GDS Student Newspaper posts about the horrible incident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can someone post the email the family sent to to the gds community?

Ohh Lordy. Go back and read the previous 45 pages. It’s in there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long until the HOS gets fired? Either release their “independent report” or resign. What a coward.

You’re clueless about privacy laws. And more.

Why not provide it to the victim? Why deny their requests?

T&M is a fixer vendor who provides containment. All actions by GDS are consistent with that goal so far. Not with getting help for the assailants, that’s for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never seen a worse response by a HOS to an incident like this. Worst of all time.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If the older boys thought about masking, then they probably did not leave other forms of evidence. And since the assault was months ago, what evidence could there be?

At this point, Met Police needs to clarify whether the allegations are credible or not, separate from whether they found evidence. If the allegations are credible, then the Head, who did not technically lie, must be brought to task for not taking this seriously enough. He's making it seem like the assault did not happen at all.

Who on the Board selected T&M? It will all come out in discovery, which seems to be where this is headed.

[Anonymous]

The email was referred to, I don’t believe the text was posted (of course without any identifying info re: the child victim).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long until the HOS gets fired? Either release their “independent report” or resign. What a coward.

You’re clueless about privacy laws. And more.

Why not provide it to the victim? Why deny their requests?

Read page 46 - the posting at 8:41.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If the older boys thought about masking, then they probably did not leave other forms of evidence. And since the assault was months ago, what evidence could there be?

At this point, Met Police needs to clarify whether the allegations are credible or not, separate from whether they found evidence. If the allegations are credible, then the Head, who did not technically lie, must be brought to task for not taking this seriously enough. He's making it seem like the assault did not happen at all.

Who on the Board selected T&M? It will all come out in discovery, which seems to be where this is headed.

That's another irony. GDS was apparently so concerned about liability and reputational risk that they created a scenario in which they opened themselves up to liability and harmed their own reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am not sure if the victims family thinks there is evidence that the Police have rejected but I doubt that the school is not cooperating with the police. This publicity is enough, never mind someone being able to point to not cooperating.

I’m not sure that the school is cooperating. I’m sure they have given the police everything they asked for, because they don’t want to be sued or accused of obstructing an investigation or something like that, but as they are they as cooperative and proactive as they could be? I doubt it, based on that that the email they sent out to parents today purged on blaming the victim and making it sound like the child completely made it up.
It provided no details about whatever their investigation was, or if they’ve done anything to either make sure that no more assaults occur or that no assaults do occur

A child’s allegations should always be taken seriously. In addition, if the child did make it up, they kept up with the lie long enough that their parents pulled both them and their sibling from the school and they’ve apparently been seeing a therapist ever since. It seems to me that a kid would have to be really really committed to put themselves through that for this long if nothing had happened.

regarding the masking, I wonder if it wasn’t a ski mask situation so much as it might’ve been kids obscuring their faces with a scarf they were wearing or drawing a sweatshirt hood close around their face.

Something happened. Now GDS has become the real story. They need to hire a DC based law firm and get better advice. The family must have been crushed to have waited so
ling only to be stonewalled. The school has clearly signaled to the school community to circle the wagons, the HOS email just compounded the issues. It is DARVO, they are trying to frame the school community as the victims rather than the child and his family. There were better ways to handle all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If the older boys thought about masking, then they probably did not leave other forms of evidence. And since the assault was months ago, what evidence could there be?

At this point, Met Police needs to clarify whether the allegations are credible or not, separate from whether they found evidence. If the allegations are credible, then the Head, who did not technically lie, must be brought to task for not taking this seriously enough. He's making it seem like the assault did not happen at all.

Who on the Board selected T&M? It will all come out in discovery, which seems to be where this is headed.

That's another irony. GDS was apparently so concerned about liability and reputational risk that they created a scenario in which they opened themselves up to liability and harmed their own reputation.

Exactly. And continue to dig the hole deeper. Truly poor judgment and reflective of the true institutional values. How can parents and students be ok with this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And exactly how would you propose that these details be released in a way that complies with privacy standards?

I don't think most people understand how privacy rights work. A private school can later be sued even if a parent wants sensitive information disclosed. I am surprised they even allowed this article to be published with details about the student such as the student withdrew from the school last winter and that they were assaulted. Since students rarely leaves in the winter the student is identifiable not only to the school community, but now to members of his new school community. Even if a parent waives confidentiality for their child, that pre-teen / teen still has privacy rights a parent can't waive. Schools are expected to protect minor identities in sensitive cases, and if they don't they can later be sued.

Parents can't force a school to issue a statement in cases were privacy has to be protected. Schools also can't give police a list of names of all the boys in the school, all the boys who had classes in that hallway, or all the boys who had discipline issues. The school would get sued by those parents. Police can't go on a fishing expedition. Private schools don't provide names to police without a subpoena, court order, or warrant. If they did they could be sued by those parents. Affluent parents aren't letting their kids be interviewed by police.

This really is a terrible situation for the boy and his family but publicizing it this way can be harmful in the years to come for the victim. I think this post should be removed, not because I have anything to do with GDS, but because it discloses way too much information about the victim.

That is complete horse manure.

It really is.

-A lawyer & parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long until the HOS gets fired? Either release their “independent report” or resign. What a coward.

You’re clueless about privacy laws. And more.

Why not provide it to the victim? Why deny their requests?

Read page 46 - the posting at 8:41.

The factually untrue twaddle probably posted by T&M spinning the meter for social media management you mean?

There is no reason that a redacted version of the report could not have been provided to the victim’s parents. Their lawyers will now get it. Any sense of trust in the school around safety issues is now broken, and not just for this family and former student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long until the HOS gets fired? Either release their “independent report” or resign. What a coward.

You’re clueless about privacy laws. And more.

Why not provide it to the victim? Why deny their requests?

Read page 46 - the posting at 8:41.

The factually untrue twaddle probably posted by T&M spinning the meter for social media management you mean?

There is no reason that a redacted version of the report could not have been provided to the victim’s parents. Their lawyers will now get it. Any sense of trust in the school around safety issues is now broken, and not just for this family and former student.

You are really unhinged. Normal people see this for what it is …

[Anonymous]

Epstein appears to actually discuss hiring a firm to investigate the abuse allegations involving himself to "separate fact from fiction" . I wonder which firm he would've hired for this task? T&M?

[Anonymous]

Maybe a lawyer can confirm - DC apparently does not have an apology law - so any sign of an apology from the school can be construed as evidence of guilt.

The DC law only covers medical malpractice and not all apologies. Many other jurisdictions do have laws that are more fulsome.

In any event, the school emails were still very bad - especially the first one. But if they had lawyers and crisis PR drafting for months to be ready in the event of disclosure, I wonder if this lack of an apology law was part of their rationale.

In any event, I’m still sickened at all of this and mostly how the school reacted and who they hired to “investigate” this.

[Anonymous]

Calling their Epstein-linked crisis / cover-up consultants focused on minimizing legal liability for the school an “independent investigation” was so offensive to the SA victim and the intelligence of the school community.