Clarke Schools 45 Round Hill Road

Northampton, MA 01060-2123
for Hearing and Speech
VOICE 413.584.3450
FAX 413.587.0383

clarkeschools.org

April30, 2018

Dear Alumni of Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech,

We write to follow up on our letter of May 22"' informing you that we had learned that former students of
the legacy residential school made reports bf physical and sexual abuse by former teachers and staff of Clarke
Schools for Headng and Speech. As that letter noted, upon learning of these reports, the Clarke Schools for
Hearing and Speech Board of Trustees retained d1e law firm ofDebevoise & Plimpton LLP to conduct an
independent investigation into the reported abusive behavior and any other matters raised in the course of
that investigation. Clarke has made many changes over its long history and d1e Clarke of today is not the
same school that it was decades ago. We hoped that by finding the truth, the School could provide some
measure of healing to the victims of abuse and also help the community learn from the past. We wish now to
update you on the results of Debevoise' s work.

Since May, Debevoise has conducted an extensive investigation into the reported abuse. They reviewed school
records and archives, and conducted numerous interviews of former students, current and former faculty
members, and former administrators. Debevoise also contacted dozens of individuals direcdy via phone, video
phone, email, and US mail, asking them to come fmward if they had any knowledge that might assist the
investigation. Some of the individuals with whom the investigators had contact and whom mey believe have
relevant information decided not to speak with them. The investigation was also limited by the passage of
time. For instance, there were people with relevant information who are now deceased.

We acknowledge here that the work of the investigators was largely dependent on the willingness of
commnniry members to come forward and share information and that we are greatly indebted to those who
helped the investigators. We recognize that coming fmward to share stories of abuse can be very difficult and
that mere may well be other victims, as well as individuals with relevant information, who did not speak with
Debevoise. Given the personal nature of the matters discussed, the investigators, as well as the School, have
worked to preserve the privacy of those individuals that came forward.

We are deeply upset by what the investigation found. While we understand that most of the reported
behavior took place decades ago, predominantly during me 1950s to 1970s, we realize that it continues to
cause great pain. Clarke's teachers and staff were trusted to care for students and keep them safe and that trust
was broken. Clarke's core values were ignored and the School failed to adequately safeguard the safery and
well-being of its students. The key findings of the Debevoise investigation are attached.

On behalf of the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech Board of Trustees and the entire community, we
offer our sincerest apology to those who suffered from any abuse while at Clarke.

Boston • Jacksonville • New York • Northampton • Philadelphia

As a pioneer in oral education for the deaf, Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech has a rich history that we
are proud of. However, this investigation has made clear that there have been poinrs in our history that we
need to confront and come to terms with. We cannot undo this suffering, but aim to learn from the past.
With this in mind, we will continue to do our utmost to protect the safery of our students. Today, Clarke has
no tolerance for the neglect or abuse of any student, and our faculty and staff receive professional
development that emphasizes student safety, maintaining appropriate student-teacher relationships, and
reporting requirements.

Sincerely,

Mary Ellen Nevins Theodore Mason Steve Raab

The Special Committee of the Board of Trustees of Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech-Responsible for
Overseeing the Review of Debevoise & Plimpton

2
Report to the Board of Trustees of
Clarke Schools for Hearing and
Speech

The content of this report is sensitive, personal, and

graphic. It is not intended for children. Reader discretion
is advised.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Helen Cantwell
Meredith Stewart

919 Third Avenue

New York, NY 10022

April30, 2018
Overall Findings

The investigation focused on determining the extent of any abuse (physical or sexual) of
students by adults employed at Clarke at its residential school in Northampton and what
the School knew of the abuse. The residential school closed in 2012.

The investigators spoke to numerous individuals including former students, current and
former faculty members, and former administrators. Investigators also reviewed
documents including correspondence files of former Presidents, Board of Trustees'
meeting minutes, yearbooks and annual reports, and other materials from the School
archives.

The investigators fmmd tmcontroverted evidence that over the course ofmany years,
Mary E. Numbers used extreme corporal ptmishment against many students and also
emotionally abused students. Additionally, the investigators found that George T. Pratt,
the school's President and top administrator during many of the years in which reports
against Numbers occurred, was aware ofNumbers's excessive use of corporal
punishment and did nothing to curb her misconduct.

Investigators also corroborated firsthand reports that Numbers's brother, Fred C.

Numbers, Jr., inappropriately touched girls by kissing them on the face and mouth.
Investigators also received credible reports, although not firsthand, that he touched girls.

