GDS Student Newspaper posts about the horrible incident
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Anonymous
Seems like the parents have been trying to get the school to help them (and MPD?) locate potential witnesses. |
Anonymous
IF a SCHOOL like GDS does not have camera, they are negligent |
Anonymous
Hear hear! As a GDS parent, the school's email angered me for that reason. It really seemed to dismiss the allegations and almost say the child was lying--how does that create a culture where victims can be unafraid? and the way they said there was no evidence seemed disingenuous--abuse allegations are notoriously hard to prove, and here the police said the report was credible, so it's probably a situation where there's a credible report but simply not enough evidence to charge anyone. If that's the case, the school repeatedly saying there was no evidence seems dishonest. especially because there clearly is evidence--there's the boy's testimony and the family's behavior. The child was so upset the parents withdrew both kids, and the victim has been in therapy for over a year. I don't think a child who'd just fabricated something would let all of this get that far, if for no other reason than so they dont have to go to therapy. There's also the fact that the family's attorney is a very reputable one who probably would not have allowed them to do this if there really was zero evidence. Also, the family clearly is searching for more evidence and even encouraging people to contact the police detective if they know anything--none of that seems consistent with a police investigation that is fully concluded like the school claims it is |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Why are "if" and "school" capitalized? |
Anonymous
Agree 100% |
Anonymous
She is a gem. One of the best teachers at GDS.....by far |
Anonymous
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Since this has been reported on and thousands of people got this email yesterday:
Dear GDS Parents and Community Members: We are writing to ask for your help and to warn you of an unaddressed danger at Georgetown Day School. In November 2024, our 11-year-old son was anally raped in the fourth floor/7th-and-8th grade bathroom at GDS, between classes, during a regular school day, by two young male perpetrators who covered their faces and disguised their voices while ambushing and assaulting our child. As far as we know, the perpetrators were — and are still — students at GDS. (There are some details that we are not able to share due to legal constraints and ongoing investigations.) Our primary goals since we learned of this assault, in January 2025, have been to support our traumatized child, gather any information about this sexual assault, and protect other children at GDS. We pulled both of our children from GDS last winter. We shared details of the rape with Russell Shaw, Kelsey Schroeder, and Meg Rabinowitz (who has since left GDS) in February 2025 and notified the GDS Board of Trustees on two separate occasions, in March 2025 and May 2025. Though we cooperated and were interviewed by a third party investigator hired by GDS, they have not shared the investigative report with us. Our primary and persistent ask has been for GDS to send a notification email about the sexual assault to the GDS community. They have not done so. For a year, we have asked the GDS administration to share this critical safety information with you — parents of children who might be in danger or who might have been similarly attacked. However, the GDS administration and Board of Trustees have failed to provide any information about the assault to the parent community. Therefore, despite the safety and privacy concerns for our family, we are advising you directly that this happened to our son at GDS and warning you of what we see as an ongoing threat on the GDS campus. We are also reaching out in the hope of gathering more information about what happened to our child while in the care of the School. The Metropolitan Police Department detectives involved with the case have found our son’s allegations to be credible, as have his therapists, but as of today, the police believe they need more evidence for an arrest. We are hoping this notification will encourage anyone with information potentially relevant to this assault to come forward. Though we are not sharing our names or our child’s name in writing to protect his privacy, we recognize that some of you know who we are — which is fine. We have nothing to be ashamed of, and we are proud of our child for reporting this horrific assault to us and now to you, since many rape survivors never tell anyone — because of shame, fear, and awareness of how sexual assault survivors are treated. Every American is surrounded by evidence of sexual assaults, including child rape, where victims are shamed, ignored, and disbelieved. Similarly, as GDS touts their annual Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent, the School’s reaction to our family has caused us to question whether they truly want to “support survivors, advocate for rights, and prevent sexual assault,” and whether they view male-on-male rape as less of a crime than male-on-female rape. Our family’s pain has been exacerbated by GDS’s refusal to share critical information with parents and seek the community’s help in eliciting evidence that might lead to the identification of the perpetrators and accountability for this horrible crime. We know this is distressing news: Our child was just 11 years old when was he was raped at school, at GDS, where he should have felt safe and been safe. If you or your children know anything about the sexual assault of our son, or any other potentially relevant evidence, please contact Detective A.J. Makanoff (contact information below) or our attorney Sandra Musumeci (contact information below). Most critically, we hope your children remain safe. -A Former GDS Family |
Anonymous
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And this seems fair game since reported on by student paper and quoted
Dear GDS Families, Earlier today, many members of our community received a concerning communication from a former GDS family. In it, the family shared serious claims that their child was harmed while at GDS, and additionally raised questions about our core values. We write today to share an accurate representation of the facts. At GDS, we have no greater charge than protecting the safety of our students. In that spirit, we take extremely seriously any allegation that students may have been harmed. We want to assure you that immediately upon receiving the troubling allegation last winter that a former middle school student was physically harmed at school months earlier by another child, we conducted an internal investigation and a third-party, independent (by Julie Freudenheim of T&M, USA) investigation, and also reported to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and Child Protective Services as a mandatory reporter. Contrary to the information shared with you earlier, we can report that neither T&M (the independent investigator) nor the MPD found evidence during their investigations to substantiate the allegations. We understand that receiving an email such as the one you may have received earlier today is disconcerting. GDS has robust, documented, well-tested, and best-practices-informed protocols designed to ensure the safety of every student, and we are consistently evaluating how to improve them to support the needs of our community. GDS refrained from a broad communication to our community to avoid interference into the investigation and to maintain confidentiality. We worked with our faculty, counselors, and GDS leadership to ensure open lines of communication from students to teachers and teachers to school leadership. GDS also worked to provide care and support to the family and student who alleged harm. Even as we provided a general overview of the details above, our community should know that, because of concerns about child privacy and safety, GDS does not share confidential information with our greater community or details of the alleged incidents in situations such as this. Our goal is to ensure the safety of our school community, follow requests from investigators, and preserve individual’s privacy. Our actions were and continue to be aligned with GDS’s core values and followed our policies. To be clear, according to the MPD, the case was thoroughly investigated and there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations put forth by the former family. We will meet in the coming days with our students to reiterate our practices in these situations in developmentally appropriate ways, including reminding them of our commitment to safety and the ways in which they can report concerns to trusted adults. We will also assure them that they will be treated with compassion, respect, and discretion. Please also talk with your children to encourage them to not engage with any harmful rumors or unverified information that they may hear. Protecting the safety of our students is at the center of everything we do. When anyone in our community feels harm or hurt, it affects us all, and we remain committed to doing everything we can to provide support and care. Thank you, as always, for your understanding and support for one another. |
Anonymous
| Not a GDS parent but I feel so heartsick reading all of this. My God. |
Anonymous
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“To be clear, according to the MPD, the case was thoroughly investigated and there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations put forth by the former family.”
Shameful and a disgrace. MPD is notorious for not believing survivors of violence. I hope this gets the attention of the Mayor and the city. Children don’t make this stuff up. My thoughts are with the family for their brave decision to come forward in a very public way. |
Anonymous
| Another long email out from school just now - somewhat nicer in tone. |
Anonymous
Completely agree. Someone here is lying. The family says that MPD found the child's allegations to be credible; GDS says they did not. So which is it? That part should be easy to discern and should be made public. |
Anonymous
Nicer? |
Anonymous
| What was the delay between Christine Blasey Ford's alleged rape and her testimony against Kavanaugh? A lot of had no trouble believing her based on what we read about trauma responses, and she was a teenager as opposed to an 11 year old when it happened. |