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#MeToo: St Stephen’s management defends Harold Carver
The management of St Stephen’s has jumped to the defence of its founder principal and director Harold Carver, accused of sexual harassment.
The management of St Stephen’s, a city-based school now in the eye of the #MeToo storm, has jumped to the defence of its founder principal and director Harold Carver, accused of sexual harassment by Delhi based freelance journalist and eco-tourism entrepreneur Sanjay Austa, aged 42.
Eight persons, including Louis Lopez and Roy Da Silva, principals of the Sector 45 and Togan branches of St Stephen’s; an advocate/parent and a former student spoke to Hindustan Times at Togan on Saturday, calling Carver “a man of immense integrity.”
“With the ongoing #MeToo movement, someone has come out from nowhere and made these statements with an attempt to malign the director’s reputation,” said Lopez.
Austa had joined St Stephen’s in Class 9 in 1989. In a post on his blog on Friday, he accused Carver of sexually harassing him by calling him to his room and suggesting that sex with him would change his life.
“He tried inducements. He said he would appoint me the school captain,” Austa said.
Terming the allegations as “false, baseless and extremely hurtful,” Carver, who was also present at the school’s Togan branch,said “There is nothing more scared to me than the children in the institution.”
About 30 years ago, Carver, then principal of St Stephen’s, had been sentenced to one month in prison after three boarders at the St Stephen’s hostel accused him of abuse. He did not spend any time behind bars and was later acquitted.
On a former vice-principal, Pritam Singh, being aware of the incident involving Austa, Carver said the allegations now and earlier against him were attempts by the authorities back then to wrest the school from his control.
Though the school authorities on Saturday seemed undecided on the next move, Carver said legal action will be taken.
Meanwhile, the Old Stephenians Society (TOSS) have said in an official statement that they believed in “justice by courts and not social media.”
