New abuse claims surface at Bishops
Top Cape Town school vows to probe complaints
A TOP administrator at Bishops Diocesan College confirmed this week that several complaints of “physical and other” abuse at the prestigious Cape Town school had been made.
Mike Bosman, chairman of the Bishops council, said the school had taken urgent steps to uncover wrongdoing and had apologised to several former pupils.
This follows claims, reported in the Sunday Times last week, of sexual abuse and “inappropriate behaviour” at the school over more than two decades.
It has emerged that a housemaster, Leonard Kaplan, who was allowed to stay on at the school despite a complaint of inappropriate behaviour involving a Grade 11 pupil in 1990, resigned 19 years later after being charged with a similar offence.
“In 2009, allegations of ‘i nappropriate and unprofessional’ behaviour by Mr Kaplan towards boys was brought to the school authorities’ attention,” said headmaster Guy Pearson.
“The headmaster at the time charged Mr Kaplan with unprofessional conduct and Mr Kaplan resigned before a disciplinary hearing could take place. There was no evidence that his conduct was of a criminal nature, but rather ‘ unprofessional and inappropriate’.”
Kaplan, who was in communication with the school this week, did not respond to questions.
Although the school has refused to be specific about the allegations against Kaplan, several former pupils have alleged that he treated favoured pupils to alcohol and pornography.
In 1990, he allegedly made advances to one of his pupils, who reported the incident to his parents. Kaplan was subsequently moved out of the boarding house, but he was allowed to live on the property and continue teaching, coaching rugby and tutoring at the boarding school.
A falling-out over an even earlier incident surfaced this week in a letter sent by Bosman to a former pupil unhappy with the way Bishops had responded to his complaint. Bosman’s reply revealed that:
Bosman met Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba several times to discuss the alleged abuse, said to involve a junior pupil and his NOT AS IT SEEMS: Bishops Diocesan College in Cape Town “fag master”, in 1983;
The allegations prompted consultations with a psychiatrist, labour lawyers, a senior University of Cape Town law professor and an attorney for the Anglican Church; and
The complainant, now a successful businessman in the US, was branded “delusional” by one of his former teachers.
Bosman said the matter had caused him considerable distress: “[It] consumed me and distressed me beyond belief, especially when further allegations starting arising.
“It appeared to me that the school
He repeatedly insisted that the boy was delusional
might have been covering up these events to protect the school, the teachers and coaches concerned — at the expense of the boys. Those allegations of physical and other abuse have continued to flow in over the past few days from old boys.”
Bosman revealed that the complainant’s former housemaster, veteran teacher Tim Hamilton-Smith, had refused to acknowledge the gravity of the situation — and insisted the complainant was delusional.
“When the then principal, Grant Nupen, and others chatted to Tim Hamilton-Smith about the allegations and when he met the parents of the old boy about the matter, he repeatedly insisted that the boy was delusional and he could show no understanding for the possibility that the events in question could have taken place,” said Bosman in his letter to the complainant.
“He could not bring himself to apologise for the shocking allegations. He just flatly denied them.
“He sat for two hours in a meeting with the parents ‘like a sack of potatoes’, let Carolyn [Hamilton-Smith’s wife] do the talking and then got up and left.
“In Grant Nupen’s words, ‘Tim blew it’.
“Needless to say, this behaviour by Tim absolutely infuriated the old boy and his parents.
“All of this feedback supplied by Grant has been recently again corroborated by the parent of the old boy.”
Neither Nupen nor Hamilton-Smith responded to questions this week.
Bosman said this week that the current Bishops administration would not tolerate abuse of any kind.
“I believe that Bishops is a brilliant school, but it appears to me that in years gone by there was a level of behaviour by some boys and a few teachers and coaches that I would find completely unacceptable by today’s standards.
“I am saddened by some of the comments I have received recently from old boys about their experiences at Bishops and I have offered my apologies to them.”
He said the school now had stringent recruitment policies and a “confidential channel for pupils and past pupils to report abuse of any kind”.
Pearson this week strongly denied that there had been an attempt to cover up allegations against Kaplan.
“There is nothing new which would suggest that Mr Kaplan was involved in anything other than unprofessional or improper conduct,” he said.
The Bishops saga has prompted a long thread of online comments from former pupils on Facebook.
“I was gobsmacked to hear that [he] was still teaching when my son started seven years ago,” was one comment.