Beware of Hershey Alumni With Self-Serving Agendas

The recent op-eds by Hershey alumni Johnny O'Brien and Tom McClay should sound alarm bells: the agendas of this pair are far more dangerous to the school's mission than the board compensation and structure they ostensibly criticize.

But their conduct does provide a revealing window onto Hershey charitable corruption, and the ugly role of compromised alumni in preserving a system that fails poor kids and families.

"Local Mafia"

That the pieces were coordinated is obvious. Less obvious is that the authors are working with members of a Hershey alumni group whom O'Brien once nicknamed his "local mafia" -- that is, individuals who can be called upon to disrupt meetings, troll internet message boards, or smear critics.

For instance, one ringleader of the group -- alumnus Milt Purcell -- has been canvassing for help in launching a mass mailing campaign also attacking Hershey board members Bob Cavanaugh and Joe Senser, a sure sign that the gang is saddling up again.

We should know: we have been targets of this group.

In our case too, Purcell and McClay acted at O'Brien's behest, when O'Brien served as Hershey school president. Purcell was eventually rewarded by O'Brien directing hundreds of thousands of Hershey child welfare dollars to purchase and operate a Purcell property.

At the time, O'Brien was slavishly implementing the decisions of the board he now criticizes -- including defending their compensation, and promoting such absurdities as the purchase of a failing luxury golf course. To the latter end, O'Brien introduced novelties like naming student homes for professional golfers.

Other members of the cabal -- then and almost certainly now -- were current Hershey school president (and alumnus) Pete Gurt, as well as current board member (then wannabe member) alumnus Bob Heist. The group worked together seamlessly in pursuit of mutual self-interest.

Also then as now, the stakes were power and money -- nothing more.

At no time did these individuals object to the high board pay or structure they now criticize -- until McClay and O'Brien failed to gain their own seats.

O'Brien's hypocrisy is particularly revealing: while seeking the school presidency, he made a show of criticizing then president William Lepley's $400,000 annual salary. But once O'Brien secured the same position, he had his own annual compensation jacked up to over $600,000. He also indulged in numerous other extravagances -- while cutting student spending.

O'Brien's blundering and bullying of employees led to his eventual release -- yes, by the same board members he now criticizes. Among the debacles he hatched was "Springboard Academy," a retrograde experiment that housed students in 20-child bedrooms. $41 million was squandered on it.

That O'Brien would pursue such a harebrained idea was no surprise. After all, during the hiring process, he was discovered to have been falsely claiming to hold a Johns Hopkins graduate degree in psychology. He also had no experience running any educational facility or large organization.

Derailing Alumni Reform Efforts

To explain: the only group threatening the board's lucrative status quo were alumni reformers, such as us. And who better to unleash on us -- and rally alumni against our efforts -- than "our own?"

O'Brien and his "local mafia" were thus deployed to destroy our work and bring to heel an alumni association dedicated to Hershey school governance and program reforms.

Importantly, O'Brien believed that helping defeat reformers would also advance his obsessive quest for his own high-pay board seat, added to the presidency he had snagged.

Eager to show himself useful, O'Brien even instigated a lawsuit against the alumni association -- Purcell vs MHSAA (yes, the Milt Purcell mentioned above). McClay funded the action.

While the lawsuit was meritless, it bled white our financially-strapped association. Heist -- a lawyer -- was a plaintiff. He also helped coordinate the action while otherwise constantly disrupting our normal business -- we could not even conduct meetings without Heist creating distractions. In a nasty twist, the plaintiffs named two association officers as individual defendants -- reportedly Heist's idea.

Gurt's role in tightening the noose included bullying school vendors into cutting donations to the alumni association, coordinating attack letters, and helping organize "spontaneous" demonstrations and meeting disruptions. Gurt's brother, Bob Gurt, was a key participant, at times hulking over reform leaders.

Eventually, the Pennsylvania state supreme court ended the alumni legal push for reforms. This came in a deplorable ruling authored by J. Michael Eakin -- of "porngate" notoriety. The reform camp was crushed and the alumni association became a toothless extension of the school. Newly-launched programs like counseling for older alumni and crisis intervention for young grads were eliminated, as the association was reduced to virtual irrelevancy.

Our group -- Protect The Hersheys' Children, Inc. -- was formed to keep the reform flame alive, if barely flickering and in exile.

Another grave setback was dealt when attorney general Kathleen Kane -- bestowing political favors on her Democratic allies -- closed an investigation of Hershey with nary a wrist slap, breaking every promise she had made. Kane left the worst offenders in place, refused to make child welfare improvements, then lied to the public about it -- correctly judging that her rosy press releases would not be scrutinized.

Kane's behavior has now caught up with her -- but no one would listen in 2013 when we warned how diabolical she was.

Indeed, with breathtaking audacity, the brother-in-law of Kane's chief of staff (Adrian King) made out excellently: within two months of Kane's Hershey betrayal, this individual -- Ed Rendell crony John Estey -- was bizarrely named Hershey school interim president, despite having no qualifications whatsoever in the field.

Victims Are Children/Anti-Reform Alumni Are Rewarded

The prime victims of these machinations were needy children. Most tragically, one month after Kane's cynical move, a 14-year-old girl named Abbie Bartels was dead, taking her own life. Abbie had been shamefully mistreated by Hershey administrators -- in essence, she was punished for the "crime" of adolescent depression, then kicked while down. The local media refused to report Abbie's death -- but Anderson Cooper eventually brought it to light.

