The Lead

The Episcopal School of Dallas is liable for $9 million for how it dealt with the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old female student by a 34-year-old male teacher.

The jury found that the school was not liable for failing to prevent the relationship, but was grossly negligent in how it handled the incident when the relationship was discovered.

Claire St. Amant wrote an in depth article for D Magazine of the scandal and how the private Episcopal School handled things.

The article is disturbing not only due to the details of the abuse, but by the school's apparent self-intrest in their own reputation and comfort.

The overall sense of the article is that the parents were more than willing to work with the school going forward, even though the school erred in the beginning by not telling the parents immediately upon learning the extent of the abuse.

The school then worked with the family until the rumors started flowing around the school and the girl started processing aloud what had happened.

(the article uses the name "Emily" for the former student)

No longer suffering in silence, Emily was disrupting the entire campus. Feeling Emily was a long way from closure, Mayo met with Royall and Swann, and, without input from Emily, her parents, or her therapist, the trio of administrators decided Emily had to go.

In an email that would become central to the civil case against ESD, Mayo wrote to Royall: “I don’t want the girl haunting the halls with her sad story for the rest of the week.”

The administrators then forced the family to withdraw her from the school.

The unwillingness of the school to deal with the messiness of the aftermath from the inappropriate and criminal relationship on the part of one of its faculty is a sad and shocking reality. The desire to withhold or gloss over truth to keep people from "disruption" is counter to the Gospel and the ethics of The Episcopal Church (although clearly the church has chosen a similar route at various times in its history).

The administrators of The Episcopal School of Dallas missed their responsibility to wade into the ugliness of broken trust and emerge with real healing. They could have worked with the victim and her family in facing the challenging issues concerning balancing her privacy and the need for the school community to have some understanding of the truth. By choosing the "easier" path of removing the girl from the school, the administrators failed their charges.

And it will cost them more than just the $9 million...

Comments (10)

My kid sister writes for D magazine- though she's not the reporter behind that article, she's a restaurant and movie reviewer. It's good to see them doing some substantive investigative journalism, and I hope that Sis will be able to work on a piece like this. Hopefully not at the expense of the Church.

[Editor's note: Thanks for the comment. Please sign your name next time.]

Posted by Mylifemyfaith | September 22, 2011 12:41 PM

This case sounds so familiar -- similar to so many cases ongoing in the church. Hopefully the PB and those charged with overseeing cases will learn something from this.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | September 22, 2011 12:59 PM

My understanding from reading earlier stories is that this school, while still having the word "Episcopal" in its name, had not been affiliated with the Diocese of Dallas or with any particular parish for a long time. I could be wrong about this. But if this is the case, it would most likely mean the school has not been using Safeguarding God's Children or any program like that -- which would explain a lot. Whatever the case it, I remain astonished at the irresponsible behavior and tone-deaf responses of the administrators.

Posted by Katie Sherrod | September 22, 2011 1:56 PM

(BTW Katie: nice quote the other week on "Pray for Texas rain.)

Posted by Kurt Wiesner | September 22, 2011 2:09 PM

Yes, Katie, I think there was another article here at The Lead about this school and the fact that they were no longer part of the Episcopal Diocese.

Posted by Susan Hedges | September 22, 2011 4:33 PM

Thanks, Kurt. We just got teased by a rain shower -- what we call a 10-inch rain. That means one rain drop every ten inches. Lasted about two minutes.

Posted by Katie Sherrod | September 22, 2011 5:31 PM

More from the school - planning an appeal - looks like they have learned nothing.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | September 22, 2011 10:42 PM

More questions:
Would most parents and kids know that the school has nothing to do with the Episcopal Diocese?

Do they have chapel services?

Why does the founder wear a clerical collar if the diocese or episcopal church has nothing to do with the school? Just his appearance in a clerical collor in court speaks in a way that would suggest the Episcopal Church might be involved. The collar appears to be a convenience.

In the clergy directory he is canonically resident in Dallas Texas. So will his discipline be in all of this?

He obviously has not been to any of the trainings given by the Church Insurance. Why not?

Posted by Ann Fontaine | September 22, 2011 10:56 PM

"He obviously has not ben to any of the trainings...Why not?" Thanks for asking, Ann. Ready for the answer? 1) Too lazy, and more importantly, 2) It's about S-E-X , OH NOES!!!!!

Posted by Clint Davis | September 23, 2011 1:58 PM

Friday's Dallas News had a story about Swann and John Eagle, ESD board president, meeting with the editorial board.
Here's an excerpt from the story:
"Some reforms at the school were implemented during the trial, Eagle said. Among them: The school expanded its email server to retain years’ worth of emails, did away with school cellphones for employees, installed GPS tracking on school vehicles and instituted new controls on school credit cards.
When asked about whether there might be changes in top personnel at the school, Eagle said that he plans to meet with fellow school board members next week and that nothing is off the table."
Note that nothing is said about instituting training for administrators and faculty in safeguarding the students. They really aren't even close to getting it.

Posted by Katie Sherrod | September 24, 2011 10:39 AM

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