News
Face Of A Monster
'Tormented by the memory of that first encounter ...'
As they waited for the start of the film, the principal of Kurn Hattin, Henry Rogers, was pacing back and forth, scowling at the boys. Carter paid attention and sat quietly because “I knew I needed to behave.” Then the principal stopped in front of him and said, “Pick up that gum.” Confused, Carter asked, “What gum?”
Rogers pulled the 45-pound boy up by the hair, threw him on the floor and ground his face into the linoleum. Then he calmly said, “I didn’t ask if it was your gum.” Then the imposing former Boston cop pulled Carter back up by the hair and told him to pick up the wad of gum. The other students watched as Carter, in a panic, scratched with his fingernails at the hardened deposit fused to the floor.
Anna Zonczyk Tilton - Mr. Rogers. Maybe around Christmas 1967? He looks like he may be holding .....
Theodore Nichols - Oh my gosh! I "wants to run and hide." Wow! Rogers was my night mare from elm street, "runs hand over the bumps still on head from knuckle sandwiches."
Randy Logsdon - I have worse nightmares about him. He was extremely physical with the boys and very hot tempered. If only you knew. When I posted about Mr. Rogers, I posted that Jimmy had found him. I was wrong. If it was a Powers' kid it would have been Jeff. I change my post to read, Jeffrey. Yet, my memory says it was Glen Cary. Any way, the story was, Mr Rogers was on break. Either Powers or Cary was passing the teacher break room and was asked by Rogers to get his cigarettes. When returning with the cigarettes, he was discovered dead. I was in my class room waiting for Rogers to return to class. Though shocking, it was a relief shameful to say. I later was selected to attend his funeral against my will.
Randy Logsdon - [Rogers] was encouraging a male student to rub his shoulders during gym as in a shoulder massage, however it was in plain sight and not sexual. This was the student he may have dunked in the toilet for leaving a hair on the faculty toilet after he said he cleaned it. Now, we did not see it. We just heard the threat before it happened and heard the screams as he discipline him, (that is abuse if it happened, but not sexual abuse.) This man did punch, hit me. He twisted my arms, thumbs, squeezed my fingertips into my palms. He gave me nuggies, and pulled my hair. He pulled chairs out from underneath students while they ate. This man also would do all these punishments in front of the other students in order to gain more control through fear. This fear has affected me throughout my life. He also catered to the girl students allowing them to sit on his lap during classes.
Kurn Hattin Alumni - I respected Mr. Rogers' fist!
Rogers was not only the principal; he was also the sports coach and an eighth-grade teacher, [and houseparent of Main Building]. His office was at the end of a hallway near the first- and second-grade classroom. He kept the door open. There was an easy chair where he’d sit smoking and glowering at the kids. Carter says he also held court there, “getting little boys to do his bidding and holding little girls on his lap.” “I dreaded walking past,” Carter said.
As an adult, Carter is still tormented by the memory of that first encounter with Rodgers, and the principal lives so large in his mind that he was surprised to learn that Rogers died of a heart attack just a few months after the chewing gum episode. When the first- and second-grade class was told about the principal’s death, a feeling of intense joy spread over him, and he convulsed in a fit of hysterical laughter. To suppress the sound, he wrapped his arms around himself — afraid he’d be caught laughing. “I was free, I was free forever.” But the feeling of rapture didn’t last long. While Carter’s mind was eased temporarily, life at Kurn Hattin remained a harrowing experience. ... Brutal Abuse of Power
Face Of A Cartoon
"Sixty instances of sexual aggression in 80 years is not, I repeat not, a pattern of abuse."
"Exactly how many instances of sexual aggression does it take to create a pattern of child abuse, Jeff?"
'I think the world is going to Hell.' - Jeff Danziger
"Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jeff Danziger: 'VTDigger reports that there have been 60 instances of sexual aggression. Sixty instances in 80 years is not, I repeat not, a pattern of abuse.'
