Will nobody think of the rapists?

[mme_hardy]

In the last month there has been a long sequence of ugly allegations (by multiple people, backing one another up) of sexual abuse by teachers at the Royal Northern Academy of Music. One former professor has just been arrested for rape. Another has revealed that he resigned in protest after his protests against hiring a known abuser were ignored.

The head of the school is, as you would expect, concerned.

Merrick, a professional clarinettist who took up her role on 10 January, said many teachers were now terrified that they could be falsely accused of abusing students. "I've had a lot of male staff coming to me and saying, 'There is no way I would ever, ever, ever condone this sort of behaviour, ever be in that sort of position, but I am really nervous about doing my job,'" she said.

"Remember, they've had a close colleague who had worked with them for quite a long time who was arrested completely out of the blue.

"Of course people are thinking: 'Well, it could be me. What if somebody raises an allegation against me and there was no substance in it?

What if -- and I realize this is just a woman's unsubstantiated whimsy -- students are thinking 'Well, it could be me. What if my teacher harassed me? Would I be believed, unlike the women who went before me?'

Somehow that doesn't seem to be the nightmare scenario most on Principal Linda Merrick's mind.

"As a "good employer", she had to protect her staff against false allegations, Merrick added. "The safeguarding issue goes both ways."

The current heightened sensitivity had not yet led to a witch-hunt, she said. "But I think there's a danger it could become that."

For years two different teachers at her school sexually harassed their female students. One woman committed suicide shortly after testifying at the trial of her teacher (he was convicted). One teacher resigned in protest when a known sexual harasser was appointed as the head of the string department.

As for any damage allegedly caused by RNCM teachers in the past, Merrick said she "may well" write to those women who claim they were abused or taken advantage of sexually at the college.

"When it's died down and we're clear who we are apologising to for what, then yes, we might well do that," she said.

You could start, of course, by apologizing to the people whose testimony led to the conviction, in a court of law, of one of your teachers. That one is pretty damn clear, no matter how much you'd like it to be ambiguous. While you're at it, you could apologize to Martin Roscoe, who tried to keep your institution out of the mess in which it now finds itself.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I am so sick of this shit.

[mme_hardy]

Yes. It does, unreasonably, particularly piss me off when it's a woman whose entire concern is with the feelings of the men who might be accused.

[recessional]

*tilts head*

As far as I can tell, these seem to be pretty clear-cut cases, right down to the guy resigning in warning/protest. So it seems to me that, indeed, if you would never ever condone that behaviour and never be in that position, you don't have that much to worry about.

[rinue]

I know whenever I hear about a robbery on the news, I'm terrified that when I walk into a store, everybody will expect me to just grab things off the shelves and run out, even though I would never do that. It's terrifying. I can't buy groceries for at least a month. What if they started interrogating me at the checkout line, patting me down in case I stuck gum in my pocket? I can't handle it.

[legionseagle]

I don't know what it is, but people seem to switch off anything resembling an inner editor when it comes to sexual assault and harassment. It's as if they can't hear themselves. Shirley Williams has just gone on record with regard to Lord Rennard with a comment that it's been blown up out of all proportion and "it's not like he was a Jimmy Savile" without apparently working out that "not a child rapist" is a rather low bar to set when considering the moral calibre necessary for someone to be the chief executive of a Government party. And there's a comment in this thread on the LibDem stuff that blows the mind:

The case here does not involve minors, and if what we have heard is all there is is fairly mild compared to what has happened in many other places. It is only recently that it has been taken seriously. For many years the “office groper” was taken to be a bit of a joke, and the senior manager who had “worked his way round the shop floor” wasn’t even a joke, sometimes he was almost admired for it. In my area of employment, academia, there was a time when female students were regarded as almost a perk of the the job – I hasten to add this was already over when I started my teaching career, but I’ve heard enough about some of the things that went on not that many years earlier.

I mean, what is he trying to say?

Incidentally, with regard to the story you're talking about, there are two institutions involved: Chetham's School of Music and Royal Northern College of Music . There's a good bit of confusion because not only did some of the people teach at both, people who started at Chet's would expect to go on to RNCM. This piece picks up on stuff I've heard said about Chet's, too.