The investigators also received reports concerning other former employees of Clarke
engaging in various forms of corporal punishment. Given the volume of reports of
corporal punishment from the 1950s to 1970s, investigators found that there was a culture
that tolerated teachers and staff using corporal punishment at Clarke's residential school.

The investigators also received several reports from former students who attended Clarke
from the 1950s to the early 1980s about houseparents and teachers who lived in the
dorms acting inappropriately with students. There were limitations to investigating
specific reports. However, while only some houseparents and teachers were reported to
have engaged in this behavior, based on the reports made, investigators found that there
was a lack of boundaries set in the dorms regarding how adults were to interact with
students resulting in fewer protections for students.

Mary E. Numbers

Mary E. Ntunbers was employed by Clarke from 1919 to 1963, from the approximate
ages of 21 to 64. Nmnbers began her career at Clarke in 1918, but left in May of1919
due to illness. When she returned in September 1919, she repeated her training and

1
started teaching in the Middle School. 1 She was a teacher in the Middle School from
1919 to 1929 when she became Teacher-in-Charge ofGawith Hall. In January through
June of 1957, Numbers took a leave from Clarke iu order to serve as Visiting Supervisor
of the Junior League Speech School in Atlanta, Georgia. She returned to her role as
Supervising Teacher ofthe Middle School in 1957 until her retirement in 1963.

After her retirement, Numbers still had a role at Clarke, including visits to the school,
speaking at the commencement of new Clarke graduates, and writing about Clarke's
history-at the invitation of the Board ofTmstees-in her book, My Words Fell on Deaf
Ears.

Numbers died on September 18, 1979. Clarke's annual report for the 1978 to 1979
school year included a tribute to her.

Investigators received multiple reports from former stndents of Mary Numbers engaging
in constant and extreme corporal punishment. Investigators received these reports of
corporal punishment from 15 individuals who either experienced or witnessed the abuse.
Those who contacted Debevoise about Numbers covered a range of years at Clarke-they
attended Clarke from the 1940s to the 1960s. These individuals made reports of
Numbers slapping stndents' hands with a hairbmsh repeatedly, slapping a stndent on the
face, paddling students over their underwear in fi·ont of their classmates, squeezing a
stndent's nose so hard that it bled, and more. A former Clarke administrator also told
investigators that Numbers was known for using a hairbrush to slap stndents on the
hands. A number of individuals expressed that Numbers engaged in this conduct as a
means for humiliating students. Given the young age of these stndents and their
limitations to communicate effectively, these experiences were particularly terrifying.
During the course of their work, it was clear to investigators that Mary Numbers was a
great source of suffering for many alumni and the investigators found these reports of
Numbers engaging in extreme corporal punishment credible.

Clarke's structnre included three parts of the School-the Upper School, the Middle
School, and the Lower School. Each School had a Supervising Teacher or Teacher-
in-Charge.

2
The investigators also received reports that Numbers engaged in emotional abuse such as
reading students' private letters, telling a student that she would not see her parents again
if she were ever late to church again, and demeaning the less advantaged children.
Investigators also found these reports credible. 2

Fred C. Numbers, Jr.

Fred C. Ntunbers, Jr., the brother of Mary E. Numbers, was employed by Clarke from
1955 to 1957. He was a teacher in the Middle School. Prior to working at Clarke, he
worked at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf from 1936 to 1953 before
retiring. Available records suggest that Numbers and his wife came out of retirement to
work at Clarke when Clarke encountered some unexpected vacancies. Numbers and his
wife retired again in 1957 before taking on part-time positions at the Junior League
Speech School in Atlanta, Georgia. Numbers died on June 14, 1982.

Two individuals reported that during his two years at Clarke, Numbers engaged in
inappropriate touching by kissing girls on the face and mouth. Both individuals who
made these reports experienced this misconduct and noted that Numbers engaged in this
misconduct with other girls as well. Investigators found these reports credible.

During the course of the investigation, investigators also received nine consistent reports
that Numbers molested girls at Clarke, made inappropriate sexual advances on girls at
Clarke, or was otherwise sexually inappropriate towards girls. The victims of this abuse
would have been young children, approximately eleven years old or younger. Five of the
individuals who reported this noted that the sexual abuse occurred in the classroom.
Those individuals who were interviewed and reported this molestation or sexual
misconduct did not experience or witness the abuse. While investigators were unable to
speak with a victim of the abuse, based on other findings, investigators found these
reports credible.

