A parent moves into a dorm and no adult or administrator notices or says anything? How is he able to coerce students, who I assume have got to have a minimum of intelligence to get into college into the first place, to confess to crimes, give him money, work on his farm and prostitute themselves? Not too bright these students and downright bizarre this story.
20
Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Seems we have Exhibit B.
8
I am not at all surprised by this. I remember as a freshman we had three students in our dorm withdraw in the first 10 days and the associate dean bought us pizza and tried to prevent the exodus so to speak. Then, a month later our RA was a little too fond of Ganja and was skipping class and her parents made her leave no pizza party for us no mention she just disappeared —
still remember it although it was like 30 years ago or so.
Point is the college is a business and if they really are concerned with the well being of the students they will stop this anything’s goes attitude and be vigilant about student safety. No one is talking about a
Police state here but we are in New York this Type of negligence needs to stop.
I also wonder if the color of the criminal involved had anything to do with this going undetected for years
White privileged indeed
11
I was a student at Sarah Lawrence at this time. To all that are astounded that this could have gone unnoticed by so many, know that I am ten times as taken aback. Slonim Woods is rather removed from central campus and all units have private bathrooms and kitchens. It is possible to imagine that Larry did not often leave the apartment and therefore was not seen by many other students or faculty. I lived on campus and passed by these apartments daily and I am fairly certain I never saw this man.
Sarah Lawrence is famous for fostering close relationships between the faculty and student body, I just can’t wrap my head around how this went unnoticed by so many. I’m sure that in retrospect many are able to tally up some red flags. The college would be smart to describe how they plan to ensure the safety of their student body, rather than continue to defend their ignorance.
82
I am also a Sarah Lawrence graduate, though Ieft long before Slonim Woods existed.
It is my understanding, based on the facts presented in the NY Mag story, that the activity at SLC took place mostly between late 2010 and spring of 2011, so a period of 6-8 months. After that it moved to an apartment on the Upper East Side of NY and other places, including property in NC that Larry Ray owned (by the way, the website of s group called The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, in NC, describes their paralegal Talia Ray as a 2013 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College).
I believe the NY Mag piece also said some of the students described in the article studied in UK the following year and some moved to other parts of the campus.
5
@ellienyc
Slonim woods - yes these dorms look like a mix of army barracks and log cabin
I would often take a campus shuttle when studying in the library during finals.
1
I read the NY Mag article and I think you should consider yourself lucky ! God was looking out for you.
1
I was an RA for upperclassmen dorms in college. I would have noticed if a fully grown 40 year old man was living in an all girls resident dorm. Who at the university failed to find this man and follow up on why he was living with his daughter in college?
20
The nature of the custody crime which led to this man's incarceration is just as important to understanding how this man conned these young women as his other various criminal activities. It's too bad that the Times didn't include that pertinent information. I hope this man's daughter is receiving some support.
5
How could this have gone undetected?
Unbelievable.
11
A student’s father moved into the dorm? And long enough to cultivate such relationships with other students? This is totally shocking and unacceptable no matter how you look at it. Is this common practice in American universities these days? Someone can practically run an Airbnb in the dorm. A friend’s daughter has quit SLC citing total boredom due to lack of rigor and endless focus on identity politics. Maybe this is part of it?
18
@Anxious Anonymous
Uh no, this is not part of it. But way to just lump this into some basket called "the trouble with those universities these days," and just swallow the right wing talking points. Maybe ask more questions, like what your friends daughter was majoring in?
4
As an alum of SLC and student in the 90s it’s a weird place when it comes to allowing for sexually deviant behavior. I remember one of the houses in SLC as being marked as an S and M dorm some guy named the Reverend talking nonsense about sexuality and multiple partners. As a feminist school it’s not that progressive when it comes to female /male dynamics. I remember a story of a young woman in a dorm who called security for booty calls. Seriously the school has this laissez faire thing when it comes to students who pay the big bucks in tuition.
That guy from catfish punched a trans man in the face at a dance no less.
This is the chickens coming home to roost situation
18
My heart is broken for all these kids and their parents. I wish one of them had called 911 when they were in the apartment or at least their parents would have...
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
So so so sad.
3
Finally, SLC’s reputation doesn’t rest on Yoko Ono alone anymore!
8
What was Sarah Lawrence going for, the horror version of "Back to School?" What a mess.
6
I need more context. Mainly, did Sarah Lawrence officials know he was living in the dorm? Is that allowed?
3
And why did it take ten years?
8
There are Svengalis among us, wreaking self-serving destruction in plain sight. But it's not through magic. Beyond dealing directly with this horrible case, it's past time for us to start understanding how some characters are able to con their way far too deeply into other peoples' lives and trust. It's a "skill" - perhaps even a savant-ness - that can carve out pockets of harm, as here, or wreak tectonic upset, when amplified by contemporary communication platforms (aka the Internet).
10
I wonder about his daughter. Was she a victim too or did she aid him in his crimes?
5
Whatever she did then, she is now apparently a paralegal at a place called the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, in NC, according to their website.
