NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
By Bob McHugh
I wore the Latin motto “Succisa Virescit” — meaning roughly, “Cut it down and it will grow back” — on the breast pocket of my green blazer for the five years I attended Delbarton School. A classmate used to go around on the last day of the school year ripping off the pocket patches. I thought it was just a dumb high school prank. But now, I wonder if he wasn’t right.
Mired in an ugly and expanding child-abuse scandal, my alma mater has certainly succeeded in cutting down its previously stellar reputation as an all-boys prep school. But, as school officials continue to bungle the handling of the scandal, who knows what will grow back?
These days, it can’t be considered a surprise that the cancer of Catholic priests abusing young men has metastasized into the “hills of Morris,” as our school song — borrowed from Cornell’s — called the place. What is surprising and sad is that the men who run Delbarton, where annual tuition nears $30,000 and boys are routinely sent to Harvard and Yale, can be so dumb.
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