Transcript

47 power abusers · Dits & Dahs

Sue: Forty seven respondents bubbled up by seventy alum. That's what the investigative report that was issued by Interlocken about the abuses that happened mostly from the sixties to the naughty, for which the report was instigated by Epstein, who was a bassoonist there at the summer camp in nineteen sixty seven, and a subsequent donor and serial abuser. When I was a student at the Academy in nineteen seventy seven. Academy was founded in nineteen sixty two out of a established summer camp, the interlocking arts camp, established in the twenties. At the time it was aff affiliated with University of Michigan and had been, as the New York Times described it, the arts camp and the subsequent academy were considered to be a place for teenage prodigies and those that could afford to send their kids to summer camp and the boarding school to study the creative arts. I was a student at the academy after having two summer sessions as an all state camper. And what got me overall was that it was a situation that was not unfamiliar to music students. It's all based around the student teacher relationship, the power dynamic of somebody in with authority sharing their knowledge and information. It doesn't really matter in the life, whether the student is adult or a child, but in the context of the forty seven respondents it was a certainly that all of the alum, they were not yet of legal age. Again, an adult can be abused in that way. So the particular focus of a place where students have private time to study their instruments with their instructor in a closed room, with or without window. Situation of having students being taught by professors or teachers in a private setting was, you know, necessary for the sake of focusing on the music to be learned and whatnot. And so for anybody that would have tendencies to want to abuse others, perfect opportunity, and by no means is it exclusive to Interlochen, but it does speak to the ease by which those who are carrying entity attachments can transfer that to other vessels. I had my own situation going on, but it wasn't affiliated with Interloken, although he did come to visit interlocking at one point and this brings up the point that when children are attending the arts academy, the parents sign guardianship to the school. And the school basically, the academy, keeps the students on campus either for off campus trips or big trips. Big trips are your tours, you know, where you take your performing ensembles out on the road and perform. Basically as a recruitment for other students. Off campus trips are those where, you know, once a week you might get on a bus to go into town to Do shopping on your day off, for example. Or signed out to go off your normal turf to a faculty house that might still be on campus. But nonetheless, the sign in and sign out process was to make certain you were where you were to be and everybody knew. So when you have one alum who signs out to go to a faculty house and doesn't return till the next morning, ⁓ a fair amount of people know about it. Your dormates, your roommate, your resident advisor, anybody who checks the Security locks, the sign in locks. There didn't seem to be any need at any time to put those situations under purview, even when people commented about it. The trust that those who were hired as adults to work at the academy in whatever capacity, whether it be staff or teachers or advisors, trustees, etc., really didn't come under a lot of purview. But what I speak to is the fact that you have a very vulnerable situation no matter where you are, when you have a one on one relationship. Teacher student in a private setting. Is it always corrupt? No. But it brings to the point that I had, as a child, started teaching privately, and then as a young adult musician, students were my way of making some extra money. Now, for many years, I drove and taught my lessons at the students' homes. I always made sure I was out in a living room. I don't have those tendencies as those respondents did. You know, there are ways to mitigate that potential corruption of power when you are able to teach your lessons in a more open setting, even if it's still a little private. I always thought it was very helpful for the parents to be aware of the things that I was helping the student focus on so that they could help guide them in their private practice sessions. Over the years with some of those families, they often invited me to dinner after lessons. And some of those students I still keep in touch with. But the student teacher relationship in this case, the power dynamic Is that even in that setting, we are all equal, and it's imperative on the one that has the authority to wield power, to do so justly, treating a student less than they wish to be treated. And if they recognize that that's in fact how they want to be treated, well, there's an issue. A couple of those respondents were involved with the Academy for decades. And that's the thing about studying music from my perspective, is that this sort of abuse was built in. to this learning process, given the private nature of teaching. I experienced two such teachers, both of whom are deceased now. And I think as most, there was no point in raising a complaint because there would be nobody responding. It was always a situation of a child reporting and being dismissed or downplayed. Pretty soon you get to a place where you have no sense that you can be sharing your testimony and that it would be trusted as true. And so it was an open secret. Maybe it was a phase that they'll grow out of. Maybe it was just a miscommunication. Now as a teenager, supposed to identify what is a action that is of that nature and just an accidental brushing of their hand against you or putting their hand on your belly, let's say as a wind instrumentalist, to feel how your diaphragm is responding to the breathing that you're meant to be doing. Completely