3
Can someone explain to me how a non-matriculated old man (perv or not), can "move in" to a Sarah Lawrence college dorm? This is not going to be a welcome selling point with upcoming high-schooler and parents campus visits this spring.
21
I suppose there must be more to this story than is obvious.
But how on EARTH do you "Move into your daughter's Dormitory ?" And at 50 or 60 years old ? How exactly is that possible ? And no one noticed, complained or cared ? Doesn't seem possible. There has to be some really serious head in the sand business going on by the school authorities !
12
Has the NY Times contacted the college's Board of Trustees? Has the Board of Trustees made any statement? If ever there was reason for an investigation of college administration, this is it, and it should be coordinated by the Board.
19
Yes, yes and yes.
5
I feel like the daughter must have been an accomplice on this. How could she NOT have known?
11
@Casualsuede
This was her father. God knows what she lived through. The line between victim and accomplice might be razor thin.
6
I believe many colleges admit more student than they can house. They turn the surplus loose on the campus community to fend for themselves with little supervision and arms length support for the decisions they make in how they entertain themselves or the company they keep.
This has gone on for years. This story in it's shocking abnormality is consistent with that pattern. Our higher education system is a business that first looks to maximize revenue and serve their customers within the bounds of simple academic concerns. Student lifestyles, relationships, habits, and psychological stability are way down the list of priorities for these institutions, no matter how much they charge or how renowned their name.
Forget about the schools. Where were the parents of the all the victims? When did the kids involved ever discuss this situation with the folks paying the bills?
4
I just took a look at the NY Mag article. The situation seems much more complex than what is presented in this NYT article. I would suggest taking a look at it before passing any judgments on the students or their families. However, Sarah Lawrence definitely should have been aware and taken action.
I have worked with college students and kids that age are extremely vulnerable and subject to outside influence. I am not surprised they were taken in by Ray--I am only surprised (and horrified) that Sarah Lawrence did nothing once they were made aware of the situation.
140
@Michelle I went to Sarah Lawrence and today received an email from the President attached to a copy of a letter that went out earlier to the campus community. In it she said that when the NY Mag article was published last year the college undertook a private investigation and was unable to substantiate the specific claims made in the article. She also said the college had never been contacted by the Southern District (or whichever USDC is handling this case).
11
@ellienyc Right, but in that internal investigation they say they only did a records search and interviewed staff. They do not say they talked to parents or students. Even though parents and students brought this problem to their attention previously.
17
@ellienyc As an SLC alum my self I would advise taking the College's claims with a very large grain of salt.
While the College's claims to having no records of complaints about Lawrence Ray, it should be noted that in 2018 the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found the College in violation of Title IX and that among the OCR’s findings were “issues related to documenting investigations” of sexual harassment and assault. So its possible there were no records because the College didn't keep them as legally required.
Further, there are serious credibility questions with the College's broader investigation as well. Firstly, to my knowledge, there were no external experts leading the investigation. As a small liberal arts college I find it hard to believe the College has sufficiently skilled and unbiased internal investigators to conduct a through investigation. Secondly, the presumable main witness - the Dean identified by the NY Mag article as receiving complaints against Lawrence Ray - was also responsible the College's Title IX compliance failures, calling into question his credibility as a witness.
21
After reading this article and the linked NY Mag article, I can't help but think about the parallels with the Manson cult, minus the murders, thankfully. How one charismatic sociopath could cast such a spell over some of the best and brightest young adults . . .
55
@ellienyc
I’ve noticed your comments throughout this board, and I’m concerned that you may be painting Sarah Lawrence unfairly.
I could not agree more that Sarah Lawrence has a lot to answer for regarding how this father became a squatter in campus housing. The prosecution will surely bring that out.
But I want to respond to something you say or imply over and over – – that students who go to Sarah Lawrence are somehow “unstable” as a group.
I did not attend Sarah Lawrence, but I have many friends who did, as did my spouse (1980s era). I’m also close to people with kids attending currently. I’ve spent a good bit of time there at events and gatherings over the years.
I think it’s unfair and damaging to characterize the Sarah Lawrence population as any more “unstable“ than the student population at any college I’ve ever been exposed to, including those colleges my kids attend/attended. SLC has a well-deserved reputation for attracting and nurturing creativity and talent, particularly but not exclusively in the arts, as well as a strong bent toward progressivism. But I think it’s a big leap from there to attribute “instability” or vulnerability to cultishness to an entire group of young people.
Your own experiences and impressions from Sarah Lawrence in the 1960s are yours, and they are valid – – but I would encourage caution about extrapolating them to others, to the current era, or to provide a facile “explanation“ for the terrible events described here.
7
@nyc - I went to school at NYU in the 1990s. We had hand scanners in our dorms and each time we entered another dorm we could only enter with our School ID. In this case, SLC is showing no sense of protection for their own students whether there was a man living there or not. Had they done so, this man would never be living there!
9
@NYC ....and yet, as a 1980's grad myself, @ellienyc doesn't feel far off base to my experience...
