Sunday, September 8, 2013

Green Meadow Waldorf School Teacher groped student.







Green Meadow Waldorf School

http://www.lohud.com/article/20130907/NEWS03/309070063/Author-Kate-Christensen-Teacher-groped-her-while-she-Green-Meadow?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7C%7Cs&nclick_check=1

The high school math teacher’s pretense for the regular after dinner walks, Kate Christensen wrote, was so he could lend guidance and support to her, a vulnerable young student far from home.

But the 16-year-old’s reality was much darker. The walks, she said, led to terrifying episodes in a deserted field where he kissed her and pinned her to his belly, grinding himself against her and laughing at her attempts to flee.
...
But 35 years later, the PEN/Faulkner award-winning author has written a memoir that exposes those disturbing encounters and the revelations have set off an aggressive investigation by the progressive private school into other wrongdoings that may have gone on decades ago.
...
Her former teacher, identified by the Green Meadow school as John Alexandra, is a 71-year-old father with grown children. He lives with his wife in Spring Valley, a couple miles from the campus.
...
One student, Craig Gordon, spent 12 years at Green Meadow and left in 1979 without graduating. He didn’t know Christensen, but heard her being interviewed about the book July 10 on National Public Radio. At that point, he didn’t realize that they went to the same school.

“I literally had to pull my car over and stop and catch my breath,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Oh my God, did that crazy stuff happen at another Waldorf school like it did at mine?’ ”
...
Gordon said this ideology, taken piecemeal, can be positive. But when “organized in a dogmatic way, it gets dark,” he said, referring to Christensen’s revelations about her old teacher.

He said it was common knowledge at Green Meadow that some teachers and students carried on affairs in those days.
...
“Naturally it didn’t take long for him to suss me out as vulnerable prey: a fatherless girl, far from home,” she wrote.

She eventually told her mother, but nothing happened when her mother complained to the school and confronted the teacher, Christensen contends.


UPDATE:

http://www.elle.com/life-love/society-career/kate-christensen-personal-essay-on-abuse


“He was the Green Meadow Molester,” a schoolmate e-mailed me the day after I wrote to tell him how the interview had gone. “You blew the lid off the silence. You were the only one who spoke up.”
“I didn’t blow the lid off on purpose,” I wrote back. “Dave Davies made me!”
“You’ve done a good thing for so many people. You’re heroic,” he shot back.
But I wasn’t heroic—I was a victim, though by making public what happened, I ceased to be only a victim.
UPDATE2:
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/2014/07/11/green-meadow-probe-details-sex-abuse-history/12539465/

Decades of sex abuse: Waldorf school probe cites multiple teachers; failure to act

An investigation launched last year after the Green Meadow Waldorf School alumna accused a former teacher of molesting her alleges that he sexually assaulted her, 11 other girls and a woman during his decades-long tenure there.

The findings, revealed in a damning report by a private investigative firm hired by Green Meadow, also accuse two other teachers of sex crimes — one of possessing child porn and another of assaulting a girl on a school-sponsored trip. It says the school failed to act when complaints of teachers' alleged criminal behavior surfaced.
In the case of John Alexandra, the alleged serial offender, the school's lack of response enabled his predatory behavior, the report finds.
"Allowing Mr. Alexandra to freely roam Threefold property resulted in giving him essentially unrestricted access to students and faculty members, and thereby enabled him to continue to victimize others," investigators said.
Many of the alleged victims didn't report what happened at the time, for fear they wouldn't be believed, investigators said. In some cases, they found, Alexandra's alleged victims felt that other adults at Green Meadow were complicit in his behavior because they observed it yet encouraged students to maintain relationships with him, an esteemed member of the community.
Investigators say Alexandra committed "a multitude of crimes" over his decades at the school. They also accuse him of stalking, harassment and child endangerment.

UPDATE 3: 
http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/2014/07/green-meadow-waldorf-school-sex.html
http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/2014/07/green-meadow-waldorf-school-sex-scandal.html


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You may ask, "where are all the 5=Star reviews?" Well, the problem with those reviews is that many tend not to be too honest. I have included 4-star reviews that appear honest. Often, gushing reviews are placed by teachers and administrators - as some comments here indicate. "This school educates the whole child!!!" - 5 stars - by Anonymous... I say baloney! Notice, many of the reviewers have been misled by Waldorf and are still buying the PR, even after having been disappointed. Feel free to comment but understand the intent of this blog. Comments are no longer moderated.