This week, national television focused on schools in Delaware, exposing the Newark neighborhood's troubling history for many and a “nightmare” for others.
Rolling Stone magazine published an investigation Tuesday into the history of The New School, a small private school in New Castle County. One pupil's 'hyper-focus' on religion, which the school is protecting, stems from overall concerns about sexual behavior, aggression, shaming and an alleged culture of silence detailed in the report. is consistent with
The school, which for most of its existence was housed in an old Victorian mansion with a comparable sized farm about six miles from the University of Delaware, maintained a small student body. Report by senior writer Ej Dickson.
The organization's name may sound familiar from local news reports just before the pandemic shutdown. Samuel Gulick threw a Molotov cocktail inside a Planned Parenthood facility in Newark in January 2020, spending more than two years in federal confinement before being sentenced to probation and mental health treatment. It was my first choice school.
Gulick's attorney at the time said, as previously reported, that his client's developmental issues had been treated until he enrolled at the New School, but that treatment stopped when he was 15 and he became a Roman Catholic. He said he chose to focus his attention on practicing a “conservative form” of teaching. By school leadership. The leadership did not comment at the time.
Rolling Stone covered these connections and much more. In interviews with his former students and subsequent investigation, Mr Dixon found that the school that promised to provide a safe haven allegedly turned out to be more like a “cult”. did.
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As the school told that reporter and this reporter in a statement: “We deny any malicious insinuations that your bulleted questions seem to suggest.”
A small school on the outskirts of Newark
The New School opened in 1995 and advocates an education that is freer from traditional structures, founder Melanie Heiner writes on its website. According to its site, tuition costs about $7,500 per year. And although its Facebook page hasn't been updated since 2017, the school appears to still be operating, with fewer than 30 students attending the school at the time of Gulick's 2022 sentencing.
The school responded to the call Thursday.
After introducing the school on a typical afternoon, a man handed the phone to Ms. Heiner's husband, John Heiner, a former attorney. Heiner issued the same statement he gave to national reporters, saying the school had nothing to add to the Rolling Stone investigation.
“What makes us different is that we are not bureaucratic, we are not prescriptive, we are not therapeutic. Children here learn with the support of adult staff. There is a formal relationship between staff and parents. – Informal interactions are strong, and staff members are reappointed annually by family vote,” reads the statement, signed by “current students” and “new school students and staff.”
Heiner would not confirm whether the school is still operating or accepting new students.
“We have served many families with positive outcomes, but we are not right for everyone,” the statement continues. “Some families try our approach for a while and then explore a different approach that better suits their preferences and goals. Everyone who has joined us has enjoyed their stay here, however long or short. I think I got something good out of it.”
Some alumni told Rolling Stone reporters that they were contacted by the FBI in 2022. Reached again Thursday, the agency had no comment.
“The FBI does not confirm or deny specific investigations or provide other updates,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “This includes investigative procedures that we may or may not have conducted, interviews that we may or may not have conducted, and what we may or may not have learned. Possible information.”
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