4
Biggest question still unanswered: how did he move in to the college dorms? I worked in ResLife as a student and we would've kicked him out. We also had people at the doors checking visitors in and out, so we would've found out pretty quickly.
6
According to the NY Mag story, the events that were described as taking place at SLC took place mostly from late 2010 to spring of 2011, so maybe 6-8 months.
2
Also according to the New York Magazine article, Sarah Lawrence’s dean of student life (his name is in the NY mag article), was twice alerted by and met with the parents of one of the students living in the same dorm AND received other complaints regarding Lawrence Ray. According to the NY mag article the dean of student life explained to the students parents, “a father had a right to visit his daughter on campus”. So it seems at least one person in a position of some authority at Sarah Lawrence was made aware of the situation on multiple occasions and chose not to take action/pursue further. How very, very sad and disappointing that the inaction of this dean of student life has contributed to the lives of these young adults associated with Lawrence Ray and their families being so negatively impacted.
101
@MN - Visiting and 'moving in' are two very different things.
13
That person also apparently retired suddenly at the end of 2018.
9
The students got an email about this from the college president which says:
“Certain uninformed, inaccurate, and highly irresponsible media reports and commentary compel me to share with you what I can about the facts of this matter as they relate to the College.
In April 2019, New York Magazine published a range of accusations about this former parent. At that time, the College undertook an internal investigation regarding the specific activities alleged in the article to have occurred on our campus in 2011; the investigation did not substantiate those specific claims.
First and foremost, the College did not knowingly allow this parent to inhabit his daughter’s dormitory apartment, as claimed in media reports. The College has conducted a thorough search of its records across many offices as well as interviewed current and former staff responsible for the safety and well-being of students who were at SLC at the time of the events alleged to have occurred on our campus. On the basis of that review, we have found no evidence to support the claim that this parent lived on the campus during the 2010-11 academic year, nor that college employees who were responsible for our students’ safety ignored such reports or any College policy impacting student health and safety in this regard.”
27
@Student I guess it is time for the then-students to either substantiate or refute this statement.
12
Define "live". My guess is that he was a frequent visitor and may have stayed the night a few times. I remember the parents of my floor mates staying in the dorms when visiting their son..i thought it was weird.
15
That PR statement should infuriate us all. The college is already in total defense mode, deflector shields on maximum. Not a glimmer of regret or honest dismay over the allegations, now corroborated by a grand jury and the state's attorney and the FBI. The college administration should be ashamed of itself. It's hiding. But it can't hide any longer.
38
Boggles the mind.... to start, how does this even take place on campus housing? Beyond that what is most disturbing is how cults can be so easily formed when there are vulnerable, broken people who seemingly lack critical thinking skills. I had to read the original article in New York magazine just to get my head around this for more context.
4
He has nothing to worry about. Trump will have him exonerated and then give him a medal
4
Another fine example of an institution of higher learning absolutely ignoring the safety and well being of the student body just so they won't come across as looking bad and have it affect donations
6
Tens years seems like a long time. None of these womens' parents had any idea or problem with what was happening to their daughters? Sounds very, very fishy to me. Where was his daughter's mother? Where was the school? I've heard good and bad things about Sarah Lawrence, but those that are accepted are supposed to be the academically elite. This exploitation went on for a decade and not one person reported it or had the intelligence to figure out this was a scam? Seriously, I would like to hear from the parents of the victims and understand just how many of them were so clueless for so long.
4
If you read the story in NY Mag, the period when it took place at SLC was about 6-8 months from the end of 2010 to the spring of 2011, at least that's the best I could determine. After that it seemed to be based in other places, including an apt in NYC and a farm in NC, and some of the participants seemed to drop out at various points.
2
Where were the parents of those exploited by this nut case ?
3
If you really want to make your head spin, read the New York Magazine article on this guy. That “Stranger Danger” warning that you learned as a kid works in adulthood, too. Apparently we don't really get street-smart until we're well past 26.
4
Where was the Sarah Lawrence admin? Older men don't live in college dorms with their daughters.
5
I had a daughter at a Philadelphia university-similarly upscale as Sarah Lawrence. I visited her several times and stayed in rooms at the conference center/university hotel or at a motel or hotel in Philadelphia. Her sister sometimes stayed with her on campus in the dorm as this was age appropriate and fine with the roommates. But everyone, I think, would have been uncomfortable with a parent and I never asked to. A rough looking father, just out of prison , is almost beyond belief but of course this actually happened.
The sad and awful tale of the young woman who was induced into prostitution is truly distressing. This went on for 4 years or so ? I really do not understand the individual and family dynamics there but her parents may have tried hard to dissuade her and she became stubborn about her independence or she managed to hide what was happening from them ? We live in a world now in which children/young people are often thrown into conditions that they have no clue about navigating. I am in favor of female empowerment and independence. I want all young people, boys and girls, to become responsible and self actualized. But it seems pretty easy for a person with no conscience to weasel his way into a position of power and influence around a certain kind of previously sheltered young woman. Parents need to have serious talks with their daughters about the world out there before they are sent off with a happy wave. Review some scenarios ahead of time.
