‘HOUSE OF HORRORS’
5 MORE STUDENTS SUE SCHOOL, ALLEGE PHYSICAL, SEXUAL ABUSE
PHILADELPHIA » Attorneys representing hundreds of former students at the Glen Mills Schools announced five new lawsuits had been filed Wednesday alleging rape, physical abuse and cover-ups at the institution in order to continue receiving millions of dollars’ worth of state funding.
“The Glen Mills School was touted as a prestigious reform school,” said Nancy J. Winkler, an attorney with Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C., representing the men. “The façade outside was a stark contrast to life inside the walls. Glen Mills was a house of horrors.”
The complaints name only the Glen Mills Schools as a defendant, but do include the names and aliases of several specific staff members plaintiffs claim sexually, physically and emotionally abused them during their stays at the institution.
Though some of the named counselors have since died, it was unknown Wednesday whether the others are being investigated for criminal conduct by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Delaware
County District Attorney’s office, which does not comment on ongoing investigations.
The Glen Mills School, the oldest school of its kind in the nation, came under serious scrutiny following a Philadelphia Inquirer report in February that alleged students there suffered decades of abuse at the hands of employees.
The 193-year-old institution has since seen the departure of former director Randy Ireson along with nearly all staff and all of its students, which were removed under an emergency order from the Pennsylvania Department of Human
Services. All 14 of the school’s licenses have been revoked and it is the subject, with other defendants, of several individual and class-action lawsuits.
“Despite Glen Mills’ advertised image, Glen Mills’ leadership created and maintained a culture of fear and abuse, and ignored the medical and educational needs of its residents,” according to one lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Wednesday. “The juveniles placed at Glen Mills suffered systematic physical, sexual, and/ or emotional abuse at the hands of Glen Mills’ leadership and staff.”
The complainants allege staff at the school sexually abused and anally raped them, beat them to the point of requiring medical care that often was not provided, and threatened to kill them if they reported the sexual or physical abuse committed against them or other students.
“Every day at Glen Mills was a horror movie,” said plaintiff Laboy Wiggins during a press conference at Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck’s Spruce Street offices Wednesday. “Every day in Glen Mills, to me, was the worst part of my life. And I’m still suffering from it to this day and I’m 48 years old today.”
Wiggins’ complaint alleges he was sexually abused by a counselor nearly every other day he was on staff, who would put his fingers into Wiggins’ anus while touching Wiggins’ penis or his own.
“Every time this staff member got a chance to sexually assault me, he did it,” said Wiggins. “Every time they got a chance to put their hands on me, they did it. I reported this, I got my head slammed against a wall, glass broke all in my head. I said this happened, I got slammed on the floor.
Every day I’m reliving this in my head. Every day.”
When Wiggins attempted to ward off the staff member, he was beaten, according to the complaint. When he sought help from a superior, he was first beaten by the superior and then the staff member who was assaulting him was called in to beat him again, the complaint says.
Wiggins said they threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the sexual abuse, which was frequently accompanied by racial epithets and more violence.
Winkler indicated the school attempted to cover up the alleged abuse because it was receiving approximately $52,000 per year in tuition for each juvenile placed in the facility, generating approximately $40 million in revenues annually. Eventually, Wiggins tried to flee, but he was caught and beaten again, this time losing a tooth. He also allegedly suffered injuries requiring stitches to his head, arm and leg from assaults. The leg became infected but he said he was never taken to a hospital.
When asked why he was coming forward now, decades later, Wiggins said he decided to speak up when he was finally given the chance.
“Every time I tried to speak up I was beaten, so I went into this dark shell because I thought every time I said something about this, I was going to be beaten or I was going to be ignored,” he said.
Wiggins said he was at the school for about six
months in 1987. But Tawfeeq Abdul-Lateef, another plaintiff present Wednesday who was at Glen Mills in 2016 and 2017, said not much had changed in the intervening 30 years.
“They would frequently spit in my face and call me a n——,” said Abdul-Lateef. “I watched staff beat and break the jaw of another student, then threaten me if I reported it and told anybody about that attack.”
Abdul-Lateef did not allege sexual abuse, but said he had been the victim of “all calls,” where multiple staff members would take turns beating a student, and “green lights,” where counselors directed other students jump a peer. During one assault, Abdul-Lateef said he chipped a tooth that became infected, but he was not provided medical care either.
“Just imagine 30 grown men, all over 180 (pounds), all in shape, they all had this type of anger sown into them and they just had to let their rage out on us,” he said. “It was like watching a Royal Rumble and you’re the only one getting in and out of the ring.”
Abdul-Lateef said the experience robbed him of a promising football career he had dreamt about since he was 7 years old and left him scarred and distrustful for life.
“Glen Mills was supposed to help me and get me on the right path. Instead it seems I went on a detour,” he said. “Now I have emotional breakdowns and feel like just a failure in life. Glen Mills Schools took from me the positive light I had as a teenager and now all that’s left is darkness.”
Another plaintiff who has filed under the initials “M.A.” claimed he was a student at Glen Mills in 1981 and was frequently taken by staff to an area known as “the tunnels,” where he was also sexually abused and raped. This would take place two to three times per week, according to that complaint, with one staff member keeping watch while the other raped him before trading places.
Another plaintiff placed in the facility in 2007 said he was beaten while in the shower and dragged out naked, then forced to pick lint from the floors of Hayes Hall for more than an hour.
“These allegations we learned of today can only be described as heartbreaking,” said Glen Mills spokesman Jeff Jubelirer in a statement. “Our attorneys are now evaluating the lawsuits. In the meantime, Glen Mills Schools continues to cooperate with all governmental authorities.”
Abdul-Lateef and Wiggins are among 13 plaintiffs represented by Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, and Dion, Solomon & Shapiro, L.L.C, though Winkler said the firms plan to file suits on behalf of more than 300 men who attended the school between 1976 and 2018.
Winkler said she hopes the suits can get the plaintiffs some compensation for their alleged abuse, but also that they help shine the light on how oversight needs to be reformed in the state.
The complaints each allege claims for negligence, negligence per se and negligent infliction of emotional distress, for which they are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $50,000. Wiggins and M.A. are additionally alleging fraudulent concealment and civil conspiracy claims.
At least two other lawsuits are pending in federal court from other firms representing former students. U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III, of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, last month denied nearly all of the defendants’ motions to dismiss one lawsuit brought by the Juvenile Law Center, Education Law Center and Dechert LLP on behalf of four other plaintiffs and their parents.
Glen Mills is meanwhile now under the leadership of Acting Executive Director Chris Spriggs and board President Carolyn Seagraves, who say they are focused on retooling every aspect of the program to bring the school back online with a different atmosphere and culture.
But Adbul-Lateef and Wiggins made it clear Wednesday that they do not believe the school should reopen.
“I think that they’re going to put a Band-Aid on it right now … but after two or three years, it’s going to remain the same,” said Wiggins. “If Glen Mills School opened back up, it’s going to continue the pain, it’s going to continue what it did. Y’all cannot let the school open back up, by any means necessary.”