For those wondering how to dispose of your lightly used Prada handbags, Horace Mann student Lucy Golub would like to hear from you. The junior is holding a clothing drive she’s calling Designer Collections, in which she’s seeking high-priced designer items to help raise money for victims of sexual abuse at the school. “Lucy feels that current students want to help the survivors, who were once HM students just like them, and not stand by as observers,” reads a fund-raising email on her behalf, as quoted by The New York Post. Huh. Isn’t that the kind of thing the school should be paying for itself, as a basic recompense after decades of institutionalized abuse? Sadly, not in every case.
While some Mann abuse victims have reached settlements with the school for what they suffered when they were students, others have found New York’s statute of limitations working against them, and haven’t been able to take legal action. Mann’s latest position on the issue is that while it’s sorry things happened, it shouldn’t have to release the records of abuse, because that would give victims “an unfair negotiating advantage.” Designer wardrobes to the rescue!
Note: This post has been updated to remove a quote from Mann alum Robert Boynton, who wrote to Daily Intelligencer to say his statement, apparently critical of Lucy’s effort, had been taken out of context by The Post.
