Paris, France – The 55 year old principal of an Orthodox school in was indicted by a Paris judge on Thursday for failing to report sexual abuse in minors to the authorities, in an effort to protect the image of the Jewish community.
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According to reports on French news site RTL.fr, (http://bit.ly/W7ok4g) several students at the Beth Hanna school claimed to having been touched inappropriately by a supervisor at the school. When parents brought their concerns to the principal, identified only as “Benjamin M.”, he did not inform authorities of the possible abuse, and is accused that he also tried to convince parents not to make their claims public so as not to dishonor the Jewish community.
The supervisor in question was indicted in November and eventually fired by the school.
One family decided to ignore the warnings of the principal to keep their silence and took the matter to the minors brigade of the Parisian police, which led to his subsequent indictment. Two parents were also taken into custody in relation to the alleged abuse but were released without being charged.
Beth Hanna, located in northeast Paris on Rue Petit, is reportedly the largest Lubavitch school in Europe with an enrollment of approximately 2,000 children.
The schools should maintain every effort of symbolance of rules and regulation. We cannot have this permeate the school. A gitten bis nechte voch.
I will never understand how a parent can remain silent when his/her child is abused. How do they sleep at night???
I wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg??
If he was indeed aware of abuse, and if he did indeed fail to report (or encouraged others not to report), then he deserves jail time and worse. Hopefully this will be part of a bigger trend of locking up all mandatory reporters who fail to do so, be they teachers, Rabbonim, social workers, or anyone else. Anyone who helps to conceal abuse is guilty of enabling ongoing abuse, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
What will the spinners say now?
Imagine you worked your life keeping up a school – I would like to see you hand your teachers over to civil authority.
What will happen if this principle puts down a member of his community reports them and hands them over the Goyshe authority. During the court session the alleged abuser might reveal many other things happening in the school or the community (not related to abuse) and lead to the school closing down and many other arrests.
it says here that the supervisor was fired from the school so i wouldnt say the principal was in denial or negligent. Although he should have reported all this maybe he did to the local frum authorities. we don’t know if he took other precautions. (not trying to side with anyone here just to be reasonable)
“There are far better ways of dealing with abusers within our community.”
How? Does דינא דמלכותא דינא no longer apply in yiddishkeit- except when it suits *you*?