Mareesa Nicosia

mnicosia@lohud.com

CHESTNUT RIDGE – Kate Christensen wasn't alone.

An investigation launched last year after the Green Meadow Waldorf School alumna accused a former teacher of molesting her alleges that he sexually assaulted her, 11 other girls and a woman during his decades-long tenure there.

The findings, revealed in a damning report by a private investigative firm hired by Green Meadow, also accuse two other teachers of sex crimes — one of possessing child porn and another of assaulting a girl on a school-sponsored trip. It says the school failed to act when complaints of teachers' alleged criminal behavior surfaced.

In the case of John Alexandra, the alleged serial offender, the school's lack of response enabled his predatory behavior, the report finds.

"Allowing Mr. Alexandra to freely roam Threefold property resulted in giving him essentially unrestricted access to students and faculty members, and thereby enabled him to continue to victimize others," investigators said.

The seven-month investigation, led by Lisa Friel, former chief of the Manhattan district attorney's Sex Crimes Unit and an executive at T&M Protection Resources, involved interviews with 95 people and reviews of thousands of documents.

The findings have been shared with law enforcement officials, but no arrests have resulted. For a majority of the cases, the five-year statute of limitations for reporting has passed. The alleged assaults took place on school property or the surrounding area and ranged from inappropriate rubbing, touching and hugging to statutory rape, the report says.

Many of the alleged victims didn't report what happened at the time, for fear they wouldn't be believed, investigators said. In some cases, they found, Alexandra's alleged victims felt that other adults at Green Meadow were complicit in his behavior because they observed it yet encouraged students to maintain relationships with him, an esteemed member of the community.

Probe launched

The progressive Green Meadow school opened the investigation about a year ago, after Christensen, 51, revealed a story of abuse at the hands of her high school math teacher in a memoir.

Christensen, a 1980 graduate and now a PEN/Faulkner award-winning author, refers to the teacher as "Tomcat" in the book. The school identified Alexandra in a letter to the community and banned him from the campus at the outset of the investigation, explaining the decision was "based on credible evidence."

There are disturbing accusations in the report against Alexandra, 72, who enjoyed a distinguished career as a teacher in the 1960s and '70s, and later served as a board member. A Spring Valley resident who is married with grown children, he stayed active at Green Meadow and with affiliated institutions that are part of the Threefold Educational Foundation's campus, located off Hungry Hollow Road, until the allegations surfaced last year.

Investigators say Alexandra committed "a multitude of crimes" over his decades at the school. They also accuse him of stalking, harassment and child endangerment.

Investigators said Alexandra declined to speak with them. He hasn't publicly addressed the allegations.

"My client hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing, nor am I aware of any contemporaneous reports substantiating any allegations," said Robert Bernstein, Alexandra's lawyer. "These allegations are from decades ago and there were never any contemporaneous documents to substantiate the allegations at the time."

Investigators shared information with Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe's office as allegations arose during the investigation, according to Green Meadow. A spokeswoman for the DA's Special Victims Unit said the office received the report Tuesday and would review it before making any comments.

More teachers

The other two teachers named in the report left the school soon after the events occurred. One was accused of sexually assaulting a middle school student in 1983 during a school-sponsored trip; the other was reportedly found in possession of child pornography in 2005, as well as photographs he took of Green Meadow students in swimwear.

The first teacher left for a new job at another school soon after admitting to a colleague what had happened in 1983, according to the report; the other was forced to leave the school after the child pornography was found in his residence, but the school didn't investigate and didn't turn the information over to police, the report indicates.

A summary of investigators' findings was sent to some 1,700 alumni and parents last week, along with a letter of apology from Co-administrator Eric Silber and board President Jonathan Lynn.

The school says it can't make T&M's full-length report public because of the need to protect the privacy of victims, witnesses and others involved.

Silber, whose two young daughters attend Green Meadow, was hired in 2012 but began the new co-administrator position last July, just before the allegations surfaced. He reflected on the school's difficult year in an interview with The Journal News on Thursday.

"I'm glad that Kate came forward and we were able to do this because the truth is able to come forward," he said. "Having something like this living inside a school, any institution, in the shadow, isn't healthy for the institution at all. And the only way you can heal something is you have to diagnose it, you have to name it and you have to go through the process, which is painful."

Silber headed a committee of board members and teachers that signed off on the investigators' report and agreed to identify the two alleged offenders in addition to Alexandra.

Silber said about five teachers, including one who still works at the school, were identified as being in a position to stop the offenders but did not. The school flagged those teachers' files and notified an international Waldorf school accreditation body.

Apology offered

In acknowledging all those who contributed to the investigation, Green Meadow officials credit Christensen for providing the information that prompted it.

Her courage to come forward allowed the school "to fully acknowledge errors and misjudgments of the past," the letter says. "We will emerge a better, stronger school because of her."

Among the "errors" cited by investigators was the lack of a written policy or protocol on sexual misconduct complaints during the years Christensen attended the school.

Christensen said the report laid bare the extent of the damage inflicted by the "pervasive sexually abusive atmosphere at the school at that time."

"Not everyone was abused, but everyone was affected," she wrote in an email. "This kind of school-wide, community-wide abuse goes much deeper than the victims — everyone touched by it is hurt, and this goes very deep and lasts decades."

She praised the school's handling of the probe into its troubling past.

"I know it was painful and difficult for the school to face this, but it was the right — and only — thing to do, and they did it without hesitation," she wrote.

After The Journal News carried her story last year, another former student, Ann Hunkins, came forward with a story about Alexandra's conduct.

In its letter, the school offers an apology to victims and pledges its commitment to "the safety and emotional well-being of past, present and future community members."

"We cannot undo what has been done in the past, nor can we ever know the full extent of the pain that has been caused," officials wrote. "We do know that we can disclose what we know now, offer this apology, and do what we can to support healing for all involved."

About 400 students attend Green Meadow's pre-K-12 program and, like Alexandra once did, many educators live on the adjacent Threefold property that encompasses a dynamic anthroposophical community. In addition to the school, Threefold-affiliated institutions include the Fellowship, a home for the elderly; a Waldorf teacher training center; a church; and a natural foods co-op.

The campus was founded in the early 20th century by students of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher who popularized the spiritual science movement known as anthroposophy.

At the recommendation of T&M, Green Meadow is overhauling its response procedure to sexual harassment and abuse complaints. It will enforce a new written anti-harassment policy that details obligations of mandated reporters; stricter background screenings for adults who interact with students; and a better mechanism for anonymous reporting of suspected abuse.

The recommendations for strengthening the school's policies extend to the broader Threefold community, officials said.

Staff writer Shawn Cohen contributed to this report.

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Separate case

The school leadership's efforts to restore the faith of its parents, alumni and students come as the Fellowship has been a focal point this year of another investigation, which is ongoing.

Last month, police charged Lacey Spears, a former Fellowship resident, in the poisoning death of her son, 5-year-old Garnett Spears. The 26-year-old Alabama native has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges. The boy and his mother lived in the community for about 14 months before he died in January at Westchester Medical Center's Maria Fareri Children's Hospital.

Garnett had started kindergarten at Green Meadow in the fall.