St. Paul’s School Investigating Former Staffers For Sexual Misconduct

CONCORD, NH — A yearlong investigation into sexual misconduct allegations at one of the country’s most elite prep schools has revealed more than 30 substantiated and unsubstantiated claims against staffers, according to a report released on May 22, 2017, by attorneys investigating the matter. St. Paul’s School released the report by the Casner & Edwards law firm in Boston Monday morning. The investigation was led by former Mass. AG Scott Harshbarger after revelations that a former teacher – the Rev. Howard White – was arrested on misconduct allegations in Rhode Island that occurred during the mid-1970s.

White taught in Concord in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so school officials requested the expanded investigation after a 2000 report was found to be “inadequate.” The new, expanded investigation, which runs more than 70 pages, found accusations against 34 faculty members and staffers.

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Of those 34, 13 former faculty and staffers had “substantiated claims” issued against them. Another 10 faced “reports of sexual misconduct.” Eleven, according to the report, faced “unsubstantiated allegations,” with claims that were “shared anonymously and could not be substantiated."

Those facing substantiated claims were named in the report. Survivors and witnesses were not, according to a press statement.

“We offer our most sincere apology to survivors for the wrongs that were done to them at St. Paul’s School,” said Rector Michael G. Hirschfeld in a letter to the SPS community he co-signed with Board of Trustees President Archibald Cox, Jr. “The failures uncovered in this report have hurt every member of our School community, none more so than the survivors of these abuses. It is with deep gratitude that we recognize the candor and courage of the survivors and witnesses who shared their experiences with Mr. Harshbarger and his team.”

The investigation

The firm was hired in May 2016, initially to conduct an investigation into White, who sexually abused students at St. George’s School in Rhode Island. White pleaded guilty last week to the charges in Rhode Island, according to a report on Patch. As part of the investigation, the school reached out to alumni and the school community about any inappropriate behavior between students and White. Later, the investigation expanded.

“As our report demonstrates, based on our interviews and investigation, we were able to substantiate a range of credible and very disturbing historical information about the conduct of certain faculty and staff at SPS,” the report stated. “Put simply but starkly, several former faculty and staff sexually abused children in their care in a variety of ways, from clear boundary violations to repeated sexual relationships to rape. While there was no single pattern or type of methodology used by former faculty and staff who committed these sexually abusive acts, the conduct collectively, the impact on the students, and the tolerance by those who had some understanding of the acts, as well as the total lack of awareness expressed to us by most of the other faculty and leadership, is all equally troublesome.”

The investigation spanned four decades, between 1948 and 1988. Thirty-seven personnel files of staffers and eight alumni files were examined during the course of the investigation. The team conducted 48 interviews by telephone, Skype, and in person. Twelve staffers, including two who are currently employed, were interviewed. Rectors and trustees were also interviewed. Eighty-nine interviews or attempted interviews were conducted, the report stated.

Some of the incidents had previously been investigated by Ropes & Gray LLP, another Boston law firm, that released a report 2000, to school officials. The investigators focused on allegations made before 1988, the report said.

“Whatever the reasons for the absence of reports may be, it is clear to us that, beginning in 1995, SPS leadership began to undertake efforts to establish written policies on boundaries and sexual abuse and harassment, and to educate faculty on mandatory child abuse reporting laws,” the report stated.

According to the investigation, three cases led to the marriage of a faculty member and a student after graduating from the school. In one case, a married faculty member engaged in sex with the student, got divorced, and then married the student two months after graduation. In another case, under a foreign exchange program, a male faculty member – 48 –followed the student to her home country where they were married. Within months, the man passed away and the student – 19 – committed suicide, the report stated.

“Many troubling allegations” were unable to be substantiated due to the criteria investigators used to unveil the incidents because victims, witnesses, and/or those accused declined to speak with the investigators. A lack of “contemporaneous reporting of allegations” along with “a very limited amount of documentation recorded and/or maintained” also contributed to the investigators “inability to substantiate additional allegations of sexual misconduct during this period,” the report noted.

Investigating the White allegations

After allegations against White surfaced, Rector Michael Hirschfeld, in January 2016, invited members of the school community who may have had interaction with the former reverend to reach out to the school. Four former students submitted claims to the school ranging from statements that White was a “predatory individual” to another stating that a friend was molested by White during his time at the school. Two women raised the issue of “misogynistic tendencies,” while adding that there were other faculty members who were “far worse.”

