Totally crazy story: a "cult" at Sarah Lawrence College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How on earth did the school allow this man to live there? When you rent a house, there’s usually a clause limiting the number of times someone not in the lease can stay over. How does a college allow an adult to basically move in to a dorm?

Seriously. A grown man (a parent no less) MOVES IN to a dorm -- nobody says anything? There are not security guards, RAs, resident deans or anything? Or other students did not complain?

It wasn't a dorm. It was off campus housing. The landlord went to court to get this guy evicted eventually.

no that was after the dorm, when they were living on 93rd street. Goodness. Please protect my kids from drugs, metal illness, and cults. I can deal with anything else.

Not a chance I’d send a child to Sarah Lawrence College. Not a chance....

The pity is that it has a great faculty-to-student low ratio, seminar-style classes in almost every subject, a lot of good relationships between faculty and students, and has been a really good academic environment for one of DC's friends who is currently there. It's not for everyone either in its size or its academic style, but it would be great academically for the right students. But the article about the cult only confirms the image of a place where, despite the academics, the culture is so "live and let live" that the most basic security got ignored, which while it did not cause the mess for these kids, certainly contributed to letting the mess get started--right there in their own "home" on campus. How any of these kids managed to graduate with all this manipulation going on in their day to day lives is beyond me.

[Anonymous]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/jason-blum-mark-wahlberg-adapt-stolen-kids-sarah-lawrence-1207332

Blum’s Blumhouse Productions has quietly picked up the rights to the piece that appeared on the magazine's The Cut website, and will produce with Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson through the duo's Closest to the Hole Productions. Scoop Wasserstein of New York magazine is also attached to produce.

At this early stage of development, it is unclear whether the piece will be translated into a feature film or a limited series as Blumhouse sees potential for both, say sources. If the feature film route is taken, Wahlberg would star.

[Anonymous]

The FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan have announced the arrest and indictment of Larry Ray.

Ray, a former federal informant and associate of Bernie Kerik, has been hit with charges tied to a cult Ray allegedly led at Sarah Lawrence college.

Ray's alleged extortion and sex trafficking was first detailed in a New York Magazine cover story.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/nyregion/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-sex.html#click=https://t.co/geILFnQDrq

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan have announced the arrest and indictment of Larry Ray.

Ray, a former federal informant and associate of Bernie Kerik, has been hit with charges tied to a cult Ray allegedly led at Sarah Lawrence college.

Ray's alleged extortion and sex trafficking was first detailed in a New York Magazine cover story.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/nyregion/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-sex.html#click=https://t.co/geILFnQDrq

This is good news. Thanks for the update, PP. Now I also hope that reporters doggedly pursue Sarah Lawrence's administration to ask what has changed there since the administration ignored parents' concerns about this man living full-time in college property. The college did the "students are adults" and "parents are allowed to visit" schtick and the result was the destruction of vulnerable, naive students' lives. Sadly some of these young adults reman enmeshed with this charlatan.

[Anonymous]

People, use some critical thinking. The phrase “sex cult” is purely sensationalistic. It’s just people having sex! A weird assemblage of people, granted, but still just something that happens every day.

I’m not saying the parent should have been around like he was, but it’s absurd to throw around the term “cult.”

Also remember that kids in this demographic love to be victims (it’s the only way they get SJW cred) so they may not be completely reliable sources.

[Anonymous]

Two of the girls are still living with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, use some critical thinking. The phrase “sex cult” is purely sensationalistic. It’s just people having sex! A weird assemblage of people, granted, but still just something that happens every day.

I’m not saying the parent should have been around like he was, but it’s absurd to throw around the term “cult.”

Also remember that kids in this demographic love to be victims (it’s the only way they get SJW cred) so they may not be completely reliable sources.

Did you read the articles?

[Anonymous]

I have been wondering why this story didn't get more traction when it first came out. It is one of the craziest things I've read. I went down a rabbit hole looking up all the kids and the stuff out there is nuts. It was definitely like a cult. brainwashing, abuse, isolation, the works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, use some critical thinking. The phrase “sex cult” is purely sensationalistic. It’s just people having sex! A weird assemblage of people, granted, but still just something that happens every day.

I’m not saying the parent should have been around like he was, but it’s absurd to throw around the term “cult.”

Also remember that kids in this demographic love to be victims (it’s the only way they get SJW cred) so they may not be completely reliable sources.

It’s not the sex that made it a cult. It’s the manipulation, control, brainwashing, etc.