"The Vermont bureaucracy disappears from responsibility and not surprisingly, moves to save itself. And no one, with the power to really help the poor, sad children, who barely comprehend this mess, takes any risk, or makes any effort. Stay tuned. It will probably get worse." ... Defending Decades of Alleged and Documented Abuse
Face Of A Good Man
"In A Cold Dark Place He Was An Emancipating Light"
Near the end of Carter’s time at Kurn Hattin, Joe Kemp and Joene Kemp, arrived as houseparents. "Kemp recalls rumors about problems with abuse at the school before he and his wife arrived ..." "They put an end to the skinny-dipping, and limited the bullying and abuse. Carter was grateful they were willing to defend the boys, and even more thankful that they were willing to treat him with respect and offer positive reinforcement. “She was talking to me like another adult,” he said. “That was the gift she gave me. She was never irritated or dismissive.” Those were rare qualities in caregivers at Kurn Hattin, he said. ... We Are What We Do Not What We Say We Do
Face Of A Denier
"Why don't - ALL Of You People - just get on with your lives!"
Carter says when his own children reached the age of 6, memories from the school came flooding back. “It was a horrifying epiphany,” he said. “I saw my own precious children in that place and understood that what once was normal in all that I ever knew was not normal.”
Over the years, Carter has reached out to former abusers and alums of Kurn Hattin to make sense of the place and what happened to him there. Former students are all “deeply connected to that place” because it is where they made their first friends and forged their first memories, he says. Children clung to friendships forged in harsh circumstances.
Carter asked Chris Barry, a former director of Kurn Hattin from the 1990s, to address the abuses, and he said was told “Why don’t you people just get on with your lives.” VTDigger attempted to reach Barry, but the most recent known phone number was disconnected.
Carter later contacted Harrison anonymously by email in March 2018, detailing what he knew and asking the director to look into the allegations. “With the recent changes and social awareness, what is Kurn Hattin doing to address its own abuses in the past?” Carter wrote. “Just because the residents at Westminster were male and many are now deceased, it does not relieve the entity that is Kurn Hattin of your responsibility. Willful blindness solves nothing and serves only to reinforce your complicity.”
Harrison asked Carter to meet with him. “I rarely respond to individuals who choose not to identify themselves, but in this case, I will make an exception.” He went on to say that he had “limited knowledge of the past,” the previous two co-directors had died, and Barry “has estranged himself from the Homes and has no contact with me on any matter.” ... Virtue-Signaling Duplicity
Face Of A Predator
"Davis Sentenced For Incidents [CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE!] At Kurn Hattin"
Brattleboro Reformer - May 9, 1990 Windham District Court Judge Robert Grussing III Tuesday sentenced Mark W. Davis, 27, to two years imprisonment and a lengthy period of probation on eight counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with students at the New England Kurn Hattin Homes in Westminster. In sentencing Davis, Grussing stuck to the plea agreement hammered out in March between prosecutors and Davis' defense attorney, which led to Davis entering pleas of no contest to the eight charges. In exchange for Davis' pleas, the state agreed to drop a ninth charge of lewd and lascivious conduct. In addition, prosecutors agreed not to bring any further charges against Davis, who, by his own account, according to court records, was implicated in the molestation of up to 17 students at the school over a four-year period.
Windham County Deputy State's Attorney Karen R. Carroll told the court the state was willing to abide by the terms of the plea agreement reached in March. That agreement specified that Davis be sentenced to one to five years imprisonment on two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct, all suspended but for one year on each count, and for two to five years on the six remaining counts, with all time suspended. In addition, the state stipulated that Davis complete a sex offender's treatment program, refrain from any contact with minors without appropriate supervision, and pay a portion of the counseling expenses incurred or to be incurred by his victims.
Grussing said the sentence outlined in the plea agreement was appropriate, since it provided both punishment and an opportunity for rehabilitation. He then sentenced Davis to two consecutive sentences of one to five years on two counts, and two to five years on the six remaining counts, with those sentences suspended, to be served consecutive to the first sentence in order to allow for a lengthy period of probation.
According to the police affidavit filed by Sgt. Myles Heffernan, Davis admitted to the allegations and agreed to cooperate in the investigation. Interviews were conducted with a number of students between the ages of 9 and 12, and nine charges of lewd and lascivious conduct were eventually lodged against him. ... Child Abuser at Kurn Hattin Incarcerated in Vermont State Prison
Face Of A Friend
"Children clung to friendships forged in harsh circumstances."
Over the years, Carter has reached out to former abusers and alums of Kurn Hattin to make sense of the place and what happened to him there. Former students are all “deeply connected to that place” because it is where they made their first friends and forged their first memories, he says. Children clung to friendships forged in harsh circumstances.
