Glendale Montessori School Case Resurfaces
State of Florida vs. James H. Toward. Case No.: 88-926 CF. Circuit Court of 19th Judicial Circuit in and for Martin County, Florida “Headmaster’s evil lives on in 20-year-old abuse case,” blazed the page 1 headline of the Palm Beach Post [1] on March 1, 2008. The article was about the satanic ritual abuse at the Glendale Montessori School in Stuart, Florida that began in 1987. The article did not call what happened a panic, however. No mention of the bizarre accusations, such as crucifixes inserted into children’s anuses, appeared in the article. Rather the reporter vilified James Toward, the former headmaster of the school who has been in prison for the past 19 years with no end in sight. The reporter also described both the suffering and accomplishments of the former students at the school who were ages 3 to 5 at the time of the alleged abuse. Indeed, the article was very similar to the many articles that helped flame public opinion at the time of the trial. If readers’ only source of news about this tragic case were the Palm Beach Post, they would have no idea that the Glendale case was just one of the approximately hundred day care cases that followed in the wake of McMartin and its vast publicity. Readers would have no idea that virtually every step in the process of “discovering” the alleged abuse of the Glendale children has been completely discredited in the past two decades.
Readers would have no reason to doubt the guilt of Mr. Toward, who is one of the last dozen or so people still incarcerated as a result of the day care hysteria that swept the country between 1984 and 1995 in which 185 adults were charged with ritual abuse. [2] In 1989, James Toward and his office Manager Brenda Williams were arrested for abusing children at the school. Williams received a 10-year sentence and after serving her time was released. Toward agreed to an Alford plea[3] and received a 27-year sentence. Toward was supposed to be released in 1999, but in 1998 Florida passed the Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators’ Treatment and Care Act. Effective on January 1, 1999, the law allows the state to confine prisoners for as long as they are deemed a danger to society. The law was applied retroactively to James Toward. Contrary to the impression given in the article in the Palm Beach Post, there are a number of reasons for serious doubt about the guilt of Mr. Toward who is now 77-years-old.
1. Retracting Student:
In February 2008, a former student at the Glendale Montessori School contacted the Foundation. She explained that when she was 9-yearsold, she had been sent to a therapist who used hypnosis to try to uncover her “memories” of being abused at Glendale when she was two, three and four. The caller remembered a discussion of satanic ritual abuse between her therapist and his partner. She told us that because her family did not file charges and did not want her to testify, the psychologist felt they were negligent and tried to get her mother to sign release papers. Because her mother was suspicious, she refused to sign anything, and she took our caller to another therapist who was outside the Glendale community. This therapist said that the family should lead a normal life. If anything had happened, it would be revealed naturally. The former Glendale student said that after a lot of investigation, she is now certain that Toward had been wrongly convicted. She feels that the groups concerned with the wrongly accused have overlooked the Glendale case, and she wants to find a way to free James Toward.[4] Evidence of the beliefs that were circulating in the community (and thus the reason for using hypnosis on the former student), can be seen in the following quote that appeared in a 1992 article of the Palm Beach Post. “Therapists say many victims [of Glendale Montessori] have blocked any memory of what happened to them at Glendale, possibly because they were told terrible things would happen if they remembered.” [5]
2. Hearsay evidence was used:
At a pretrial hearing, Judge Dwight Geiger made the decision to allow hearsay evidence. That meant that the jury in the trial would hear parents and therapists tell what the children had said to them as opposed to the children themselves telling their stories. Richard Lubin, the attorney for James Toward, stated that the children told different stories when he interviewed them than what parents and therapists reported they said. Allowing hearsay evidence is not uncommon in cases involving children, but it always raises reliability issues. The person reporting could have a faulty memory and forget key material. There is the very serious danger that the meaning intended by the child was misinterpreted by the person reporting. There is the serious danger that the person reporting misjudged or misunderstood what he or she heard or saw. And there is always the serious danger that a person reporting will lie. In cases in which a community is inflamed by belief in abuse, as was the case in Stuart, Florida, the very serious danger is that adults who are reporting the children’s statements will inadvertently interpret what the child said to fit with their own preconceived beliefs in and fears about satanic ritual abuse.
3. Anatomically correct dolls were used in eliciting accusations:
Anatomically correct dolls were used to diagnose abuse. Therapist Jeanne Ralicki testified on March 8, 1988, that by the child’s use of lifelike dolls to show what happened, one 4-year-old boy told her that Mr. Toward had intercourse and oral sex with him. One of the many problems with the use of anatomical dolls is that their use has not been standardized in any form as valid evidence of past abuse. In 1989, there was no normative data with which to compare the use of the dolls with abused and non abused children. Research in subsequent years has shown that nonabused and abused children can play with the dolls in the same way. It is always possible that therapists used the dolls in suggestive ways. In the absence of a video of a child using the dolls with the therapist, any diagnosis made with their use is not valid. Respected researchers Stephen Ceci and Maggie Bruck,[6] noting the massive evidence for potential misuse of dolls, concluded:
“There is no available scientific evidence that supports the clinical or forensic diagnosis of abuse made primarily on the basis of a very young child’s interaction with anatomical dolls.” (184)
4. Intensive interviewing:
Jeanne Ralicki, a social worker, was a member of the state-funded Child Protection Team that interviewed the children. She later went into private practice and continued to treat children from Glendale Montessori, one even a decade later in 1999. On Tuesday March 8, 1988 Ralicki testified that one of the children, a 4-year-old boy, told her that the acting director of the school had intercourse and oral sex with him. She also said that he told her this after more than 20 therapy sessions.[7] What happened during the 20 sessions? Was the child repeatedly asked about abuse? A tremendous amount has been learned about suggestive interviewing since the Glendale trial. When Ralicki was challenged about the reliability of what the child had said, she testified that the child’s story was much too detailed to be fabricated. Ralicki is not correct. Research has shown that children may elaborate. The only way to know the truth or falsity is with external corroboration. Another child who reported in the spring of 1989 that Mr. Toward kept containers of blood at his home and that he splattered the blood over the children, had been in therapy with Dr. Allen Tesson since August 1987.[8] What happened in the therapy sessions between 1987 and 1989? Was the child repeatedly questioned? Dr. Alan Tesson testified that a 6-year-old boy told him that children had been forced to dance naked, were locked in an attic, threatened with snakes, spat upon by Toward and abused after swimming. Tesson showed 50 drawings that the child had made in therapy during 1987 and 1988.[7] What happened in all of those therapy sessions? Being asked the same questions over and over until the answer the adult wants is given is highly suggestive interviewing.
5. Child Sex Abuse Accommodation Syndrome:
Roland Summit [9] testified that he supported the conclusions of the therapists who examined one of the children who was filing suit. Roland Summit is the author of “The Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome” which asserts that there are five reactions children who have been sexually abused can exhibit: (1) secrecy, (2) helplessness, (3) entrapment and accommodation, (4) delayed, unconvincing disclosure, and (5) retraction. Science fails to support Summit’s claims. We now know that children with documented abuse do not exhibit denials, tentative disclosures or retractions. Summit’s support of the therapists’ diagnoses was unwarranted. [10]
To Be Continued… Part 1 of 4, Complete Article and more can be found on www.fmsfonline.org
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