10
How does a parent get to move into a dorm with a student? This isn't the norm is it?
2
Sounds like he learned form Epstein, they ran w some of the same people.
7
I am a SLC graduate from many years ago and have donated to
the college regularly. That will end. How could the college not
have acted in such a situation!
16
are these women so naive, so vulnerable. that they are susceptible to such exploitative cons?
25
@RH Yes. Were you all knowing when you were 18?
8
@RH
Most likely they grew up with nannies while their parents worked 12 hour days on Wall Street, to afford SLC tuition.
7
Actually, some of them were men. And it appears that this person was so tactical and skilled at manipulation, he had been manipulating New York politics for decades. Abuse can warp the mind of a victim, disorienting rational vs irrational thoughts all while digging deeper into a hole of chaos.
5
Close the school down. This shows no supervision or judgement for10 years!?!
19
Why such expressions of surprise, that a women's college, entirely focused on developing the impressionable minds of young people, and situated in a pristine, cloistered suburban community, could be successfully targeted for intimidation and exploitation by a hardened career criminal from elsewhere? He breached campus security, assessed their vulnerabilities and pounced successfully. Sarah Lawrence must be made to modernize its security systems in this new world of security threats. Cost may have been a factor. But I am surprised by the absence of basic in-house guard rails to protect those young women from such a predator. There should be an inquiry, to ascertain why in an age of frequent gun violence on school campuses, their campus security had not been hardened to prevent or expose such a breach.
33
@Quilp : You should read the NY Mag article. Nothing about his initial appearance on campus stirred suspicion, nor would it have even if campus surveillance had been stronger. He was a parent visiting his kid; nobody thought twice about it, and by the time that anyone near enough might've thought twice about it, they were ensnared.
Campuses are not going to prohibit parents from visiting, nor will they bar overnight visits by students' relatives or friends. The only thing that might -- *might* -- have saved these young people was a once-per-semester mandatory course on exploitative behavior, and once-per-semester check-ins with every student by an on-campus, highly experienced psychologist.
But those steps might not have prevented this tragedy, bc this man was, to put it mildly, a maestro of manipulation -- and every vulnerable kid in the circle was so eager to feel a part of it that, for years, no one was inclined to tell an outsider what was going on.
Do read the article.
18
@Quilp Sarah Lawrence is not a women's college.
14
Please note that Sarah Lawrence has not been a women’s college for over 50 years.
18
Hope they put in in prison for the rest of his life. He sounds like the lowest of the low for all the described conduct in this article.
5
This is beyond the pale. Sickening and unfathomable.
Some heads need to roll within Sarah Lawrence’s administration.
10
All you have to know here is the first sentence of the article. He moved into a college dormitory without the school ever knowing. SLC is culpable and this is obviously not a safe place to send your kids. Many civil suits to follow…
9
Former friend of convicted felon Bernard Kerik. How shocking (sarcasm, for those unfamiliar with the concept).
10
Just knowing he was best man at el creepo Bernard Kerik's wedding should have been enough to send people running.
2
How did this guy steal “hundreds of thousands” of dollars from the checking accounts of the parents of the kids he duped without this being reported? I would report someone who stole a penny from my checking account. Something doesn’t make sense here. I wish someone with a legal background were assigned to write about these types of legally complicated fact intensive cases.
10
@Bathsheba Robie Read the NY Magazine article. At lease one set of parents was afraid of him. He threw around a lot of scary names of people he was connected to.
He was involved with mobsters and Bernie Kerik, the jailed former NYC police commissioner.
11
That these educated and elite women attending one of the most prestigious Universities in the country could be fooled by such a low life jerk is a perfect and tragic example of the power of the patriarchy and internalized misogyny. How low was their sense of self worth and self esteem to be taken in by him?
5
It is not "one of the most prestigious Universities in the country.' It is famous. The admission standards are very flexible and many students there would not in a million years have been admitted to a real prestigious university, based on previous academic performance and standardized test scores.
8
As I recall, according to the more in depth report in New York Magazine, this guy was kicked off campus as soon as his presence became known to college authorities. As an alum, I can totally see how the students living in this mixed-gender somewhat isolated stand-alone house would have initially welcomed a down-and-out parent being released from prison. Fits perfectly with the social justice orientation and counter-culture tradition of the school. Once he got his hooks in them, he was able to manipulate these young adults in an off-campus setting. And, because the students were legally adults, their parents were prevented from intervening, despite many attempts to get them away from what was essentially a small cult. No doubt this was a terrible situation and the college certainly bears some responsibility, but all the commenters seeking naively to appoint blame in one corner or another don’t have a good grasp of the complexities of this kind of power dynamic. Hunters of thousands, perhaps millions of young people, especially women, especially women of color or living in poverty, are living in circumstances where they are being exploited or trafficked, usually by manipulative older men looking to make a profit off their labor or their bodies. How about we reserve a little of our outrage to try to do something about THAT?