non actionable given the people who were listening. Everybody's awareness except the kids is not where it should be. I shouldn't surprise your prodigy. You're gonna be ahead of everybody else around you, adult or child. Of course you're not gonna be understood or listened to fully. Yeah. I think now though with all of these revelations, probably in the last decade or so, kids are better informed about what is and what isn't, and most important to have the strength to speak. You know, at the Academy, because the school was assigned as your guardian. Any infraction like getting caught smoking or drinking or whatever would be immediate expulsion, confirmation with a mosquito in my ear. And I don't know about other students, but I certainly was enamored of the institution that was gonna help me get closer to my professional goals as a musician. It was the place where I was in a community of four hundred and ten other students pursuing passion in the way that I was. You know, when you're in a public school setting, That's not the way that it works. So to be in a place where you could be secluded and focused in an environment that fostered creativity was was an amazing experience. Now some of the students at the time that I attended were there because their parents were in foreign service and kids were kind of creative and they had the money to pay the tuition, so they were accepted to be students mainly because they parents needed a babysitter, so to speak. I'm not I'm not judging the students' talent at all. I'm sure they were. confirmation with the bird tweet. Other students were placed at Interlaken that might have had a psychological or psychiatric condition that would have been better helped in a different, more directed mental health environment rather than interlaken, but nonetheless they were there. I had two roommates during the year that I was in Interloken. One moved out when a solo room became available in the dorm. She was from a at that point a very desolate area of the country, so I'm not surprised that she preferred to be on her own. The student that came in to replace her mid year was an aspiring concert pianist who was, I want to say, forced into being a concert pianist by her father, who lavished her with the best pianos and the best instruction and all of the things sending her to interlockin' to really focus on it. That child practiced eight hours a day. I'll tell you, as an experienced professional musician now and teacher, it's physically damaging to practice that kind of ⁓ time. God only knows what stress she was adding into it as well. So, you know, you're talking about possible physiological stress. Your mind is very difficult to train at that age to focus for that kind of session. I may be a slacker amongst my professional musicians, but generally what I'm able to do in a private session lasts about an hour and a half tops. It's that which your brain starts to go to mush that you have to step away. So eight hours is really quite quite excessive. She had a meltdown to the point that halfway through her half term was removed. I know this because I came home to my room, with her father and the resident advisor, each sitting on the beds. Conversation stopped, not sure what I should do, 'cause I was coming home to study. I quickly grabbed my fake book and my probably went down the hall to my former roommate's room, so let that pass. My point is is that even amongst this four hundred summer. student community. Students had different reasons for being the interlocken, and I'm sure in some cases being at Interlochen was a respite from whatever abuse they may be if experienced at home. During the year that I was there, I was hoping to do two years so that I could have a high school diploma that stated I was an Interlochen Arts Academy alum. At the time they mandated a two year minimum to achieve an awarding of an a diploma with their name on it, mainly 'cause they didn't want people coming in their senior year and grabbing the glory. I believe they've since changed that, but wherever that's at, all of the rules were in place such that, you know, if a male student was in a female's dorm room, the door had to be open, one foot each on the floor and no touching. NBC rule, no body contact rule when walking on campus. So you see you start to have this environment where everything becomes quite closeted. As a child you're learning some very adult lessons about discretion, not telling on other students for the fear that they would get expelled and their life would be a Much worse off than what it was at that moment. Weird things for a teenager to have to consider. But that's not a fault of anything, it's just the environment that can happen anywhere when everyone doesn't share the same level of awareness. I talk about that in the spiritual world. Just how important it is for you yourself to be aware who's in control of you. To be aware that any time, without exception, that you're feeling off, that means you're not in control. Because You wouldn't rationally, logically, intend for you to feel lousy, would you? It's that kind of awareness. I'm proud to have been a student and included in that community of teenage prodigies, and I'm grateful to see things more clearly now, thanks to this investigation. My main takeaway is that it just wasn't one or two that had a reputation for abusing their students in that way. Forty seven. A third of those have died. And it's my understanding that when there are names and availability of details, to turn that over to the prosecuting attorney in the jurisdiction. Forty seven. If you think what's going on in your student's private lesson, you might. I'm not saying this to scare monger or to incite paranoia, but rather to have a better understanding of who has the power and to be aware of who has the power. You know what? It's ultimately you, the student. The parent, the bystander. Speak your truth, and thanks for listening.