What is going on at Holton?

[Anonymous]

It looks like Holton has probably paid a fortune to digitally scrub any reference to, and association with, this teacher and the school from the web -/ as it was really hard to find anything. (I am admittedly not much of a technical sleuth).

However, the teacher himself is advertising his past association with Holton Arms in the ways mentioned in that letter on Linked In.
(Teacher at Holton-Arms School
Jul 2002 - Feb 2020, 17 years 8 months
Physics • Engineering • Computer Programming & Robotics • Earth & Space Science • Mathematics). Itvstates he has a permanent teaching license in New York state.

Everyone has a right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence until proven guilty - but it Looks like this teacher is teaching high school geometry at a small school in NY. Shouldn’t the law suit settlement preclude him from teaching and possibly molesting other students?

Haven’t we learned anything from the Catholic Church about the dangers of recycling likely predators whose work places them in authority over children and youth? I know there was a settlement not a criminal law suite but shouldn’t settlements include protections for possible future victims?

Did the settlement actually involve the inverse (Prohibitions from repeating the allegations)? Is that unethical or is it legally the normal course of action in such settlements?

Unlike the wealthy and highly accomplished Holton Arms School community, it looks like there are probably many vulnerable students at his new school. Low levels of Academic achievement usually correspond with high levels of poverty/ socio-economic stress.
47% Percent Proficient - Reading
57% scored at or above proficiency levels on their state math assessment test.

This means there may well be many students in the school who are vulnerable to grooming and molestation. Without being hysterical, I do hope the new school is aware of past allegations, and have placed protections for their students.

It is probably very hard to find good STEM teachers in more remote/ rural areas but children/ youth trying to get an education need to be safe guarded from predators. The psychological damage and harm to victims’ ability to trust can fester for decades.

There must be some reasonable way to balance rights of those who have not been found guilty in a court of law and vulnerable youth at risk of being molested …

[Anonymous]

I will be honest—I am not seeing any *proof* of wrongdoing by anyone. No specifics. No first person accounts. No charges were filed. There is nothing on this site but “this is well known heresay.” I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on an entire school based on heresay, myself.
I’m not saying nothing happened; I’m saying let’s not bash a school head without real information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will be honest—I am not seeing any *proof* of wrongdoing by anyone. No specifics. No first person accounts. No charges were filed. There is nothing on this site but “this is well known heresay.” I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on an entire school based on heresay, myself.
I’m not saying nothing happened; I’m saying let’s not bash a school head without real information.

Same here. The accusations here are that a teacher committed crimes against students, and serious crimes at that. Let's say for the sake of argument that the school received such reports and did nothing. Wouldn't at least one of the parents go to the police? The police around here take this very seriously, and would definitely investigate.

Heck, if there was a civil lawsuit against the teacher, then the attorneys are made aware of the allegations. They would be required to report it to police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will be honest—I am not seeing any *proof* of wrongdoing by anyone. No specifics. No first person accounts. No charges were filed. There is nothing on this site but “this is well known heresay.” I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on an entire school based on heresay, myself.
I’m not saying nothing happened; I’m saying let’s not bash a school head without real information.

Yes good point - that is why i asked how to balance rights of those accused and possible future victims? there are good reasons why so many victims of sexual assaults/ inappropriate conduct to do not come forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The head of school "brushed it under the rug" until they no longer could and he was dismissed in the manner above. Perhaps their outrageous legal fees or some of that $21B loan were used as a settlement to the family.

I assume you mean $21 million not billion.

When such loans are written, there is usually a clause about acceptable uses of the funds. For construction projects, often the bank writes the check directly to the vendor, after auditing that the work was done. I really doubt this was a line of credit to be used for regular operational costs as opposed to capital improvements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am appalled by how this was handled. I wish I knew a way to have her address this. I hope the girls are ok.

Does anybody know what happened to the girls? We’re they touched, was is verbal? I don’t understand how this happened numerous times and nothing was done about it.

I cringe to think he may still be teaching. How could she wish him well?!

