Introduction
The article sheds light on the scandalous case of unethical leadership that related to the church sexual abuse in almost seventy schools in New England. The accusations of abuse were filed since 1991. The number of abused victims is astonishing – more than two hundred school students came forward to report the crime, underlining the fact that it was greatly covered up by the school authorities.
The focus of the article’s investigation was the St. George’s School in Rhode Island and the abuse survivor Anne Scott, who was allegedly raped by the school’s athletics trainer in 1977 when Anne was only fifteen years old. It is notable to mention that when the victim’s family brought a lawsuit against the school, the school authorities were not compliant; instead, they brought a lawsuit against the Scott family. Such an unethical leadership behavior shows that the school was not interested in the fate of the student; rather, it was only interesting for the authorities to ‘save their face’.
Anne Scott, the alleged victim, stated that the school management did not put any effort into resolving the situation amicably; on the contrary, they were hostile to her and her family, trying to turn her friends, roommates, and neighbors against her. In her interview for the article, Anne mentioned that the entire situation was stressful and shocking for her, being fifteen, she did not know how to deal with the pressure; also, she worried about her entire family falling apart.
“When you are assaulted as a child and a victim of rape, you lose your voice. You lose your soul”, said Anne Scott (PBS, 2016, para. 10). The fact that the school’s student felt pressure and alienation from the authorities that supposed to protect her was showing how unethical behavior of authorities can greatly damage a person’s life and self-image, which cannot be restored easily.
According to Todd Wallack from the Boston Globe, the issue discussed in the article is much more common that the society thinks it is because as Anne Scott came forward to speak about her experience, dozens of other assault survivors decided to also uncover the secret they lived with for decades.
The article also mentioned the fact that there were occasions when abusers managed to move from one school to another without student’s parents or the faculty staff being aware of their previous abuse history. For example, George Thompson, who had been accused of inappropriate touching by the St. George’s students, went working to another school with great recommendations, without the new school’s management knowing of the allegations (PBS, 2016, para. 22).
Reaction/Critique
The discussed case is one of the disturbing examples of unethical behavior on the part of the school authorities that covered up for the individuals that abused their students. In their book Ethics and politics in school leadership: Finding common ground Brierton, Graham, Tomal, and Wilhite (2016) stated that the school leaders on any level must play the definitive role in improvements and change (p. 13). However, school leaders involved in the discussed case were not role models that wanted to strive towards improvements.
According to the statistics presented by the National Center for Education (2013), serious violent victimization (includes rape) makes up for one percent in schools (para. 9). In my opinion, the case of St. George’s school shows that the reported number of sexual assaults in schools is low due to the constant ‘cover-ups’ that the school management does to avoid a scandal surrounding their educational facility.
Sexual abuse is a crime that should not be disregarded or covered up for since it implies a violent and abusive character of an individual that poses a threat to society. Instead of filing a lawsuit against Anna Scott, St. George’s authorities should have first dealt with the person accused of the crime, encouraging a lawful and just criminal investigation. It is quite unsettling to read that some child abusers were moving from one school to another because the authorities acted unethically and covered up for them.
A recent case related to the Brooklyn Boys and Girls High School Principal Michael Wiltshire who allegedly covered up for sexual abuse in his school shows that such situations occur regularly and that there is very little done to stop it. According to New York Post article by Gonen and Golding (2016), the principle was highly motivated by a $25,000 bonus that would have been given to him as the “master principal” (para. 10). This meant that the principal was acting upon his interest to get a bonus payment, disregarding the fact that his student was subjected to sexual abuse from another teacher.
What was the problem(s) or issue(s) at the core of the case?
The main issue at the core of the discussed case is the unethical behavior of the school’s management, which, instead of properly investigating the alleged rape of a fifteen-year-old student by the athletics teacher, the school authorities forced the victim to sign a gag order, threatening with a lawsuit. The allegation of the sexual abuse should have greatly damaged not only the victim but also the perpetrator (if proven guilty); however, the school’s leaders did not offer any ground for the justice to be served.
What action was taken by the district to address the problem(s) or issue(s)?
Because St. George’s school was a private institution that managed to keep their affairs secret, there was no reported action taken by the district to address the issue of the alleged abuse. Upon the current investigation, it had become known that some teachers accused of sexual abuse were able to teach in other schools with great recommendations, which meant that no authority prevented them from doing so.
What violations occurred in the area of personal responsibility to the school or district?
The primary violation of responsibility related to the school’s authorities was in preventing a just and lawful investigation of the allegations posed by the student. To avoid negative publicity towards the school, the authorities turned against the victim, forcing her to withdraw the allegations.
Were the school managers/leaders acting in their interest?
Yes, the school’s leaders acted in their interest in protecting the school against a scandal. It was in their interest to turn the case against Anna Scott so that they would not get accused of misconduct and unlawful behavior.
Were there other important stakeholders involved?
The case did not mention any stakeholders apart from the school’s leaders and the student’s family.
What alternative actions could the leader have taken? With what consequences?
The school authorities should have initiated an investigation to find out whether the teacher was guilty of the alleged crime. If proven guilty, a proper punishment should have been imposed by the higher authority to prevent the dangerous criminal from conducting the crime again.
Include your analysis of the case
In my personal opinion, such cases are overall similar to the scandalous cases of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church as an institution. According to the New York Times article by Goodstein (2016), survivors of the assault committed by Roman Catholic priests were greatly affected by what they had gone through in the childhood, afraid of telling anyone about what had happened since the Church often covered up for such instances (para. 4). It is worth mentioning that the cases of sexual abuse in any context are very hard to discuss and critique since human lives were greatly damaged. The case with St. George’s school does not involve the unethical behavior of the leaders, the main point to remember is that nothing will make up for the victim’s trauma and distress, even justice.
Apply relevant examples from your own experience to the possible to the decisions/action strategies
Luckily, I had no experience in dealing with sexual abuse in schools. However, the behavior of the school’s management of acting in only their interest is familiar. There has been an instance when my classmate slipped on the wet floor in the cafeteria and broke her arm. Instead of taking the blame on them not putting a “Caution” sign, the shool’s management said that the student should have been more careful.
Conclusion
To sum up, the behavior exhibited by the St. George’s school management was not only unethical, in my opinion, but it was also unlawful. By preventing the investigation from conducting and by covering up for the teacher’s crime, the school leaders pressured Anne Scott and her family. As shown by the investigation, Anne’s case was one of the hundreds, which is quite disappointing statistics. Until the behavior of school management remains unexposed, unfortunately, similar cases can continue to occur.
References
Brierton, J., Graham, B., Tomal, D., & Wilhite, R. (2016). Ethics and politics in school leadership: Finding common ground. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Gonen, Y., & Golding, B. (2016). Principal covered up alleged locker room gang rape. Web.
Goodstein, L. (2016). Sex abuse and the Catholic Church: Why is it still a story? Web.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). Fast facts. Web.
PBS. (2016). Private schools kept decades of sexual abuse secret. Web.