19
It is bizarre for me that a high end College allows a student's father in the dorms. Isn't it?
6
When scandal hits, universities still take the old-school approach of closing ranks and arrogantly acting like they don't owe anyone an explanation. They are also masters of the fake internal investigation.
Sarah Lawrence is following this playbook exactly.
They repeatedly refused to comment during the NY Magazine reporting, did nothing to address the problem even knowing that a major piece of investigative journalism was coming, and then trashed the article when it came out.
Re. the fake investigation, notice from SLC's statement that they didn't actually interview any students or parents, who had already told them what was happening:
"The College has conducted a thorough search of its records across many offices as well as interviewed current and former staff responsible for the safety and well-being of students who were at Sarah Lawrence at the time of the events alleged to have occurred on our campus."
Despicable.
9
Also note that the college administrator to whom some parents allegedly complained "retired" at the end of 2018.
4
So, what about the daughter. This was her room. What's the story with her.
7
@Finnie There is a back story and it is actually very sad. Larry tore apart his family. He is mentally unstable and very dangerous.
4
How does a parent move into his daighter’s student housing on a college campus?
4
As myself a college professor, I am just unable to process the fact that this man moved into his daughter's dorm, apparently for an extended period of time. I appreciate that its location may have been somewhat isolated (as CB Cole attests in the comments section), but was there no oversight whatsoever on the part of college administers or RA's? Where are the spokespeople for college life at Sarah Lawrence in this story? It's mind-boggling that any random student who happened to live in this building became vulnerable to this man's predations. In my opinion, the failure of Sarah Lawrence to notice that an adult man was living in a student dorm is the most egregious institutional failure in this dismal episode. I see that there is an accompanying story about Ray; let's now have a story about how Sarah Lawrence's office of residential life managed to overlook a sex trafficker living in his daughter's dorm.
17
The British enacted a so-called 'coercive control' law in 2015 (Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act) and it would appear that the United States should follow suit. The act was introduced to strengthen the powers of the police, prosecution, and courts in combating domestic abuse as well as dealing with those cases when an individual is trapped in a controlling and abusive relationship.
It's time to get serious in the United Stats about protecting women (and indeed men, as the Ray case demonstrates) from sexual, physical, psychological, and cyber violence. Police apathy or indifference, or indeed a shrug of the shoulders because the involved parties were legally adults, is neither acceptable nor defensible.
13
When I was a freshman in college in 1991 at one of the UC schools, I lived with 3 other freshmen women in an apartment owned by the university. One of them had a boyfriend who was in the military and stationed nearby. I assume he had a bed in the barracks. He essentially moved in with us - he was there every night and had his stuff there. None of us complained because, well, I don’t know why. We were all very young and didn’t want to make waves, I guess. He and the girlfriend roommate had us all convinced it wasn’t a big deal. Plus, weirdly, it felt safer having a man living there. No one from the university ever checked on our apartment to see if anyone was living there who wasn’t supposed to. Ugh, in light of this story I shudder to think how badly that situation could have gone.
17
Sarah Lawrence is going to have trouble surviving the civil lawsuits. I wonder how deeply the members of the Board of Directors are willing to dig into their own pockets to pay for this mess. My guess is not much.
17
So this was under Karen Lawrence's presidency at Sarah Lawrence. What a lousy administrator.
6
HUH? HUH? HUH? How does some middle-age thug get to live in a women's college dorm in the first place? How does such a weirdo actually pull this off? How is it that Julie Annie and his henchman cop crimonal get involved?
8
@Bob Jack
Not a women's college. Not a women's dorm. Not a dorm at all, really. A co-ed house with eight residents. On a co-ed campus.
Just clarifying.
5
Where is the daughter in all of this? Was she one of the abused or did she help this vile excuse of a person commit these heinous acts?
12
I'm an older adult so maybe I'm missing something about the modern campus, but it is striking how the story (and one on last night's news) casually mentions that a father moved into his daughter's dorm as if this is a common occurrence. Is it? For me that statement is like a huge flashing red warning light, yet the article accepts that little fact without comment. If it is a common practice, what the heck!? This story is a perfect illustration of one reason that practice should be verboten. If it is, then why report it without comment?
15
@Anne-Marie Hislop
As a former journalist and a parent of a current SLC student, I am frustrated at how sloppily written this story is — as evidenced by how confused so many of its readers appear to be. I had to go to the original source material (the New York magazine article) to clarify all of the questions it raised.
The house in question is not a traditional dorm. It is a house with eight residents (friends who had decided to live together) and a common area with a kitchen. I moved my son into one of these Slonim houses last fall. Both the school and the dorms are co-ed.
It sounds like the father camped out on the common room sofa as much as (or even more than) his daughter's room, and set himself up as a sort of "house pop" — cooking for the kids, ordering take-out, and screening movies for them.
I'm not suggesting that this isn't strange and inappropriate. But I do think the NYT and other media outlets are using the sensationalism of "ex-con moves into daughter's dormitory at [what many people believe is still] a women's college for 10 years" to goose their headlines without bothering to clarify the details.