Doesn’t matter if it was verbal or physical, what the PP described is child abuse. I
In MD, all teachers and school administrators are mandatory reporters. Unfortunately, the consequence for not reporting to police ASAP is just losing your teaching license. How ironic that most MD independents don’t require faculty yo be certified! In VA and DC there are fines and jail time as consequences. This is why some folks say private schools are not in the business of education, they are in the business of keeping secrets. If this were a student to student situation, with both kids being the same age, it would be considered sexual assault in MD and not sexual abuse. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of privacy laws that protect the predator in sexual assault cases in MD. My child experienced this at another private school which is how I learned how terrible MD is at protecting children in private schools.

WHAT HAS BEEN DESCRIBED?! I don’t get this - nobody has said what did or didn’t happen. What happened????


FYI, in DC any adult is a mandatory reporter. So, if your child tells you something they hear about another student you are on the hook to report it to the police ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will be honest—I am not seeing any *proof* of wrongdoing by anyone. No specifics. No first person accounts. No charges were filed. There is nothing on this site but “this is well known heresay.” I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on an entire school based on heresay, myself.
I’m not saying nothing happened; I’m saying let’s not bash a school head without real information.

Same here. The accusations here are that a teacher committed crimes against students, and serious crimes at that. Let's say for the sake of argument that the school received such reports and did nothing. Wouldn't at least one of the parents go to the police? The police around here take this very seriously, and would definitely investigate.

Heck, if there was a civil lawsuit against the teacher, then the attorneys are made aware of the allegations. They would be required to report it to police.

Where are such accusations? I see a general letter. What are they? You all seem to act like you know but nobody will say it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was sent out last year. Stellar write-up, now redacted for privacy. Since the original was removed.

Dear Parents,

We want to let you know that Thursday, February 13th was Upper School Science teacher XXXs last day teaching at Holton-Arms. XXX taught here for 18 years, and contributed significantly to many aspects of the science program, including creating our Upper School engineering course and the Robotics Team. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Rest assured that your daughters are in good hands. MMM will continue to lead the Advisory Group and will be assisted by US Counselor AAA. PPP, one of the other ninth-grade physics teachers, will teach the U4 ninth-grade physics class for the remainder of the year. HHH, who has an undergraduate degree in physics from YYY and a PhD in astronomy from the UUU, will teach the Advanced Analytical Physics for the remainder of the year. RRR, Director of Libraries and Information Services, will cover the last few classes of the Computer Programming and Robotics second trimester course. We are waiving the Science Research Program’s requirement to take Science Literacy, a trimester course offered in the spring, and we will not offer the course this year. HHH will reach out to the girls enrolled in that class to assign some readings. We are continuing to seek out coverage for the Introduction to Engineering class and for the Robotics Team. In the meantime, members of the Science Department will cover Engineering and the Robotics Team. We will update you once we have solidified that coverage.

We shared this news with your daughters this morning. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.


Sincerely,

Head of School
Director of Upper School

This was sent out as cya. Not sure if any girls requested individual counseling but never discussed or acknowledged. Basically it was all swept under the rug until now.

This all happened just before covid. February of 2020. So a bit of luck that there wasn't hyper focus on it. Maybe the administration will follow up on it now. Better late than never.

I heard directly from a senior, who graduated in 2020 and she said ask any senior about it because it was a well known fact the Upper School Science teacher was a sexual predator. Apparently their were numerous reports of sexual allegations against the Upper School Science teacher. The head of school "brushed it under the rug" until they no longer could and he was dismissed in the manner above. Perhaps their outrageous legal fees or some of that $21B loan were used as a settlement to the family. The head of school would have the girls come for lunch to talk and when they would report abnormal sexual behavior, she would say "No, that didn't happen". I find this disgusting especially with all the press with the ME TOO movement. How can the Head of School be teaching this message to our future women? How is she still there?

+1

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will be honest—I am not seeing any *proof* of wrongdoing by anyone. No specifics. No first person accounts. No charges were filed. There is nothing on this site but “this is well known heresay.” I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on an entire school based on heresay, myself.
I’m not saying nothing happened; I’m saying let’s not bash a school head without real information.

