy, making it up to get attention, and that I had to see the school shrink,” Wales said.
Zane says today that he believed Wales at the time, but thought that she came to him in confidence and “didn’t authorize me to go to Al Gibbs.” He added: “Gibbs declared his innocence until the end, so I was operating on hearsay.”
But Wales said that after the experience, her school life was miserable, and she began drinking and smoking marijuana. By the end of her senior year, she was into heavier drugs, and the week before graduation, she was expelled. “This whole thing kind of screwed me up,” said Wales.
When she got the school letter in April, Wales reported her experience to Hannum and has met with Peterson. She also posted a comment on Facebook. Among the alumnae who responded was Joan Reynolds.
Reynolds, class of 1979, was 13 years old when she entered St. George’s as a freshman. Now 54, she is a teacher who lives in Idaho and shared her story with the Globe — a story she said she had told no one but her husband and, recently, St. George’s.
Her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were St. George’s alumni. Her father was director of development and alumni affairs at the school, her mother was director of day student affairs, and Reynolds lived on campus with them. The Reynolds family has for 35 years sponsored an annual scholarship at the school.
Reynolds played three sports, and sometimes her female coach would send her to Gibbs. “She’d say, ‘Al wants to see you for hamstrings,’ or this or that,” Reynolds said. There was no girls’ locker room; Gibbs’s training room was next to the boys’ locker room. All three women who spoke to the Globe recalled the sound of Gibbs locking the door behind them.
When she was first sent to Gibbs, Reynolds said, he started off by showing her how to “properly dry” her breasts. “He’d talk about what a good athlete I was, how I had to get healthy for these games. He’d tell me to strip down. There was this metal hot tub and he’d hang the towel far away. He would hug you, these suffocating hugs.”
Reynolds refused to take off her underwear; Gibbs never raped her, she says, but groped her on the training table. This went on periodically for two years, she said — until she got her first boyfriend, a strong athletic type.
After graduation, Reynolds moved out west, cutting all ties with the school. When, at her mother’s urging, she returned to campus for the first time in 2006 to be inducted into St. George’s sports hall of fame, she became physically ill.
. . .
STEW MILNE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
The Zane dormitory at St. George’s School.
Zane, now 85 and living in New Bedford, said after he heard from students about Gibbs, he fired him in 1980. “He was doing things he shouldn’t have done as a trainer,” Zane said.
He did not, however, report the incidents to law enforcement, as required by law. Asked why not, he responded, “Was that true in Rhode Island in 1980?”
By 1967, MacLeish said, all 50 states had mandatory reporting laws about child abuse, which means Zane was required to call child protective services and the police. “If that had occurred, then Gibbs would have been stopped, treatment would have been provided to children, and a tremendous amount of human suffering would have been avoided,” MacLeish said.
In 2002, St. George’s named a new girls’ dorm after Zane.
Asked about the school’s aggressive response to Scott’s lawsuit, Zane said: “Instead of bringing a lawsuit against the school, she could have called me up and said, this happened to me. Don’t blame us for trying to defend ourselves against a $10 million lawsuit.”
Gibbs would have been 70 when he left St. George’s. According to an obituary in the Providence Journal, he had previously spent 30 years in the Navy.
Though they appreciate that the newest letter names Gibbs, the women who have brought forward complaints are upset that it doesn’t mention Zane. They want Zane Dormitory renamed and his portrait removed from the dining hall.
“At the very least, they shouldn’t be enshrining him,” said Scott. “It undermines the credibility of what they’re doing.”
Peterson has met twice with Scott, who says she is grateful that he apologized to her.
Asked what he apologized for, he said: “I’m sorry she was hurt. I’m sorry she came away from the school with her experience with Gibbs and thereafter feeling the school didn’t care for her, because the school does. I’m sorry she was wounded in all the ways she was.”
