Nearly three years after an explosive op-ed in the Washington Post during the height of the “Me Too” movement snowballed into an avalanche of sexual misconduct allegations at San Jose’s Presentation High School, a prestigious all-girls Catholic school, a months-long independent investigation “sustained allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse” against six former staffers and found school officials at times failed to report allegations of abuse to authorities and inappropriately retained teachers accused of misconduct.
The report found the abuse occurred over a span of decades, from the early 1980’s through 2013, although it did not delve into a 2004 allegation from a former student who said she sexually abused by her theater teacher, who was later forced to register as a sex offender, because the claim was at the center of a lawsuit that has since been settled.
“Some of the conduct was reported to former Principals Marian Stuckey or Mary Miller or other Staff at the time, but no action – or ineffective action – was taken,” the investigation conducted by Sacramento law firm Van Dermyden Maddux concluded. “In several instances, there was a concerning lack of curiosity about information which was shared, resulting in a failure to adequately investigate or act timely on information which may have led to more immediate and effective responses.”
Former students who have come forward over the past three years with personal stories of abuse, many of which were covered by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit since 2017, say they feel vindicated by the report’s findings.
“You feel a combination of re-living some of the trauma, but
also some amazing relief that your story is being heard and that people know
the truth,” said former student Kathryn Leehane, who made the first public
accusation against the school in her 2017 Washington Post op-ed.
Leehane and several other accusers have spearheaded an effort since then to hold abusers at the school accountable, remove leaders who they say covered up allegations of sexual misconduct for decades, and improve the way the school handled misconduct allegations moving forward. Leehane created the Make Pres Safe website to serve as a clearinghouse for accusations of sexual abuse or misconduct at the school.
In a public letter released alongside Thursday’s
investigation, Presentation High School President Holly Elkins said the school
has taken significant action in response to the findings and forwarded a copy
of the report to the San Jose Police Department, which opened an investigation in
2018 into claims school officials violated state mandated reporter laws, but to
the dismay of accusers, closed the case more than a year later without making
any arrests.
Elkins said Presentation has removed the names of former principals Mary Miller and Marian Stuckey, who presided at the school’s helm for more than forty years combined, from all public spaces at the school. The report found both leaders failed to respond appropriately on multiple occasions when current or former students reported abuse, and concluded they took a defensive approach when those allegations later became public.
Among the other actions taken by school officials in response to the investigation were issuing another apology to victims, which Miller and Stuckey never publicly did, and enacting a new records retention policy that “meets or exceeds best practices.”
“To the survivors of abuse, we deeply and sincerely apologize,” the letter stated. “The stark truth is that our school did not live up to its commitment to protect you. We added further harm when we responded defensively when reports of past abuse began to surface in 2017. We understand that words cannot measure our regret or erase the harm that you endured.”
This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
Source: NBC Bay Area