[Anonymous]

This went out to the SLC community today. I don't know the whole story, but it seems that (as always) there's more to the story than what's in print.


February 11, 2020

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Families,

Earlier today I sent the following communication to the campus community; I am sharing it with you as well to make you aware of these developments and our response:

I write to make you aware that Sarah Lawrence College has just learned of the indictment of a former parent in the Southern District of New York. The charges contained in the indictment are serious, wide-ranging, disturbing, and upsetting. As always the safety and well-being of our students and alumni is a priority for the College.

In April 2019, New York Magazine published a range of accusations about this former parent. At that time, the College undertook an internal investigation regarding the specific activities alleged in the article to have occurred on our campus in 2011; the investigation did not substantiate those specific claims. [[emphasis added]]

We have not been contacted by the Southern District of New York, but will of course cooperate in their investigation to the full extent of the law if invited to do so.

Our campus is private property and your privacy and safety is of the utmost concern. Many of you may have questions or concerns in response to this development, and various areas of the College will be following up with a reminder of resources that are available to our students, staff, and faculty.

You should be aware that you may also be contacted by the media and, if you desire, you may refer them to our communications office. Any media outlet should in the first instance contact Communications before coming on the campus.

Again, the welfare of our campus community is my highest priority, as I make you aware of this development.

Yours,

Cristle Collins Judd
President

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This went out to the SLC community today. I don't know the whole story, but it seems that (as always) there's more to the story than what's in print.


February 11, 2020

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Families,

Earlier today I sent the following communication to the campus community; I am sharing it with you as well to make you aware of these developments and our response:

I write to make you aware that Sarah Lawrence College has just learned of the indictment of a former parent in the Southern District of New York. The charges contained in the indictment are serious, wide-ranging, disturbing, and upsetting. As always the safety and well-being of our students and alumni is a priority for the College.

In April 2019, New York Magazine published a range of accusations about this former parent. At that time, the College undertook an internal investigation regarding the specific activities alleged in the article to have occurred on our campus in 2011; the investigation did not substantiate those specific claims. [[emphasis added]]

We have not been contacted by the Southern District of New York, but will of course cooperate in their investigation to the full extent of the law if invited to do so.

Our campus is private property and your privacy and safety is of the utmost concern. Many of you may have questions or concerns in response to this development, and various areas of the College will be following up with a reminder of resources that are available to our students, staff, and faculty.

You should be aware that you may also be contacted by the media and, if you desire, you may refer them to our communications office. Any media outlet should in the first instance contact Communications before coming on the campus.

Again, the welfare of our campus community is my highest priority, as I make you aware of this development.

Yours,

Cristle Collins Judd
President

PP, are you a parent of a student at SLC? Wondering if you are, since you have this letter.

If you believe that any internal investigation was going to have any result other than finding that the college did "not substantiate those specific claims," you're being naive. What specific claims? Who investigated? Is the report on that investigation available to students? Parents? The public?

Transparency isn't going to be the college's tactic here. If you're part of the college community, why take this vague CYA communication at face value?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html

Someone linked this on my social media - this is a crazy, crazy story. And very sad. Many lives and families destroyed.

While I definitely get why the parents couldn't intervene later, and perhaps I'm a helicopter parent, but if my 19 year old daughter came home and told me her roommate's dad was spending nights/living in the dorm/house, I would not have left it at the school shrugging their shoulders at me.

Bet you a nickel this was the topic of her admissions essay: "He was a truth teller, she’d explain, who’d been silenced by a group of powerful, vindictive men. He’d been sent to prison for his heroic efforts to save her and her younger sister from their abusive mother, and his incarceration was the result of deep-seated government corruption."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan have announced the arrest and indictment of Larry Ray.

Ray, a former federal informant and associate of Bernie Kerik, has been hit with charges tied to a cult Ray allegedly led at Sarah Lawrence college.

Ray's alleged extortion and sex trafficking was first detailed in a New York Magazine cover story.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/nyregion/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-sex.html#click=https://t.co/geILFnQDrq

I am the proud originator of this thread. I saw this today. I hope there is justice for the victims.

[Anonymous]

Sarah Lawrence College: We investigated ourselves, and cleared ourselves of all wrongdoing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sarah Lawrence College: We investigated ourselves, and cleared ourselves of all wrongdoing!

Like EVERY OTHER first-world institution that’s had bad press in the last ten years! Don’t be obtuse.