Milton Hershey School Allowed Accused Molester to Live With Students for Over a Decade

[JPZenger]

http://www.miltonhersheyforums.org/forums/showthread.php?p=16632&posted=1#post16632

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100520_Sex-abuse_case_shatters_Hershey_School.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/95202994.html

The linked articles and discussions describe how the Milton Hershey School allowed a molester to continue to live in a home with students for over a decade after a very credible accusation was filed with police and the school that he was molesting students. MHS is a charitable boarding home and school for 1,800 kids that controls $8 billion in assets and is well connected into the PA Republican party power structure.

Multiple complaints in writing about physical and sexual abuse were also filed with the PA. Attorney General's office over the years, with no action taken by them. The Attorney General's office is responsible to oversee charitable organizations.

The local Derry Twp. police someone forgot to continue to investigation. Finally, another police department, Middletown Borough, independently became suspicious of the guy a decade later. Middletown Police did their own investigation, and put the guy in prison for decades for tens of molestations over a 15 year period.

[JPZenger]

1. Read More at

http://www.protecthersheychildren.org/issues.html

[howaboutme]

2. Institutional malaise

These big organizations whether it be Hershey School or the Catholic Church or political Parties often feel they are insulated from reality and the threat of exposure. They are wrong.

[Born Free]

4. Unfortunate

It is indeed a very bad thing that happened and hopefully all that need to be punished will eventually get what is due.

We were houseparents for a couple years in the early 80's before there was any type of union or association etc. for houseparents. At that time there was a good houseparent accused of molesting a senior division girl, the houseparents were suspended immediately but later promised that if they found the girl was not telling the truth she would be gone and they would get their home back. Well, the girl was not molested, and she was not removed from the school. They gave the houseparents a different student home and eventually all was well. I seem to remember the houseparents wrote some articles for the one Christian publication called "Guideposts" because it was their nature to forgive.

At that time Milton Hershey did a lot of covering up, but it was for the students, the police would forget to file official reports and the school would cover the expenses for damages and take care of any discipline. Back then, our biggest complaint was because of the privacy concerns, the school would take basket cases that other agencies would give up on and put them into a home without informing the houseparents of potential problems that could occur, so you could have a student that would abuse another, and this could go on for a long time before the houseparents found out. Back then, houseparents avoided talking about those type of things - it was a sort of shame on the houseparent if anything ever happened in their home. Finding good substitute house parents was a difficulty , the students would play "Sink the Sub" they would try to find ways to destroy the sub and drive them off. Most things that went wrong did so on the weekends the regular house parents were off, just as most problems seemed to to be after the children returned from being with their sponsors. At that time the regular houseparents got every other weekend off.

We were subs for what was considered one of the strictest student home in intermediate division, a home run by a MHS alumni and we were offered to move into a full time position rather unexpectedly because a student home was taken over by the students, the houseparents lost control over their senior division boys, the school moved a lot of the boys to other homes to split them up and moved the houseparents to another home to get a fresh start as well. I don't know how often that sort of thing happened but when you have 14-16 young men, (up to age 18) from tough areas ganging together under the right circumstances , well it can happen. The school was good at those sort of things, they would move the students, change houseparents, whatever it took, they hated to give up on anyone. Most outsiders see the students as just poor individuals, but some are individuals that all the other child care agencies in their area gave up on, mixed in with the innocent , "poor" individuals your read about. I can understand that some judges, district attorneys, police etc would let things go, they knew the only chance many of these kids had was Milton Hershey. Maybe Milton Hershey could not turn the kid into an ideal person, but maybe it could at least start a spark that would help guide the adult later on in life.

I don't know the answers, did not know them back then but do believe that overall, MHS did more good than bad. Some of the students, even though they may not be on par with children their same age that came from good, secure , loving home,- they were still far better off then if they had not gone to Milton Hershey School. The houseparents we knew were all great people, they really were dedicated to helping. We did not agree with some of their views or even how they operated their homes, but that was the beauty of MHS, they had so many different personalities they could juggle until they found a winning combination for the students. MHS was different years ago, heck we had to be up every morning for the cows - every morning because it was a responsibility that needed to be done , you scheduled your day around it.

Once again, I am NOT suggesting I condone what has happened, I believe that all involved should be held accountable for their actions, and in true MHS fashion, I believe all will, even if it's not in this lifetime.


joe

[Name removed]

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