A poly prep alumnus, angry at how administrators at the private Brooklyn school have handled allegations that a longtime football coach sexually abused students, says he will withhold a planned $1 million donation to the school. Â Read more after the jump.
“It’s time to tell Poly Prep that what they are doing is not working for the alumni,†said Ron Schachter, a member of Poly Prep’s class of 1971 and a manager of accused child molester Phil Foglietta’s football team.
Schachter, a Boston journalist who works for NPR and other media outlets, said his family founded Kleinfeld Bridal, the Manhattan bridal salon featured on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress†reality show. Schachter said he had planned to donate $1 million to his alma mater over a five-year period in honor of his parents, after his 87-year-old mother dies. He recently wrote a letter to headmaster David Harman expressing his anger at how Poly Prep has handled the allegations — and that he was going to withhold his planned $1 million gift.
“We had no knowledge of Mr. Schachter’s intention to donate to the school until he wrote the letter you mention,†Poly Prep spokesman Malcolm Farley told the Daily News. “Other Poly alumni and parents have made gifts, big and small, this year. Our focus right now, however, is keeping our students safe and offering them an outstanding education, in and out of the classroom.â€
The school, as detailed in a two-part series that ran this week in The News, was sued in Brooklyn federal court two years ago by nine men who claim they were sexually abused by Foglietta, Poly Prep’s football coach from 1966 to 1991. The lawsuit, which claims Poly Prep violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, says Poly Prep officials knew about the abuse for decades but did not do anything to stop it for 25 years. Former headmaster William M. Williams, according to court records, said he did not renew Foglietta’s contract in 1991 after another member of the class of ’71, David Hiltbrand, told him he had been abused by Foglietta. Foglietta died in 1998.
Poly Prep’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a legal claim under the anti-racketeering statute that has traditionally been used to prosecute mobsters.
“We are all deeply disturbed by these events,†said Harry Hellenbrand, the provost of California State University at Northridge and a 1971 Poly Prep graduate. “These things happened to some of our closest friends.â€
Hellenbrand said he understands the school’s need to defend itself against litigation, but that school administrators need to publicly acknowledge that the abuse occurred and offer help to men who were abused as teenagers.
The plaintiffs’ alumni supporters say they are furious about two letters sent to Poly Prep alumni, faculty and parents in recent weeks by Harman. The first, responding to a post on a Washington Post blog by Poly Prep graduates Hellenbrand, Bernard Bauer and Kenneth Stern, drew parallels between the Brooklyn school and the sex-abuse scandal that cost Penn State football icon Joe Paterno his job. Harman rejected the comparison.
Stern, a New York attorney and expert on anti-Semitism, said Harman’s letter lacked compassion and failed to explain how Poly Prep would assist the men who say they were raped and assaulted by Foglietta. “The lesson the current students are learning is ‘lawyer up’ and hope for the best,†Stern said.
The second letter, sent last week, announced the formation of a task force that would advise the school on how to bolster its sexual-abuse prevention policies.
Schachter says the school is missing the point. “I don’t think Harman would let something like this happen again on his watch,†the Boston journalist says. “But there is something tone-deaf about his response.â€
“He manually copulated me,†Doe IV told The News. “I was 14 years old and I walked back to the locker room in a daze. I couldn’t tell my parents. I didn’t know what was going on inside of me.â€
The next incident, Doe IV says, came a year or so later, when Foglietta invited him to his home to review game films.
“We thought he lived with his mother, so it would be OK. You couldn’t say no to the man. It happened again, this time by force. He pinned me down on a bed. It was over in a minute.â€
Doe IV was sitting in his parents’ home one night that summer when there was a knock on the door. It was Foglietta, who begged him to come to his Bay Ridge apartment. Doe IV says he told Foglietta to get lost.
Doe IV became Foglietta’s whipping boy that year. He called him “faggot†and other names during team meetings and encouraged defensive players to nail Doe IV during practices. Doe IV completed 11 of 15 passes and scored three touchdowns during a game in his senior year. He asked Foglietta for film to show to college recruiters. Foglietta, he says, edited him out of the film.