But it's worth noting that any allegations relating to Chet's will almost by definition be allegations relating to minors, whereas RNCM won't be (or probably won't be) but may relate to people who've come up through the same system (one particularly boggling comment about the reappointed harasser Layfield) here:

The dossier included an email from Andrade, written to the college's then principal, Professor Edward Gregson. Urging Gregson not to appoint Layfield to head of strings, she wrote: "Are you aware that when we were 16, Malcolm Layfield took various students to the pub where large quantities of alcohol were bought for the girls which made them less able to resist what then followed?"

Gregson said in a statement on Monday that he and the RNCM board appointed Layfield in 2002 only "after much soul searching". He said: "If there had been serious reasons, based on recent evidence, that Mr Layfield's appointment would have posed any risk to them, I would have had no hesitation in rescinding his appointment. We certainly did not condone Mr Layfield's past behaviour – far from it – and made it clear that any serious allegations should be reported to the police.

He added: "Since his appointment, Malcolm Layfield has led his school with distinction, working successfully with large numbers of students and staff, undertaking overseas visits for the college, and as dean of performance helping to develop the academic life of the college."

(obsure legal note: the age of consent for sexual intercourse in the UK is 16 but the 2003 Sexual Offences Act made it an offence for a person in a position of power eg teacher or step-relative to have sex with a minor, that is, someone under 18. That's why all the dance around "over the age of consent" and "before 2002". What they are actually saying is "Yes, we know that he slept with sixteen and seventeen year olds who were his pupils, but it wasn't actually a criminal offence at the time."

[liadnan]

It's difficult to see how both Roscoe and Gregson can be telling the truth and I know which I believe...

[legionseagle]

Especially not given the contents of this dossier and the frankly bewildering concept of "third party evidence" which Gregson relies on (apparently, if you say "X is prepared to make a statement, here is the substance of it and here are X's contact details" contacting X or even taking any account of what X is prepared to say is right out because it is "third party evidence".)

[liadnan]

Fwiw, and if my contacts are typical, the pro and semi-pro music world of this country is not going to allow this one to drop.

[legionseagle]

I got the impression that a lot of them have been through the system and have seen what's been going on at first hand, or at least know Roscoe and the others who resigned over it.

[liadnan]

Yes, ultimately music is a small world. Even across broad specialisations: my close friend the lay clerk (and general semi-pro singer) knows Roscoe vaguely and speaks highly of his integrity (and his musicianship though that's hardly the point here)

[mme_hardy]

Check out the list of signers to a petition for an independent inquiry.

http://ianpace.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/petition-for-an-inquiry-into-sexual-and-other-abuse-at-specialist-music-schools-the-list-of-signatories/

[mme_hardy]

Gregson worked really, really #@#$234 hard to "not know for sure" about Layfield. It's almost as if he knew investigation would lead to something ugly...

[mme_hardy]

Damn. I had missed that distinction; it didn't help that, as you say, the same teachers often taught at both schools.

And that legal note is just disgusting. That little piece of subtext sailed over my head.

" It is only recently that it has been taken seriously. For many years the “office groper” was taken to be a bit of a joke, "

BY WHOM, I WONDER?!??!?! How seriously were the women harassed taking it? How much did they take the office groper as a joke? Just who is the hidden subject in your passive voice, and what gender is he?

[ankaret]

"When it's clear who we're apologising to for what?"

This morning, I need more coffee and more flamethrowers.

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

No disagreement on the overall picture you paint, but I need to note that you're conflating two separate music school harassment/rape scandals, both of which took and are taking place in Manchester.

The Royal Northern situation involves the string teacher Malcolm Layfield, appointed over the objections of pianist Martin Roscoe, who resigned in protest. The Guardian published 40 pages of correspondence related to Roscoe's stance and eventual resignation.

The Chetham's Music School (this is a preparatory music school, so students under 18) situation involved Michael and Hilary Brewer; Brewer has been convicted of various charges involved the late violinist Frances Andrade, who committed suicide in January. In addition, former string teacher Chris Ling, who now works as an agent/manager in the US, has been identified as a problem when he was at Chetham's.

British music journalist & blogger Jessica Duchen has a number of postings and links related to the situation, which is now up to nine accused teachers: http://jessicamusic.blogspot.com/

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the catch. I'd gotten confused.