Investigators also received reports from two individuals that Fred Numbers engaged in
corporal punishment by spanking students with a paddle and beating one student with a
stick. The individuals who made. these reports neither witnessed nor experienced this
abuse and investigators were not able to specifically corroborate these reports.

2
In the course of their work, investigators received eight reports from six individuals
of Mary Numbers engaging in sexual misconduct with students at Clarke; the reports
ranged from Numbers pulling boys' pants down to inappropriately touching
students' genitals. The individuals who made these reports neither experienced nor
witnessed the abuse reported. Because investigators did not receive any reports from
victims of such conduct, they were not able to make a specific finding related to
these reports, but the number of these reports dictates their inclusion here.

3
Clarke Administration Knowledge of Abuse by Mary and Fred Numbers

Knowledge o.fAdministration at the Time of the Abuse

George T. Pratt served as Clarke's fifth President from 1950 until his retirement in 1981. 3
Thus, he served as President of Clarke during the years in which a majority of the
reported incidents about Mary Numbers occurred. He died on December 31, 1998.

Investigators received reports from four individuals that their parents made complaints
about the use of corporal punishment to Pratt or "the school" while he was President.
Three of those reports were about Mary Numbers; the other was about her brother, Fred
Numbers. 4 Another individual noted that she witnessed a fellow
- - - - ' -- - ·- ..
student
... complain
- to .
Pratt about Mary Numbers while she was still at Clarke, and that Pratt's response was to
shrug. Another individual reported that he told Pratt about abuse from Mary Numbers
while a student and again as an adult. That individual reported that when he told Pratt
about the abuse again as an adult, Pratt's response was that he could not believe it; he
also told the alumnus that it was time to move on. Finally, others reported that it was
well known that Pratt would not do anything to punish Mary Numbers for misconduct
because she was responsible for him becoming President at Clarke.

Based on witness statements, investigators found evidence that Mary Numbers may have
played a role in Pratt obtaining his position at Clarke. Furthermore, investigators also
obtained evidence that Mary Numbers had significant influence over Pratt. For instance,
a former administrator noted that Pratt became involved with Clarke after seeing Mary
Numbers speak in Maryland-where they were both from. After seeing Mary Numbers
speak, he enrolled his daughter in Clarke a year before he became President.
Investigators also found multiple correspondences between Pratt and Mary Nunlbers-
while Pratt was President-in which he sought guidance from her on various
administrative concerns such as new hires and how to best run the school. The available
correspondence also indicated that the two were good friends in addition to being
colleagues; a witness statement from a former faculty member also corroborated this
view.

Investigators found that the weight of the evidence--including witness statements of

former students, the high volume of reports of Mary Numbers's extensive use of corporal

3
In 1964, the School transitioned the title of the head of school from "Principal" to
"President." Thus, prior to that year, Pratt served as Principal. While his title
changed, his position remained the same.
4
The report to Pratt about Fred Numbers involved the above-noted reports about his
use of corporal punishment which investigators were unable to specifically
corroborate.

4
punishment, a former administrator stating that Mary Numbers was known for her use of
a hairbrush, and available documentation-indicates that Pratt knew of Mary Numbers's
use of corporal punishment. Investigators did not find any evidence that Pratt took action
to curb this misconduct.

While at least one individual speculated that Pratt was aware of Fred Numbers's
misconduct with girls, investigators were not able to corroborate knowledge of Pratt or
any other Clarke administrator of Fred Numbers's behavior at the time.

Knowledge ofLater Administrations

Pratt's successor, Dennis Gjerdingen, served as President from 198lto 2007. As .

President, Gjerdingen heard reports that Mary Numbers, who was then-deceased, was
abusive towards students while she taught at Clarke. 5 Additionally, he learned of
allegations of sexual abuse against Fred Numbers by fonner students. While Gjerdingen
did not receive any reports from former students who stated that they experienced the
abuse, he did not investigate the secondhand reports to substantiate them or to determine
the extent of potential abuse. In his conversation with investigators, Gjerdingen noted
that he did not investigate because he believed all those with relevant knowledge,
including Pratt, were deceased.

