A Horace Mann sex-abuse victim who received a higher than average settlement from the elite private school because he complained four times that he was being molested says administrators gave offenders “a license to abuse” by ignoring his pleas for help.
Stephen Fife, a writer living in Los Angeles, claims he had one of the strongest legal claims against the school for sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of English teacher Robert J. Berman.
“Going back to Watergate, it’s the coverup, not the crime, that is unforgivable,” Fife, 60, said.
Berman is accused of abusing at least five victims.
Fife couldn’t disclose the amount of his settlement because he signed a confidentiality agreement.
The school has refused to allow an internal investigation into the widespread scandal that enveloped about 50 students and 20 teachers from the 1970s through the 1990s, despite demands by survivors.
Instead, the Bronx institution has paid out $4 million to $5 million to 27 former students, who had to agree to a gag order in return.
The average payout was about $150,000.
Fife’s attorney, Gloria Allred, believed she had a solid challenge to the statute of limitations because Fife had lodged so many complaints.
Berman allegedly tried to convince Fife to sleep with him by saying that the Greeks did it, Socrates slept with Plato and Plato slept with his students.
“I’d say, ‘Well that was then and this is now,’ ” Fife said.
Berman never succeeded in raping Fife, but did accost him in a hotel room during a trip to DC, shoving his tongue into Fife’s mouth and pushing him onto a bed.
Fife reported the encounter to the head of the school, Philip Leeworth, in 1970. Leeworth is now deceased.
He referred Fife to guidance counselor William Clinton, who Fife says warned him that “I would only hurt myself and my chance of getting into a good college if I made any public declaration against Berman.”
Fife went back to Clinton — who has since died — in 1994 and asked him why he protected Berman.
“He told me he now was forced to believe that, in fact, Berman had been molesting students, but he thought Berman was the most brilliant person he had ever met. He felt students were lucky to have a chance to study with him,” Fife said.
Berman, who lives in upstate New York, has denied having sex with his students.