| Dallas Morning News Krishnas encourage disclosing abuse in sect's schools But some critics suspicious of leaders' motives, willingness to change 10/20/98 By Jeffrey Weiss / The Dallas Morning News The stories of abuse are numbingly familiar: religious leaders beating,raping and torturing children in their charge. What's more unusual is wherethe stories appear: the official journal of the faith whose leaders committedthe abuse. The ISKCON Communications Journal is published by the InternationalSociety of Krishna Consciousness, popularly known as the Hare Krishnas.The current issue describes in graphic detail life at Krishna boardingschools - the first school was in Dallas - during the 1970s and 1980s. Krishna leaders say the public airing of this dirtiest of laundry ispart of a concerted effort to accept responsibility and do what they canto redress the old wrongs. "Child abuse thrives in secrecy," said Anuttama Dasa, the Krishnas'director of North American Communications. "We are trying to do theright thing and bring this out into the open." Some who were abused are suspicious of the overtures. Maya Charnellis the co-founder of VOICE, an Internet news board for former Krishna students.She spent two years in the Dallas school in the 1970s and remembers senselessbeatings and other abuse there and in other schools. Some who suffered say that the fundamental beliefs of the Krishnas havenot changed. "After years and years and years of distrust and programmedservitude, it's kind of difficult to trust that they are doing this forthe good of the children," she said in an interview. Motives aside, the Krishna openness is far from average for religiousinstitutions, said the Rev. Thomas Economus, a Roman Catholic priestwho heads a national network of clergy-abuse victims. He tracks cases suchas the Dallas scandal involving former Catholic priest Rudolph "Rudy" Kos. That case ended with Mr. Kos in prison for child abuse. The dioceseand its insurers will pay $30.9 million to the victims, negotiated downfrom the $119 million awarded by a Dallas jury. "What they've done is very rare," Mr. Economus said of the Krishnas."The norm is to close the victims down, circle the wagons and give outno information whatsoever." Some Krishna leaders are worried about getting sued as a result of theiropenness, Mr.Dasa said. "There have been concerns voiced about the legal implications," he said."But there is a consensus that we need to take the higher ethical ground." The International Society of Krishna Consciousness is a Hindu sect broughtto Americ in the 1960s by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. At first, most converts wore saffron monk's robes and became notoriousfor their public chanting and aggressive demands for donations. Leadersemphasized the need to do missionary work and sell Krishna books. Families were viewed as an impediment to spiritual growth and Krishnawork, soparents were told to send children to boarding schools and to havelittle contact with them, according to the ISKCON article, written by E.Burke Rochford Jr., a sociologist of religion at Middlebury College inVermont. About 2,000 children - some as young as 3 - were sent to the poorlyfinanced, overcrowded schools in the United States and India. Many of theteachers and supervisors had little training. The first school opened in Dallas in 1971. Ms. Charnell was 4 yearsold when she was sent there from Canada. Well into adulthood, she said,she was plagued by nightmares of being beaten and walking past a line ofchildren awaiting beatings. The VOICE Web site (http://www.ccrgroup.com/voice/) offers firsthandaccounts of abuse from the '70s and '80s. Several stories are about lifein the Dallas school: "A teacher took me in the boys' shower room, strippedoff my clothes and beat me until I was unconscious." "I remember his wifelocking me in a dark closet standing on a milk crate with the warning thatif I got off the crate, the giant rats would eat my feet." "I still rememberwhat the floor in Dallas tasted like." Underfed students described cockroachesas "flying dates." The Dallas boarding school closed in 1976, not becauseof abuse but because the building did not meet state codes. Most other boarding schools closed by the mid-'80s as the directionand leadership of the Krishnas changed. Most members were married and notinterested in demanding donations from strangers or separating from theirchildren. Krishna officials and even many students say they were unawareof the widespread abuse at the time. Manu Dasa (no relation to Anuttama; "Dasa" is a common last name forKrishna men) was a student in several schools but was generally unawareof abuse. Only after he formed an alumni newsletter and youth ministrydid he begin to understand what had happened to some of his classmates. In 1996, he brought 10 former students to tell their stories at a meetingof the Krishnas' North American leadership. An hour later, the room wasfilled with crying men.On the spot, the Krishna leaders pledged $100,000of their own money, which was used to create Children of Krishna, a nonprofitgroup separate from the Krishna formal organization and dedicated to helpingthe victims of abuse. The formal organization created a new child-abuse program this year.Headed by a social worker, it is working to find former students, offercounseling and other assistance, investigate cases of abuse - about 70are active - and develop prevention programs. Progress has not been smooth. A leader of a previous child-abuse programthe Krishna ormal organization set up in 1990 was expelled from the movementthis year after three young men said he had fondled them years earlier. But local leaders now understand that abuse cannot be tolerated, saidYudhisthira Dasa, president of the Dallas temple, which oversees a dayschool. Teachers are accredited. Parents and students - there are 15 kindergartenthrough eighth grade - are taught how to recognize and report abuse. On the national level, Krishna leaders say much the same. Future journalswill have more articles about abuse and its aftermath. This year, the internationalchild-abuse section has a budget of $170,000. That will continue, leaders say. "It is not enough," said Ms. Charnell of VOICE. "It's a potential start.But they have to realize that they have now opened themselves up to publicinvestigation and can't control what will happen." The public airing is necessary, Anuttama Dasa acknowledged. Even thoughthe past abuse was sometimes done in the name of Krishna, that was a perversionof ISKCON's beliefs, he said. One of the faith's sacred texts is the Srimadbhagavatma, the story ofa boy abused by his evil father. The boy was boiled in oil, thrown offa cliff and beaten. But at every turn, God intervened to save the saintlychild from his evil father. Finally, God incarnated on Earth to kill thefather as punishment for the abuse. "The message," Mr. Dasa said, "is prettyclear." -1998 The Dallas Morning News |