‘It’s a joke’: Author of ‘Great is the Truth’ decries New York’s weak statute of limitations, which allowed Horace Mann to cover up sexual abuse

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, November 3, 2015

There are plenty of bad guys in Amos Kamil’s powerful and disturbing new book on the Horace Mann sexual-abuse scandal, “Great is the Truth.”

There are the coaches, teachers and administrators accused of raping and assaulting scores of students for three decades, men such as baseball coach/headmaster Inky Clark, football coach Mark Wright and swimming coach Stanley Kops. There are also the officials at the prestigious Riverdale prep school who allegedly ignored and covered up complaints of abuse, leaders such as former headmaster Eileen Mullady and ex-Board of Trustees chairman Michael Hess, the powerhouse New York attorney and a close associate of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Then there are the unnamed villains: The New York legislators and policy makers who have refused to reform the stingy statute of limitations that makes it almost impossible for adult survivors of abuse to pursue criminal charges and civil litigation in the Empire State against sexual predators and the institutions that protect them.

“It’s a joke,” says Kamil, the playwright, investigative journalist and 1982 Horace Mann graduate whose 2012 New York Times Magazine article shoved Horace Mann’s sex-abuse scandal into the public spotlight. “It’s an arcane law that needs to change. The fact that New York does not have the political will to change this is sickening. Where is Gov. Cuomo on this?”

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