SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News
March 15, 2018
By John Woolfork
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.
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