Same here. The accusations here are that a teacher committed crimes against students, and serious crimes at that. Let's say for the sake of argument that the school received such reports and did nothing. Wouldn't at least one of the parents go to the police? The police around here take this very seriously, and would definitely investigate.

Heck, if there was a civil lawsuit against the teacher, then the attorneys are made aware of the allegations. They would be required to report it to police.

The discussion of a civil lawsuit or police investigation is completely ridiculous! If the Head of School, who had heard multiple complaints about this teacher - over several years, refused to give any credence to her own students, what's the likelihood that outsiders to the situation would??? It's an uphill battle unless you have video evidence or a confession. This teacher had put up inappropriate posts on social media, which finally led to his departure.

[Anonymous]

Inappropriate posts? Like what? That’s what led to his departure? I’m very confused — and concerned.

— parent of 2 Holton girls

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Inappropriate posts? Like what? That’s what led to his departure? I’m very confused — and concerned.

— parent of 2 Holton girls

He is no longer at Holton. Apparently teaching in NY now. No need to be concerned about him. Need to be concerned about the people who allowed him to continue teaching for so many years after reports of his inappropriate actions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It worries me that at a girls school, the head would not take seriously student accounts of sexual harassment. Unfortunately school boards are generally useless otherwise one would hope they would ask the head of school about these allegations.

She would never admit wrongdoing or mistake in failing to hear these complaints. The bigger problem is that school board endorses her elitism and arrogance giving her leeway to do anything she wants. They just look the other way because it's easier than doing something about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like Holton has probably paid a fortune to digitally scrub any reference to, and association with, this teacher and the school from the web -/ as it was really hard to find anything. (I am admittedly not much of a technical sleuth).

However, the teacher himself is advertising his past association with Holton Arms in the ways mentioned in that letter on Linked In.
(Teacher at Holton-Arms School
Jul 2002 - Feb 2020, 17 years 8 months
Physics • Engineering • Computer Programming & Robotics • Earth & Space Science • Mathematics). Itvstates he has a permanent teaching license in New York state.

Everyone has a right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence until proven guilty - but it Looks like this teacher is teaching high school geometry at a small school in NY. Shouldn’t the law suit settlement preclude him from teaching and possibly molesting other students?

Haven’t we learned anything from the Catholic Church about the dangers of recycling likely predators whose work places them in authority over children and youth? I know there was a settlement not a criminal law suite but shouldn’t settlements include protections for possible future victims?

Did the settlement actually involve the inverse (Prohibitions from repeating the allegations)? Is that unethical or is it legally the normal course of action in such settlements?

Unlike the wealthy and highly accomplished Holton Arms School community, it looks like there are probably many vulnerable students at his new school. Low levels of Academic achievement usually correspond with high levels of poverty/ socio-economic stress.
47% Percent Proficient - Reading
57% scored at or above proficiency levels on their state math assessment test.

This means there may well be many students in the school who are vulnerable to grooming and molestation. Without being hysterical, I do hope the new school is aware of past allegations, and have placed protections for their students.

It is probably very hard to find good STEM teachers in more remote/ rural areas but children/ youth trying to get an education need to be safe guarded from predators. The psychological damage and harm to victims’ ability to trust can fester for decades.

There must be some reasonable way to balance rights of those who have not been found guilty in a court of law and vulnerable youth at risk of being molested …

Incredible that you found him! With such a generic name, I had no luck tracking him down. Glad he is far away. Highly doubtful there was a settllement paid to the students family. Better chance that the school just promised to let him go. And that Holton paid the offending teacher to sign an agreement not to sue them and just leave quietly. This would not be the first time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inappropriate posts? Like what? That’s what led to his departure? I’m very confused — and concerned.

— parent of 2 Holton girls

He is no longer at Holton. Apparently teaching in NY now. No need to be concerned about him. Need to be concerned about the people who allowed him to continue teaching for so many years after reports of his inappropriate actions.

I am wondering if the admin at Holton share your view and have done nothing to alert the school where he is now teaching to the risk he poses to other children.

[Anonymous]

I have a daughter starting this fall and I don’t know any senior students to ask as was suggested (?), so can someone please tell us if it was verbal, physical, online?