11
@MAmom
Thanks for the info - it does clarify.
2
The individuals featured in this story remind me of the recent film Uncut Gems - the New York area seems to breed and harbor a certain class of aspirational lowlife embodied in the garbage human that is Ray. From the fragile, clueless kids at SLC to the mob bosses to the cultish conditioning in an UES sublet, the city provides far too many dank corners for rot to flourish, and the naive wannabes seem drawn to them.
7
Because there are never any news stories about weird happenings, disturbed individuals or angry people doing harm outside the New York area!
2
Sarah Lawrence isn’t even a well-regarded academic institution nationally, and from the remarks posted by alumni, it sounds like the negligence of the administration and the festering criminality of the cloistered campus are well-known to all. Hardly an elite school or even a decent “finishing school,” parents beware of sending your child here...a waste of money at best, and as this story and the stories of the alumni prove, something unthinkable at worst.
7
I disagree. It offers wonderful educational opportunities, and the proximity to New York provides excellent internships. It is hard to understand how they let this happen. Perhaps more information will come to light? It is concerning, for sure, but the quality of education with the distinguished faculty and small classes, and ability for students to lead and start clubs for any interest, is excellent. And the alumni network is wonderful.
6
I see this as a role for a shaved head Rob Lowe on Bravo. Chloe Grace Moretz as his daughter. William Macy as the clueless college president.
6
Everyone is wondering about the school. How about the judgment of his political associates for having this guy around? Why does all news today involve Giuliani, the mob, and former Soviet states.
12
I don't understand why not one single student reported this utterly bizarre and invasive situation.
15
@Thea
Perhaps students did report.
4
@Thea They did. Parents did too. But the dean of student life said there was nothing he could do because a father has the right to "visit" his daughter.
7
And where were the parents in all of this? Besides footing the bills at Sarah Lawrence, they were doing what? And the school administration never knew some adult ex-con was living with their students?
14
@ronnyc In all fairness, according to the NY Magazine article mentioned here, some parents did try to intervene and reclaim their children, even going to law enforcement, but this guy did a thorough job on the kids and apparently used his connections or the threat of them to keep the law at bay.
4
Two questions for which I didn't see answers in this story:
(1) How did Sarah Lawrence allow a 60-year-old man to live with girls in a dorm?
(2) Was his daughter complicit in all this?
18
As the brainwashing is unwound and the direct link between the school harboring Mr Ray is fleshed out in facts by the indictment the potential liability claims on the school and its senior personnel, executives, trustees, board members grows.
8
I find it baffling that Sarah Lawrence did not know a grown man was living in student housing. I read the comment that described the housing as isolated, but I can't imagine a responsible educational institution where no one from administration checked periodically and that there was no dorm parent assigned.
And what about the daughter?? A lot is missing from this story.
34
What about the RA ? Most all campus housing has upperclassmen Resident Assistants living among the recently arrived.
15
What the heck, given Trump's low moral standards, the cultish admiration for him, and his disdain of the justice department, how about Lawrence Ray for US president? Too farfetched? I'm horrified the thought could even cross my mind. And yet...
9
It may be time for colleges and universities to rid themselves of the last vestiges of "in loco parentis", which in fact they are not, or else to re-affirm 21 as the age of emancipation (small chance of that, and for good reason!)
Dorms, particularly on large-campus institutions may look sheltered, but they are not.
In fact, dorms at many sites of higher education isolate young adults from other age groups and concentrate this highly hormone-endowed and eagerly experimental population into a culture medium for behaviors that are not necessarily in their own best interest. Since supervision has been abdicated, what would anyone expect?
If we believe students of this age to be adults, then let them take their place among the adultl population. When sex abuse and rape occurs, police and courts should be the ones to deal with the problem - not the school, whose primary interest may be their own reputation.
8
This story recalls Charles Manson and his methods for subjugating and brainwashing his "family", so that they were willing to murder at his command.
How do we educate ourselves and one another to recognize and avoid these snake oil sellers? Because there seems to be a whole lot of them taking up a bunch of social media and air-space, and not all are confined to DC or corporate America.
18
Maybe revolting situations like this current one is why SLC did not respond to my recent letter about a professor's sexual attack--and the college's utter indifference to my complaint--back when I was a student there, in the 1960s. Nor did the college intervene on my behalf when my dorm-mate took to having her boyfriend "sleep over" on weekends. I was shut out of my own dorm room, but it's up to an 18 year-old to sort it all out by herself. Apparently the college still doesn't really care about its students and what they may be enduring. Sickening.
21
How in the world did the administration of Sarah Lawrence College not know or permit a 60 year old unenrolled (presumably) adult man to live in an undergraduate dormitory for 8 years?
24
@Lewis Sternber
Please re-read the story. It was less than one year. (Late 2010 to the summer of 2011.) Not 8.
2
The campus was involved for about 6-8 months from late 2010 to spring of 2011.
