The legacy of Vermont residential school Kurn Hattin continues to be conflicted, as a legislative effort unfolds to provide an on-line support group for victims of abuse at the controversial school.

Kurn Hattin is a private Vermont school at which sexual and physical abuse of students occurred repeatedly over many decades. Its leadership was also very eagerly involved with Vermont’s eugenics program.

Founded in 1894, Kurn Hattin continues today as a private school, despite decades of clear abuse against students.

According to Jennifer Poehlmann, executive director of Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services, the recent legislative appropriation was proposed by attorney Kimberly Dougherty of Justice Law Collaborative, who represents some of the Kurn Hattin survivors. The Sept. 29, 2021 “Proposal for Kurn Hattin Homes for Children (“KH”) Facilitated Peer Support Group” was funded with a $25,000 appropriation in 2022. However, it is unclear how beneficiaries of the money are to be identified, and their privacy rights assured, in the administration of the proposal.

Numerous sexual and other abuses were reportedly committed at the school, dating at least to the 1940s. Offender Mark Davis admitted to sexually molesting at least 16 boys in the late 1980s, and was charged in 2021 with possessing “explicit images of boys, some as young as ages 6 to 8.” It is unclear whether those images were from the school. More recent claims of widespread neglect and/or abuse were alleged by the Vermont Department of Children and Families, and investigated by the Department of Education. 

The taxpayer-funded “Facilitated Peer Support Group” poses problems in implementation, including a confidential process for identifying who will be served.

One Kurn Hattin survivor who is not represented by legal counsel and wished to remain anonymous, said the new group is a meager response to a longstanding, deep-seated failure by Vermont government to protect children at Kurn Hattin. This survivor’s concerns include:

• How will the facilitators know who the potential class of survivors are outside of those represented by legal counsel? Will there be a list, potentially exposing identities, and traumatizing these victims? By what criteria will qualification be determined?
• What good is 12 months of “group support” for a lifelong condition of PTSD, from which these victims suffer? The support required for this group is highly publicized accountability so that victims’ concerns are allayed that this abuse will not recur.
• This is labeled a support group, but the services proposed are de facto therapy: what safeguards are in place to prevent what may prove to be traumatizing and even life-threatening interactions?  
• What video format will provide attendees with the ability to therapeutically interact without concurrently exposing them to others in the group, some of whom may be their former peer-on-peer sexual abusers, or who bullied them?
• Have any of the survivors been involved in fashioning this plan? What of those excluded: do they get a voice, or are they even now to be treated like children paternalistically controlled by the state? (The victim states “this entire process reeks of control by those who will gain financially, politically, or in social cache at the expense of Kurn Hattin survivors.”)
• What is the per-hour fee being paid to the professional facilitators? (The victim states “it appears that 18, one-hour sessions will in fact cost the state of Vermont $25,000, or $1,389 per hour.” The fees to be paid and what will be provided as services is unclear.

To be fair, there is no support group imaginable that could allay all of these concerns and still be effective. There is no way for Vermont government to fully address all of these potential shortcomings. But awareness of these problems may help future efforts be responsive, and perhaps survivors who use the support group can help shape improvements.

Kurn Hattin continues to operate, advertising that “Kurn Hattin Homes transforms the lives of children forever.” In a website link, Kurn Hattin invites viewers to learn about the children there and “hear their stories.” The support group tells a disturbing past story about this school.

A key concern for the Kurn Hattin survivor interviewed for this story was accountability for the past, including the pivotal role Kurn Hattin and its leadership played in facilitating the widespread eugenics practices for which Vermont officially expresses remorse. This victim stated:

I guess after all these proposals and explanations by lauded experts and academics of the life-long effects of childhood trauma and its consequences to society, that’s all that the approximately 100 survivors of Kurn Hattin who are known and still living are worth to the state: $25,000 and 18 hours. … And all the while, the most important factor to all of us survivors: that Kurn Hattin ultimately be held responsible for its legacy of horrific abuse and unending fear, and manipulating controlling isolation and that the truth of their crimes is known and recorded will continue to go on unresolved. Ultimately, there is nothing in any of this proposal for how to hold Kurn Hattin responsible for their generations of perpetrated abuse, negligence, trauma, toxic fear and institutional betrayal. 

A 2019-2020 Department of Education Residential Licensing and Special Investigation report determined that 21% of children at Kurn Hattin “strongly disagreed that they felt safe at Kurn Hattin” and that “It is clear that there is inadequate supervision in the cottages.”

The report listed numerous areas of noncompliance, and concluded that the school should serve as an educational rather than a therapeutic entity:

It is precisely this intersection that has justified the ongoing regulatory oversight of Kurn Hattin as an RTP [Residential Treatment Program] until this licensing review when program administration expressed a desire to function solely as an educational institution rather than RTP. In order for the cessation of DCF regulation to occur, Kurn Hattin must make clear and specific changes to their web-based advertising of their program description; admit only children and youth whose needs can be met within the program; notify primary referral sources of no longer being licensed by DCF; and continue to practice as mandated reporters with any incidents of suspected child abuse and neglect per Vermont statute.

It is impossible to punish deceased abusers, but Vermont must certainly ensure the horrors of the past are never repeated at Kurn Hattin. Vermonters as well as Kurn Hattin survivors must closely examine the proposed “Facilitated Support Group” for equity and practicality, and work together to heal from the past and prevent harm in the future. 

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2023. All rights reserved.