NEW YORK
Valley News
Steve Nelson
For the Valley News
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Memory of a difficult event in my life was sparked by a recent report of a sexual scandal at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan. A lawsuit filed by 19 former students claims that two rabbis abused them in the 1970s and ’80s. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote recently about how the incident revealed the same pattern in Orthodox Judaism as in the Catholic Church. He observed that spiritual leaders with special access to children had been identified in civil and criminal actions as the perpetrators and were protected by the powerful “caretakers” of their faith.
The story was, sadly, familiar. In early 2001, a colleague at my school leaned into my office and warned that a very insistent lawyer wanted to speak with me and would not take “no” for an answer. “Mr. Nelson needs to hear what I have to tell him.” I took the call. He informed me that he had just filed a civil action against my school and one of its teachers, seeking $21 million in damages. He got my attention.
The plaintiff, a former student, claimed that the teacher had a sexual relationship with him beginning in the 10th grade and continuing through his college years. The suit was eventually withdrawn. Fortunately for me, the events took place before my tenure began. The teacher denied the allegations and, while never convicted or found liable in civil court — the plaintiff student succumbed to litigation fatigue — was placed on leave the day of the call and, after I investigated, never invited to return.
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