What Happens When an OJ Rabbi Gets Creepy? October 18, 2009
Posted by qvashty in OJ schooling, religion.trackback
Lately there has been a lot in the news- and the blogosphere- about the Orthodox community and sexual abuse, particularly concerning its failures to address the problem. This has gotten me thinking about my own OJ school. I can not really say if anyone was abused or not, since of course I heard nothing about it. There was a rabbi that the boys claimed was touchy-feely with them, but nothing beyond that. He was the principal, anyway, so there was nowhere to go for complaints.
But there was a rabbi with a very unfortunate last name whose girls’ halacha class I really hated (intellectually) and was able to get out of. This is how:
Another girl, one who was known for being well-behaved and a model bas torah, insisted that he touched her in class and made her uncomfortable, so she got to take a private class with a female teacher. I claimed that Rabbi —–’s class was too difficult for me and I got to join the private class.
It is interesting upon reflection that the school clearly believed this girl- otherwise she would have been forced to stay in the class like everyone else- but took her out of the classroom and left the rabbi there with a bunch of teenage girls. I can’t say what happened in class after that, because I had escaped to more intellectually fertile terrain. But while we girls could be publicly reprimanded by whatever rabbi had the pleasure of doing “skirt check,” apparently smichah protected our authority figures from the same scrutiny.
It may be that they didn’t have any idea if the accusations made by your friend were accurate or not. So without more data they decided to ere on the side of caution by separating the two. If that’s the case, I hope they then kept a very close eye on the teacher. This isn’t an unreasonable course of action given the circumstances as you’ve described them.
Also, at some level I find the whole “skirt check” thing to be in general more disturbing.
Ah, skirt checks. They made girls cry. The rabbi-principal would randomly enter our classrooms and we would all stand up for inspection…. as with all rules, tzniyes was more strictly enforced upon scholarship students. If the skirt was deemed too short, you got sent home.
Lots of girls wore tight high-collared tops, but I don’t know of anyone besides myself who ever got in trouble for one.
No way would they keep a close eye on an ordained rabbi. Anyway I appreciate your comment on the situation, even though it didn’t play out that way. It was more like, so he must have bothered her, so she (not a scholarship student) got to leave the class without any to-do. The school kept one family happy while avoiding the embarrassment of firing or even investigating a teacher for inappropriate classroom conduct.
To be honest, as one of the more contentious and apathetic students in Rabbi —-’s class, I never experienced any physical or otherwise sexually suggestive contact with him whatsoever. I was pretty surprised to hear that this happened, but this girl was also a real bas torah, honest, someone who actually took notes in halacha class, and not rebellious or trying to rock the boat. So in a choice between trusting her account or my reluctant memory of being in that miserable room, I’d go with hers. In fact, the school clearly trusted her to tell the truth, but did not find it to be particularly alarming.
Well in that case, there’s no reasonable defense of the school’s behavior. That’s just despicable.