The cognitive dissonance of deep-seated fear about “a place they hold dear” is difficult to manage, Carter says. A number of his friends and acquaintances have died young of alcoholism, overdoses, by suicide and health ailments. On a daily basis, Carter said he experienced and watched other boys suffer psychological torment reinforced by acts of physical and sexual abuse that were meted out at random and with a frequency that filled him with horror and dread.
Boys who stuck out in some way — who had learning disabilities or were overweight — were persecuted, Carter says. Others, he said, were “pets” groomed by adults and given special treatment. These students often became the worst bullies. A friend Carter tried to protect was forced to perform oral sex on an older boy in the showers, Carter said. Afterward, the boy experienced mental distress, and on occasion would squeal and rock back and forth uncontrollably. To this day, Carter blames himself for not being able to stop the abuse and appears to be more traumatized by his inability to prevent the cruelty to his friend than he is by his own sexual abuse.
“To be a little boy far from home and to watch the suffering of another little boy and not to be able to do anything was terrible,” Carter said. “There are ways of dealing with your own pain.” “The harsh reality of that place was that he shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “I couldn’t protect him and I couldn’t take care of him.” ... Kurn Hattin Friendships - Created For Us, By Us
Face Of A Survivor
"It was f—ing terrifying to witness."
Another boy, who was overweight, was mercilessly taunted by a bully. At one point, Carter remembers coming across a group of boys standing in a circle in the corner of the gym. They were applauding and cheering, and at the center of the circle was the overweight kid with ropes around his ankles. The bully and his friends were tugging on his arms, too, pulling as hard as they could at both ends of the boy’s body, seemingly intent on ripping him apart.
“John was pale white, trembling and sweating profusely, he could not scream, he could not speak, only pitiful squeaks issued forth from his mouth. He looked like the victim of electric shock. It was f—ing terrifying to witness.” Carter pushed the bully and he dropped the rope and turned away.
That same day, late in the afternoon, he came across another ring of boys near the gym. This time, they had a rope around the overweight boy’s waist and they were pulling it so taut that he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t utter a sound. Carter ran up to the bully and pushed him, again. This time, he put the rope around Carter’s waist and pulled it tighter and tighter until he went limp with the top half of his body flopped over. His vision was cloudy and he couldn’t breathe. “I thought, they’re going to kill me,” he said. “And I started to lose consciousness. I got calm and lucid and I thought I’m going to die.” Then suddenly, the bully stopped, leaving him for dead. ... Vulnerable Children Exposed to Toxic Fear
Face Of A Fighter
Carolyn Blake, 1939-2021 - Kurn Hattin Survivor
“I look back on my life. I didn’t have a great wonderful life. But you know what? I’d rather be alive than dead. I would give anything, anything at all, to go back and live again – to be young again, no matter what I went through as a child.
It was the joy of being alive, smelling the flowers, being able to eat good food, being able to sleep in a good bed, having a roof over your head, being able to play with your friends. I didn’t have the love growing up that children need, but I was so loving and caring, and I’ve been that way all my life, and I tried to give my children the love they needed. I will make a way, where this is no way.” ... Effects of Childhood Trauma
Face Of Justice ... DENIED
Kurn Hattin Survivor Carolyn Blake, 1939 - 2021
Carolyn Blake was born in 1939. In 1951 she was placed at the Warner Home for Girls (Kurn Hattin "Girl's Department") in Saxtons River, Vermont. Within the first few minutes of setting foot on the Kurn Hattin Homes property, she was allegedly, according to her own public testimony, horrifically abused and traumatized for the remainder of her life.
At the age of 80 years, in July of 2020, Carolyn sought justice for her claims of abuse allegedly suffered as an innocent child in need of care at Kurn Hattin Homes.
Had a claim initially been made against Kurn Hattin Homes for Children rather than participating in an inherently flawed and biased, self-serving process favoring Kurn Hattin, and traumatizing for survivors, Carolyn Blake might have already received justice and validation for the abuse that she alleges to have suffered. While Carolyn was still alive, she could have received reparations and witnessed the inevitable positive outcomes that would have made a meaningful difference in her life and in the lives of her children and family.
Carolyn Blake was cleary a woman of strong commitment and passionate vision. She could have had an opportunity to act on her commitment and to realize her vision in a way that could have only been realized through the potential resources and restorative justice made available to her through a lawsuit settlement, or justice as we know it in America. Unfortunately a legal claim was never filed on Carolyn's behalf.
