Donations Double for San Jose Catholic Girls School Accused of Ignoring Sex Abuse
By John Woolfolk
Despite allegations that administrators ignored sexual harassment and abuse complaints at a San Jose Catholic girls school, donors outraged by the accuser’s tactics have more than doubled their contributions. Presentation High School reported Thursday that the school raised more than $126,000 in its crowdfunding campaign this week even as critics wrote school supporters urging them to withhold donations to pressure the school to investigate the allegations. That was more than twice last year’s $59,000 haul. “It’s nice to see these misleading claims not only haven’t made a dent in our reputation, they have encouraged people to stand up and fight the falsehoods by voting their consciences with their wallets,” Kristin Cooke Schneider, the school’s alumnae director, said in a statement. She said money raised will fund scholarships and other student programs at the prestigious school, where tuition is nearly $20,000 a year. But news of the surging donations came as critics leveled new charges Thursday that Presentation ignored “numerous sexual abuse allegations” about a former performing arts instructor who left in 2004. The instructor was convicted on child molestation and pornography charges in 2014 while teaching at a private San Mateo school for children with learning disabilities. He is now a registered sex offender. The critics allege that Presentation never reported that instructor to authorities even “after his own admission” to Principal Mary Miller “that he had inappropriately fondled an underage student,” when he was teaching at Presentation High. School spokesman Sam Singer said in response that the school had done appropriate background checks before hiring the instructor and found no record of wrongdoing. He said he was unaware of anyone having any recollection of such a complaint about the instructor, and called the accusation “specious and misleading,” noting no parent or victim was identified. A two-page letter to Presentation supporters from “Victims and Alumnae in support of Making Pres Safe for all students” asked “that you temporarily withhold your donations to PHS until they agree to that independent investigation.” It listed statements published online from several women who claimed they reported abuse and were ignored. Schneider said the letters “infuriated people who felt their privacy was invaded and that they were being harassed and bullied into withdrawing their support from school.” Most donors on the school website are listed either just by name or with brief remarks of gratitude for Presentation. Donor Karen Strobach stated on the website, “With all the bad press and the anonymous, derogatory letters …I’m giving more to Pres this year than ever.” Singer said others were reluctant to speak publicly because “they get pummeled on social media.” Maria Alderete, a 1988 Presentation graduate whose sister Kathryn Leehane wrote a newspaper article about alleged abuse by a language teacher in the 1990s, said the donor letter had “no bullying, no threatening” or “hateful speech,” just “a statement of facts which have been corroborated by multiple individuals.” Robert Allard, a lawyer representing former students who have accused the school of failing to report their abuse claims to authorities, said “we have no knowledge of any person being ‘bullied’ or ‘harassed’ in any way by members of our team.” He added that donor names were listed on the school’s website and those who received letters had publicly listed addresses. “If the messaging is hard to hear, we apologize,” Allard said in a statement. “But we feel it’s necessary in order to prevent future severe trauma to Presentation students and their respective families.” Presentation High, a parochial school of 830 girls established in 1962, has faced mounting criticism from some former students who say administrators mishandled their complaints of being sexually harassed or abused by teachers or staff over the last three decades. After Leehane’s column appeared in the Washington Post in October about how the school handled her complaint from the 1990’s, other former students came forward to detail their own alleged abuse. That number has since grown to at least 20. They claimed abuse from as many as eight former teachers or staff, one of whom has since died. The former students have detailed their complaints on a website, and garnered more than 6,600 signatures to an online petition demanding an independent investigation into the school’s complaint handling. Presentation has insisted it followed state law, which requires school officials to report suspected child abuse to police or a child protection agency, in responding to complaints. School officials have said they have no documentation or recollection of many of the complaints and that others were reported differently at the time. But the school has announced changes in how it will handle future complaints, and police have acknowledged they are looking into whether school officials properly reported past abuse allegations. The accusations have sharply divided the school community. Principal Mary Miller in December thanked supporters “for the collective community outrage at the false, unfounded, misleading, and half-truths that have been slung at our school and me this fall.” But some posters to the school’s Facebook page have vented their anger at the school, with comments like: “Their continued denial, victim shaming, and lack of responsibility is disturbing.”
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