Clarke's next President, William Corwin, served as President from 2007 to 2016. He too
was made aware of Mary Numbers's abuse during his tenure. He became aware of the
abuse when former students, led by one individual, complained about Nmnbers in a
YAHOO! group account. In response to these complaints, Corwin contacted the individual
who led the calls for an apology, and he met with that individual to discuss the
complaints of mistreatment at the hands of Numbers. In this meeting, Corwin told the
individual that Clarke was sorry for any mistreatment that he suffered and assured him
that at the time of the conversation, Clarke had a zero-tolerance policy for such
misconduct. Corwin reported this conversation to the Board. He also took certain
actions to remove items from Clarke's Northampton campus that could trigger memories
of abuse by Numbers. These actions included removing many copies of Mary Numbers's
book, My Words Fell on Deaf Ears, from display at the school and telling the
groundskeeper to not replace the plaque on a campus tree which honored her-a plaque
which alumni had routinely removed in protest. At the time, there was not a discussion
about conducting an independent investigation. While today' s best practices would call
for such an independent investigation, investigators found Corwin's response of meeting
with the alumnus reasonable. Investigators did not find any evidence that Corwin ever
learned of reports of sexual abuse against Fred Nmnbers.

5
Gjerdingen did not provide the names of Mary or Fred Numbers to investigators.
However, it was clear to investigators that he was referring to these two individuals.

5
Other Reports

Reports of Corporal Punishment

Investigators received reports of other former teachers and staff engaging in what we
would view today as extreme forms of corporal punishment. These reports of abuse were
primarily from students who were at Clarke from the 1950s to the 1970s. Former
students reported adults hitting students' hands with rulers, slapping students, spanking
students, shaking students, forcing students to wash their mouths with soap and more.
One former teacher who was willing to speak with investigators also acknowledged that
he used corporal punishment in the early 1970s by spanking students with a hairbrush.
He stated that while engaging in corporal punishment made him uncomfortable, he did do
it; he said that it was expected of him. Investigators found the reports of teachers
engaging in what we would view today as extreme forms of corporal punishment
credible.

Nationally, the use of corporal punishment in schools was not uncommon in the 1970s.
As of the Spring of 1977, only two states banned corporal punishment in public schools:
Massachusetts and New Jersey. 6 As of December 2016, 28 states banned corporal
punishment. 7 Investigators did not find evidence documenting a formal policy change at
Clarke prohibiting use of corporal punishment at a specific time. However, investigators
concluded that with changing societal views on the use of corporal punishment, and after
Pratt's administration, the use of corporal punishment at Clarke became rarer.

Reports of Sexual Misconduct

Investigators also received several reports of houseparents and teachers who lived in the
dorms acting inappropriately with students by bathing them (including touching their
privates while doing so in some instances), and looking at them naked. These reports
were made by students who attended Clarke from the 1950s to the early 1980s. While
these reports may be credible, there were limitations that prevented investigators from
making findings related to specific reports. However, while only some houseparents and
teachers were reported to have engaged in t.IJ.is behavior, based on the reports made,
investigators found that there was a lack of boundaries set in the dorms regarding how
adults were to interact with students resulting in fewer protections for students.

6
Jerry R. Parkinson, Federal Court Treatment OJ Corporal Punishment in Public
Schools: Jurisprudence That Is Literally Shocking to the Conscience, 39 S.D. L. REV.
276, 279, 311, n. 29 (1994).
7
Cory Turner, These States Allow Teachers and Staff to Hit Students, NPRED, Dec. 1,
2016, https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/20 16/12/011503 749071/these-statescallow-
schools-to-hit-students.

6
During the course of their work, investigators also learned that in the early 1980s, an
airport employee, JeffYouens, who escorted Clarke students on and off planes at the
airport, was investigated by police for sexual abuse of children and later convicted of
child rape. At the time, the police informed the School that they had reason to believe
that Y ouens may have sexually abused two students at Clarke. School administrators
spoke with the students in question and they confirmed that they were victims of sexual
abuse. Beyond speaking with these two students, investigators did not find any evidence
that the School took further steps to investigate to ensure there were not more victims at
Clarke. Indeed, senior leadership of the school who dealt with the police at the time
indicated that they did not do so and left the matter to the police.

Conclusion

This report represents Debevoise' s independent investigation of abuse (physical or

sexual) of former students by former adults employed at Clarke at its residential school in
Northampton and what the School knew of the abuse, based on information available to
it.

Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech has a rich history and investigators spoke to
many former students who were grateful for their time at Clarke. As is the case with
many schools with a long history, Clarke has gone through many improvements over the
years. One of these improvements is that today, Clarke expressly has no tolerance for the
neglect or abuse of any student, and its faculty and staff receive professional development
that emphasizes student safety, maintaining appropriate student-teacher relationships, and
reporting requirements.