So, ... instead of justice, and healing ameliorating an innocent child's life, once forever altered – Carolyn Blake’s justice was denied. ... Conssequences of Trauma During Childhood
Face Of A Boy
'I was innocent and constantly terrified.'
At 4:30 p.m. every day, the boys were told to stand in line and strip down to their white cotton underwear. The female houseparent then inspected their bottoms for brown streaks. Boys who had soiled their underwear were called babies and forced to sit on toilets for 30 minutes in open stalls while the rest of the students were allowed to shower and get ready for dinner. “Every day she would scream, ‘All Babies On The Pot!'” he recalls. ... Alllll Baaaabies Ooooooon Theeeee Pot!!!
Face Of A Senator's Bias
'Well, there's female bias for you.' - Linda Johnson, Prevent Child Abuse Vermont
“There’s female bias for you,” replied Linda Johnson, Executive Director, Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, when presented with the knowledge that Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore, Becca Balint rushed to gush, bond, and virtue signal as she shared her own experience of being molested by neighbor as a child, in response to an email account originally established for a professional female singers music recordings.
In revealing contrast, Senate President Pro Tempore / Senator, Windham district, Becca Balint never responded previously to over 7 months of emails and phone calls from, what she, and the Vermont Senate, and Vermont Legislature, believed were from multiple male survivors of Kurn Hattin Homes for Children.
Based on that contact from a single male survivor of Kurn Hattin Home for Boys in Windham County, it was only then that Senate Pro Tem Balint announced the Vermont Senate hearings into decades of alleged and documented abuse perpetrated at Kurn Hattin Homes.
RE: PRESS RELEASE - Kurn Hattin Homes for Children Vermont Senate Hearings
Camille Ellis Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 5:27 PM To: Becca Balint
Thank You!
Becca Balint Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 8:04 AM To: Camille Ellis
Camille,
Good morning. Thank you most sincerely for your follow up email. I'd like to share your email of yesterday afternoon with the chairs of the committees of jurisdiction, but I wanted to check with you before forwarding it on to them. Just let me know. I want to be respectful of your privacy.
I wanted you to know, also, that I was molested as a young child by an older neighbor. I know I struggled with deep shame and anger for years, so I have a little bit of insight into the horrible experience of child abuse. But when the perpetrator is a trusted educator, that is an entirely different level of pain and betrayal.
I am so very sorry. And yes, you are absolutely right – we can't have any healing or justice without honest conversations about these terribly dark issues.
With peace,
Becca Balint
(she/her pronouns)
Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore
Senator, Windham District
This world is unknowingly greater for the generous and powerful presence of Camille Ellis. As Vermont Senate Pro Tem, Becca Balint well understands, Camille's inner strength and compassion is reflected in her aspect and in her eyes. If a lawmaker cannot be burdened by doing that which is inherently right solely for the sake of doing what is right and resides within the mandated purview of lawmakers everywhere, then accomodating base human biases in order to dislodge the self-serving apathy and interests of those in power in Vermont to finally take responsible action is indeed an unfortunate necessity. ... The True Character of Vermont's U.S. Congressional Representative
'Work Sets You Free'
'They just worked you to the bone, I was like a slave there.'
The expression “Work Makes One Free,” comes from the title of an 1873 novel by German pastor Lorenz Diefenbach, Arbeit Macht Frei: Erzählung von Lorenz Diefenbach, in which one finds the path to virtue through hard labor and the Protestant, Puritan, Calvinist work ethic.
“We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor — both black and white, here and abroad.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“... it was also there at the [Warner Home for Girls, Kurn Hattin’s] residential girls school in Saxtons River that for the first time, Bradshaw says, she was routinely abused. The physical abuse began the day in November 1951 that her mother left her in the lobby. Ethel Ford, an employee, appeared and said, “Oh, it’s you. I want you to clean the stairs with a broom and a dustpan,” and she walked away.
The 12-year-old stood there, dumbfounded, then had the presence of mind to ask another girl in the room where she might find the broom and dustpan. Overhearing the question, Ford roared, “I told you to do that,” and slapped her hard on the face. Bradshaw started screaming. A few minutes later, another woman, the cook, came out of the kitchen and put tape over her mouth. “I could hardly breathe,” Bradshaw recalled. “I was in a panic.” Eventually, the cook ripped off the tape. “That was my introduction to Kurn Hattin. It was very, very scary.”