A Horace Mann alumni group has launched a new website allowing former students of the elite Bronx private school to send back a virtual copy of their diplomas to protest the school board’s reluctance to launch an independent investigation into claims of sexual abuse.

The Horace Mann Action Coalition–made up of graduates from Horace Mann classes in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s–has launched “Here’s My Diploma Back” to protest “the school’s refusal to investigate the incidents of sexual abuse inflicted upon our friends and classmates by Horace Mann teachers over decades,” the website reads.

“There is a growing feeling among HM [Horace Mann] alums that our degrees have been tarnished by the school’s unwillingness to acknowledge, apologize for and investigate the sexual abuse that was suffered by so many of our classmates,” said Robert Boynton, a 1981 graduate of Horace Mann and a member of the Horace Mann Action Coalition.

“So we are returning our diplomas–both metaphorically and literally–until which time they can be restored to their original values,” added Mr. Boynton, who is also a professor at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.  Read More