Teacher Sexually Abused Kids at Catholic School; Nun Just Watched

By Austin Cline
About.com
December 6, 2012

http://atheism.about.com/b/2012/12/04/teacher-sexually-abuse-kids-at-catholic-school-nun-just-watched.htm

Was It Good for You? Photo: Peter Dazeley/Getty

In Baltimore, Maryland, a teacher named John Joseph Merzbacher apparently not only raped pre-teen students, but did so in front of at least one nun who did nothing to help. This occurred in the 1970s but it wasn't reported until the 1990s and it's only hitting the public media now.

This is meaningful because it involves church officials who weren't priests. Granted, the nuns themselves weren't raping children (isn't it disturbing that this has to be mentioned?), but at least one was (according to the reports) facilitating and covering up the rape of children.

This indicates that the problem with Catholic priests molesting and raping children while bishops facilitated it and covered it up isn't a problem that can be traced solely to something in the Catholic priesthood. Something about the priesthood may have played a role, but it can't be the only issue. Something else in the nature of Catholic Church power and institutional structures must be playing an important role as well.

The Catholic-school teacher had a pre-teen student pinned to the ground in his Baltimore classroom, the girl's blouse open and her chest exposed when the doorknob suddenly turned and the school principal -- a nun -- burst in.

The screaming girl thought she was about to be rescued, according to court records that describe the scene at the Catholic Community Middle School in Locust Point. But Sister Eileen Weisman, who had a key to the room, merely chastised the teacher, John Joseph Merzbacher, for locking the door.

"[Weisman] looked down and her exact words were 'John, oh John, I told you never to lock the classroom door,'" Linda Tiburzi, who described the incident in a civil court deposition in the mid-1990s, said in a recent interview.

"And then she looked at me and said 'I never want you staying after school again.' ... That's all she said, that's all she did, there was nothing, there was no investigation, there were no questions."

Source: Baltimore Sun

"There is evidence that the Archdiocese of Baltimore knew this was going on in the school and swept it under the carpet," said Kathie Lewandowski. She was referring to an incident in 1974, when a colleague of Merzbacher's allegedly told superiors that the teacher was molesting students. Weisman, in a 1994 school assembly, said she was not told of any sexual abuse. ...

•Weisman failed to investigate after finding Merzbacher in a boiler room with a male student when he was supposed to be teaching. And she brushed off parent and student complaints about the teacher, including one in which a father said Merzbacher unclasped his daughter's bra. In another, a girl said she spotted a female child sitting on Merzbacher's lap with her underpants down around her feet; the principal is said to have explained that the child "was having a problem with the elastic in her underwear."

•Weisman and two archdiocesan priests -- identified in court documents as Herbert Derwart and Richard Tillman -- were involved in firing another teacher who said he brought concerns about Merzbacher to them in 1974. The officials allegedly told the teacher, Gary Homberg, that he could continue in his position "only under the condition [he] made no mention to anyone of [his] observations of John Merzbacher's sexual misconduct, the allegations and rumors about John Merzbacher, or the school's or church's knowledge of these allegations."

•Weisman went to the archdiocese for guidance after Homberg's allegations, telling officials that Merzbacher may have brought a gun to school and may have been "interacting inappropriately with the students." Merzbacher was placed on leave, but reinstated after Weisman said she conducted an internal investigation.

•Weisman witnessed Merzbacher choke, punch and kick a male student, Steven Melnick, in class, and "merely responded, 'Oh John, stop it.'"