1
@MAmom oh, only 8 months, not 8 years. that's totally OK then
4
This storyline would be rejected by Lifetime for being too far-fetched. Sort of like everything these days. How has the truth become so much stranger than fiction? We are living in crazy times.
8
I'm reading a lot of clueless comments here about Sarah Lawrence College. Absolutely, SLC bears blame; the administration should have done more to prevent the parent of a student from staying in a dorm for more than a short period of time. So it's a sensational story, but SLC was a small part of it. 95% of this narrative happened off campus. How about the fact that at nearly every single college and university in this country, drug dealers operate in plain sight. Predatory rape culture plays out at fraternity and dorm parties. Guns are brought to campus. Don't believe it? Fine. Don't think about it. Your college student knows, and they won't tell you. Do not forget that the players here were adults, and supervision by a college or university can only go so far. Pick on Sarah Lawrence all you want. It's a small college with its share of issues, but I know for a fact that in regard to student safety, it's a better place than most.
12
@Li Li Please don't make assumptions about other people's children. I'm not so naive to believe my children tell me everything but I do know them well enough that they would let me know if they were in a dangerous situation and reach out for help.
5
@Li Li Ten years. TEN. Someone I know was called to the Dean's office his freshman year for selling pot. And when I took up the mantle the following year, I was similarly called to be questioned that very spring (in the context, I might add, of having an 'illegal party' -- more than ten people in our room without a rubber-stamp permit).
I suppose we maintained higher standards at Swarthmore, though.
1
@Li Li It's their arrogant and crude attempts at damage control and coverup that have caused me so much fury.
Yes, some hippy dippy 60s era dean decided there was nothing he should do about it, and maybe refused to believe what was going on. But the decision always comes straight from the top to close ranks, refuse to deal with the press and then trash the magazine story that finally led to this man facing justice after a decade.
And to top it off, the school conducted a whitewash investigation in which they exonerated themselves by refusing to interview any students or parents.
8
I can’t believe he’s not leaving official for the Trump administration? What a lost opportunity
6
Question #1 - who and where and what was his PAROLE OFFICER doing ? a person released is usually subject to seeing the officer weekly, reporting his activities and even the officer will stop in on the parolee to inspect his living circumstances.
43
My son went to a large prestigious urban university on the upper west side. I loved being able to visit and have him home on weekends. IDs were required to enter his dorm and security conversed with visitors . Seems like SLC needs to increase its caring a lot. Parenting doesn't end when they go to college. This animal needs a long sentence. Why was I thinking of our ex mayor two sentences before he was mentioned? Maybe just scanned ahead with out being conscious of it. Very sad.
15
Agree on SLC needs care more. Not a safe campus because Sarah Lawrence admin only care about profit.
4
How was a grown man allowed to live on college property without paying fees and without the knowledge of the college administrators? A lot of people need to be fired.
59
I've been turning this story over in my mind all night and it just doesn't make sense. How did this man live in his daughter's dorm without escaping scrutiny from the administration down to residents of the dorm? And how did he get away with his Svengali sway over these young women without anyone questioning it? Where was the the administration, the families, RA's, dorm residents, visiting parents? I put 2 children through college and have heard disturbing stories of alcohol and substance abuse, mental illness and extreme stress but I can't imagine something of this nature going on unreported and not investigated.
55
@Erika- Also- According to the NY mag article, Sarah Lawrence’s dean of student life was twice alerted by & met w/the parents of one of the students living in the same student housing on campus AND received other complaints regarding Larry Ray. According to the NY mag article the dean of student life explained to the students parents, “a father had a right to visit his daughter on campus”. So it seems at least one person in position of authority at SLC was made aware of the situation on multiple occasions & chose not to take action/pursue further. How VERY, very sad & disappointing, that if true, the inaction of this dean of student life has contributed to the lives of these young adults associated w/Larry Ray & their families being so negatively impacted. Seriously distressing story concerning once promising young adults that have clearly been brainwashed & abused by Larry Ray.
19
@MN just incredible. Multiple complaints warrants an investigation. Criminal behaviour negates any right to "visit" a dorm. Security is always an issue and there is a reasonable expectation that steps are taken to keep our children safe. I guess the school will be on the hook for this debacle financially but all the money in the world won't make the victims whole.
15
That Dean also "retired" at end of 2018.
5
While this was going on students complained to the admiistration about what was going on. The administration didn't listen and/or took a dismissive attitude. SL should be investigated as well.
54
@Al Are you speaking to this specific situation with Lawrence V. Ray/ Larry ? Or in general?
In the early 1960's I had a girlfriend at SLC. While there she got hooked on heroin and was abused by her classmates. I only found out about this years after she dropped out. At least she did drop out. Lovely liberals, really.
14
@Zack Taylor How do you know they were liberals? Are you claiming that conservatives lack the brains and drive to make it into college? That's rather insulting to conservatives. There are in fact many leading conservatives with college degrees. There are also many conservatives in prison as well.
14
Do you render similar judgments on opioid addicted conservatives?
