What is going on at Holton?

[Anonymous]

The administration needs to be held accountable! The Head of School needs to resign NOW. She kept sweeping it under the rug and ignored the girls complaints. this is totally unacceptable. Otherwise the school stands for nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The administration needs to be held accountable! The Head of School needs to resign NOW. She kept sweeping it under the rug and ignored the girls complaints. this is totally unacceptable. Otherwise the school stands for nothing.

As a Holton parent you are in your right to go to the board and suggest with others who are demanding she leave but an anonymous forum will not force her to leave

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why wold they alert the school? The HoS didn't do anything back then, when her own girls were upset about it, why would she even care about kids at another school? in another state? What kind of message does this send in light of the metoo movement? Make a bunch of public pronoucnements about me too - and then be a hypocrite in practice? These types of perpetrators will sneak in again - and no doubt it will happen again. It happens at every single school. But how it is handled is the key. She is Disgusting and needs to go.

[Anonymous]

CAN SOMEONE PLS EXPLAIN WHAT THE TEACHER DID?

[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.

What is the 'it' that is without proof? No one has explained what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

If she really said the above (in bold), she is also an abuser and has no business leading a school.

[Anonymous]

As I said several days ago... there is not a single first hand version of anything here. The entire thing is heresay and bordering on slander, really. No, I’m not a HA staff or booster, just a parent who thinks statements starting with “apparently” are useless.

[Anonymous]

When you heard it first hand that he was a sexual predator, what does this mean? Someone please explain. This is getting very tiresome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I said several days ago... there is not a single first hand version of anything here. The entire thing is heresay and bordering on slander, really. No, I’m not a HA staff or booster, just a parent who thinks statements starting with “apparently” are useless.

Yah, no kidding… this is an anonymous public forum. Do you really think the victims owe an expansion here? I don’t. There was obviously enough there for HA to part ways with the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As I said several days ago... there is not a single first hand version of anything here. The entire thing is heresay and bordering on slander, really. No, I’m not a HA staff or booster, just a parent who thinks statements starting with “apparently” are useless.

Yah, no kidding… this is an anonymous public forum. Do you really think the victims owe an expansion here? I don’t. There was obviously enough there for HA to part ways with the teacher.

Not just part ways, but to do it mid year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to a student in the Class of 2020. so just last year or maybe in 2019. Ask anyone from that class if you don't believe it. Girls had been complianing of him for years maybe decades.

Well, respectfully, I’m asking you because you brought it up, I don’t know anyone from that class, and if you think it’s important enough to raise here (as you seem to and it sounds like it is), I’d expect you’d be able to share some detail. Are we talking about comments or touching? Regarding the comments, can you elaborate?

Please elaborate! This is the first I’m hearing of this and have been at the school many years!

I heard about this as well. My daughter had already graduated but her friend's little sister was in that class. The teacher had said many inapprorpiate things, and propositioned girls and former students once they were out of school. In addition to the reported incident, the girls circulated talking points complaining about him and shared screenshots of his inappropriate Facebook posts. I think that is when the school finally listened and let him go. But then they later denied that was the reason why he was gone. In fact, the Head of School actually denied it to the girls when they tried to speak their truths.
Several years ago, there was another incident involving sexual harassment by a male administrator and a lower school teacher. She had reported it to the admnistration many times, but the Head of School did nothing about it. Then the teacher posted it on social media. They let him stay until the end of the year, but allowed him to come back on campus for the next several years because his daughter was still going to school there.
These are widely known to anyone who had an US student in the past 4 years.

I reached out to someone who graduated already and she had LOTS to say. She confirmed everything posted on this forum and sent me screenshots of the students complaints and his social media posts. THere were a lot of complaints about his teaching, but there was a whole lot about
the sexual harassment allegations. The FB screenshots were about his dating life, with references to "ample bosom" and what he is looking for in a partner, and his medication causing him dizziness when he becomes "erect."
Word for word, this was the most disturbing part of what I saw - and this was put together by US students:

Physically Uncomfortable:
More worried about potential physical encounters with Mr. EEE rather than about the class itself.
1. We feel scared going into the classroom.
a. We refuse to go into the class without at least one other person there.
b. We purposely stay as far away from him as possible.
c. Compromises our education
7. Calls us sweetheart.
8. If we want to ask him questions we have to go right up to his desk and sit down next to him.
9. Makes us uncomfortable.
a. Touches us.
i. Lower back
ii. Arms
iii. Wrists
iv. Walks close to us when there's five feet of space to walk.
v. Holds onto our wrists.
b. Stares at us
c. Sits in his desk and stares at us, when we have a legitimate questions
10. Has no respect for us.
11. Telling us his personal life that was inappropriate
12. Feeling like he solely teaches freshman because he knows they are too scared to come forward and report
13. Gives us good grades, so students don't feel inclined to report
a. We are nice to him for good grades because his grades make no sense so we think we have to be nice.


Not doubting the validity, but I have a rising senior at Holton (who has been a student since lower school) and knew nothing about any of this. So I'm not sure it is "widely known".

[Anonymous]

Can someone, anyone, just please post what this person was accused of doing?

[Anonymous]

Apparently... not.

[Anonymous]

This is so hard to follow but it looks like there are posts being removed here and there. I believe that the girls who are 2020 and older were all aware of his inappropriate remarks and touching. Not sure why it keeps getting questioned. Just read for yourself. It's gross and uncomfortable. The problem is not HIM but is how the HoS dealt with it. She has no emotions, no feelings, is hypocritical, and denied the girls their complaints. THAT is the problem. He is gone (amen) but she is still there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so hard to follow but it looks like there are posts being removed here and there. I believe that the girls who are 2020 and older were all aware of his inappropriate remarks and touching. Not sure why it keeps getting questioned. Just read for yourself. It's gross and uncomfortable. The problem is not HIM but is how the HoS dealt with it. She has no emotions, no feelings, is hypocritical, and denied the girls their complaints. THAT is the problem. He is gone (amen) but she is still there.

Absolutely. HOS and the school stand in loco parentis to our girls. The buck stopped with her. She completely brushed this off and belittled the victims. So very sad and troubling. Probably caused such emotional trauma with life long damage to the girls who came to her for help.