Another request for comment was issued in April 2016, due to press reports of sexual abuse at independent secondary schools, including Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter.

After interviewing numerous students and three faculty members, one “extended sexual abuse” incident of a 15-year-old was reported to the Concord Police Department in August 2016, the report noted.

Later that month, Hirschfeld contacted the school community again to share the findings and announced that the investigators would be retained in case they wanted to communicate about any other adult boundary violations.

Additional allegations about White – and others – were forwarded to investigators.

2000 report reviewed

Investigators also launched a review of the Ropes & Gray report after alumni stated that while they had been interviewed by investigators, they had never seen the findings or conclusions made by investigators. St. Paul’s School gave all the materials it had available from to investigators while they also reviewed documentation in the possession of Ropes & Gray.

According to the 2000 investigation, 10 accounts were forwarded about six faulty members who allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with students – with many other allegations raised, including at least one that was never investigated. Another 20 or so former staffers were known to a group eyeing the 2000 report but never shared with investigators.

“At that point, we expressed our concern to SPS that several alumni/ae who were victims of sexual misconduct did not seem to know whether and to what extent SPS was aware of their abusers,” the report stated.

Current school officials were “unaware” of the scope of the 2000 investigation or the materials that Ropes & Gray possessed. Investigators requested – and were granted – the ability to expand the investigation in November 2016. Following that review, investigators interviewed trustees and obtained the names of 22 people who had forwarded allegations during the review of the 2000 report.

In one of the cases, involving Jose A.G. “Senor” Ordonez, who passed away in 2008, an alumni asked if he was investigated after allegedly admitting to “repeated sexual misconduct with students." According to Ordonez’s obituary, he began teaching at the school in 1952 and his classes were taught “with flair and humor.” After retirement, he stayed on to assist students, kept in contact with former students, and tutored the sons and daughters of previous students, according to the obit. The report noted that he was an archivist at the school but removed in 2001, after allegations were raised during the 2000 graduation weekend. Ordonez also published a memoir of his time at the school, “The Education of a Schoolmaster: My Years at St. Paul School,” in 1998. There is also a library fund in his name at the school, according to the obit.

Another teacher investigated, Edward Lawrence “Larry” Katzenbach III, passed away in 1997.

Ten former students also raised allegations against Gregory DuBuclet, Robert Maurice Degouey, Steven David Ball, and the Reverend Douglas Thomas Archibald Haviland, however Ropes & Gray only showed Ordonez, Degouey, and Ball being investigated. Haviland, Katzenbach, and Ball, were not investigated because they had passed away, according to investigators.

W. Douglas Renfroe, and Dr. Terrence M. Walsh, were also all investigated during the 2000 report.

Renfroe later went on to marry a student he became intimate with in the late 1970s, according to the report, but was allegedly involved in an inappropriate relationship with another student in South Carolina during the early 1980s. He was fired from that job and he and the student later divorced, according to former student, who cooperated with the investigation.

One student reportedly told Walsh, a student counselor, about Katzenbach's sexual misconduct but he allegedly said, "Oh, he has his problems." The student alleged being "uncomfortable with Walsh during meetings because he wanted to speak about her "love life" and talk "about sex." Walsh, she stated, made her feel "shameful." Another student also reportedly raised issues about Ordonez to Walsh, the report noted, and suspected that he knew about Ordonez's activity. Walsh passed away in 1982.

Fourteen other faculty members were also investigated but their names were not revealed to the public.

Investigators noted that many requests for interviews were still outstanding. Other faculty members, who did not wish to come forward, outright denied allegations made by students.

The report stated that across the four decades of investigatory materials, files “are, by and large, devoid of any information relating to faculty conduct except with regard to academic or other faculty responsibilities.” With the exception of Ordonez and Katzenbach, the most prominent, longstanding faculty who were revered by alumni and leadership alike, “newer or less prominent faculty or staff discovered or perceived to have engaged in sexual relationships of any kind with students were ‘moved on,’ without reasons or publicity within or without the SPS community, and with appropriate references for the next potential employer."

Credit: Jim Cole/Associated Press