By then, Heist had been rewarded with the lucrative Hershey board seat he sought. Purcell was also feted as "Alumnus of the Year" -- as was McClay. Gurt was promoted and eventually became school president.

The latter was despite conduct that anywhere else would have resulted in dismissal. Among other things, Gurt was an enthusiastic backer of "Springboard Academy." He also helped design policies that led to the school being investigated by the Department of Justice for violation of anti-discrimination laws. (We have asked the DOJ to also investigate the death of Abbie Bartels and other mistreatment of children suffering depression -- this too as a result of policies authored in part by Gurt.) 

Other members of the alumni "local mafia" were similarly rewarded; e.g., the daughter of one was hired as O'Brien's administrative assistant; another was hired by the school as a vo-tech teacher; one -- who had been fired by the school in the past -- received a plum administrative position; another -- without so much as a junior college degree -- was put in charge of the students' college guidance program; and so on. The running joke was that if the reform advocates held out, every living grad would eventually be given a job.

This is how the school came to be dominated by alumni "leaders" with dubious qualifications -- and why an unbroken string of scandal followed (virtually unreported by the local media).

For instance, late last year, Emily Shirk -- a young graduate living in Hershey school housing -- was found dead on campus. Emily had reportedly told the houseparents assigned to her student home that she was ill and going to bed, on a Sunday afternoon. Five days later, when her employer called to ask why she was absent, the houseparents finally checked on Emily -- only to learn she had been dead for three days. These houseparents are now on administrative leave and the home has been closed.

In keeping with the pattern, the housefather at the home is also an alumnus -- and he and his wife are part of the group that propelled O'Brien and Gurt to power, and then received favorable employment treatment.

Among other things, these houseparents sent choreographed letters to the local newspaper supporting Gurt and O'Brien (similar to the O'Brien/McClay choreographed "op-eds").

Likewise, when Gurt should have been summarily fired -- after he made a lurid "joke" about boys who videotaped 3-on-1 sex with a vulnerable girl in the school's care -- these houseparents launched a petition to help him survive that scandal. Gurt even told his "joke" in the presence of the poor girl's entire class, leading her outraged friends to report him. But rather than being fired, Gurt was given a raise and eventually promoted to his current president position.

This is the sequence that eventually led to these houseparents being in charge of the student home where Emily died -- at a Hershey school run by late-night comic Pete Gurt.

Further, poor decision-making and general leadership breakdown are part of a larger pattern -- for instance, several members of the "local mafia," school employees, Gurt, and other senior administrators are also convivial drinking buddies. This has led to intermingling between the school's administration and notorious carousing, replete with sordid behavior unworthy of the world's largest child welfare charity. A mild example is an administrator having been arrested last year on a DUI charge, after one of the hard-partying group's drinking bouts.

But the school's officials use a bloated 21-person public relations staff and unlimited media budget to manufacture a choir-like image, despite exhibiting behavior that is more like something out of "Animal House."

Comprehensive Reforms Remain Essential

If one understands this background, it is obvious what the McClay/O'Brien op-eds reveal: alumni opportunists are again seeking wealth and power, and have seized on "criticizing" high board pay as a useful weapon.

We surmise this also entails Heist trying to gain a board leadership position. Senser is likely being targeted due to his loyalty to Cavanaugh. The strategy/goals probably include seeking to have O'Brien, McClay, and Gurt -- or some combination thereof -- named to the board, changing the balance of power.

The plotters are potentially also getting political support: the Hershey charity remains an irresistible source of patronage for politicians whose opportunism rivals that of their alumni allies. It is simply impossible to be sure exactly what is transpiring with the insular, self-selecting, secretive, and totally unaccountable Hershey school board.

But one thing is painfully clear: none of this has anything to do with the best interests of needy children, and instead is centered entirely on the endless tug-of-war over a corrupt charity's spoils -- a place where greed trumps the needs of poor kids and families, senior administrators are selected strictly on the basis of preserving the status quo, a group of alumni operators cunningly game the system, and not one board member is even qualified in child welfare, the Hershey charity's sole lawful mission.

Look for mass mailings or sham "demonstrations" orchestrated by this group. Beware also of backroom political machinations involving powerful insiders.

Make no mistake: we are not defending the obscene compensation of Bob Cavanaugh and Joe Senser, nor their appalling program/hiring decisions. This pair are everything that McClay and O'Brien charge, and worse.

Rather, we are alerting the public that Hershey would actually become even more dysfunctional if the alumni discussed here -- and any politicians backing them -- were successful in supplanting those whom they criticize. It would be like removing Syria's Assad only to replace him with ISIS: "none of the above" is the correct choice.

As we and every credible observer have said for years, the true answer to Hershey problems remains governance and program reforms -- that is: reconstituting the entire Hershey school board along child welfare lines; ending its compensation and conflicts of interest; replacing the board's lawyers, politicians, alumni opportunists, and insiders with genuine child welfare leaders; then watching a properly-managed Hershey charity unleash its $12 billion to save children with a majesty nowhere else imaginable -- sans palace intrigue, dirty political games, and embarrassing alumni antics.

Protect The Hersheys' Children, Inc.

For more information please visit  www.protecthersheychildren.org .   

Telephone: 717-298-0105

Email:  [email protected]   

Facebook: www.facebook.com/protecthersheychildren