2
Every part of this story is unbelievable.
20
Just for reference's sake - I'm a Sarah Lawrence grad from a ways back - the Slonim Woods residences are houses that have, if I recall correctly, about 8 bedrooms each, on a finger of property that is right off a main thoroughfare and somewhat isolated from the main part of campus; they're very accessible by car without ever crossing main campus.
In the last 10 years they've build more facilities in that area of campus so it probably feels less isolated than it did, but it doesn't surprise me that this weirdness could go for a while in that location.
92
@CB Cole I concur. I graduated from SLC over 25 years ago and I lived in a room in one of the Slonim Woods "houses" for my sophomore year and it was quite isolated from the rest of the campus back then.
20
@CB Cole Still, not one student reported to someone in charge that a sixty year old man moved in?
83
@CB Cole I was a grad student at this time. Slonim Woods was not isolated atall. I walked past it every day, as did many from the several buildings that truly were on the fringe of the campus. Even if the buildings were isolated, someone knew, but in a culture of coverup such as SLC has, they also did nothing about a campus rape at this time, nothing was done.
23
Without exaggerating, this is the most bizarre story I've read in the NYT, or frankly, in any paper within recent memory. Saying that, I know nothing about Sarah Lawrence College or what's considered normal or abnormal there.
136
@pungo9nc I agree 1000%. As a former administrator at a university, this is mind-blowing.
5
@pungo9nc I have to agree. I cannot even get my jaw off the floor. What?? EIGHT years?
Inconceivable.
6
@pungo9nc https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html
Read this as well. Very informative. Leaving you thinking, "whuuuuuut"
2
If this story was made into a movie no one would believe it really happened. Unless it was a comedy.
45
@Illuminati Reptilian Overlord #14
Sorry nothing funny about what happened here. I fail to see the least amount of comedy.
3
God. Truth really is stranger than fiction. If you put this in a movie, no one would believe it.
How in the heck was Sarah Lawrence not aware of this monster taking up residence with his daughter? How could that have happened for one night, much less one year?
Some folks were asleep at the wheel. There should be big-time consequences, if those do-nothings are still around.
32
Wow. What a story! I found much of it so hard to believe. On the other hand, I had no trouble believing this criminal arranged a diplomatic meeting between Gorbachev and Mayor Giuliani and was the best man at Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik's wedding. Yup, that sounds 'bout right!!
22
After reading this I also think of the cult of evangelicalism, where parents throw their gay/trans kids on the street or drive them to suicide with debunked reparative therapies. These kids at SLC were confused and vulnerable creatures and just like LGBTQ kids (and many straight kids too) in the evangelical church they were abused by fanatical, self righteous, sanctimonious adults with power.
12
I read this article earlier today, before comments were open. The weirdness starts in the first sentence, which reveals that a student's father moved into a student dorm. What???
Fire the administrator who allowed a student's father to move into a student dorm.
Whoever thought it was a good idea should never again work anywhere close to students of any age.
28
@Cynthia It never occurred to me to sleep in my daughter's dorm when I visited her. I would have felt uncomfortable for both of us.
4
@Cynthia
Re-reading my comment, I admit the assumption that the administration knew and approved of the father living in the dorm. Even if no permission was sought and received, were there no responsible adults around???
(Then again, as a graduate resident assistant in an undergrad dorm 30 years ago, I was subjected to my roommate's live-in boyfriend. Dorm administrators lamented the situation with me, but did nothing to fix the problem.)
2
I highly doubt any administrator approved of this arrangement. My guess is that they were unaware of it—the father would scarcely have asked permission to do this from anyone!—and then, when complaints were made, would have claimed he was only visiting & blown up at the campus officials, claiming they were interfering in his rights as a parent and threatening to withdraw his daughter from the college etc. He sounds like he had incredible skills at conning people, manipulating and browbeating everyone he came into contact with, not only students but possibly an administrator too...
4
Sarah Lawrence University must have some security guards. Where were they?? They saw nothing and did nothing....they didn't see a grown man living and coming and going from the dorm?? Were they paid off? Why did no one in the dorm raise alarms? This investigation is not over, in my opinion. The University needs to be examined for their part in the failure of their security. I sure wouldn't allow my daughter to go there now!!
168
@Lynn It is Sarah Lawerence College, not the University. And like many small colleges, the 'dorms' are all different sorts of housing units. From condo-like clusters to rooms in a house, to a large apartment like building. This sort of thing could (and probably has) happen on any campus.
3
This is too much to wrap my head around.
13
The events of this story are so bizarre that I began expecting a survey at the end about whether or not I believed this was a real news piece. In a world where real news strains credulity, it's no wonder that so many outlandish conspiracy theories are able to thrive.
9
How'd the daughter have the money to go to an elite school anyway while dad was locked up. Was it old family money or her mother have the big bucks. This whole thing is beyond imagination and will probably kick a lot of other news stories to the side as we all dissect this together.
58
The father may have had money socked away
OR the daughter may have had financial aid. Sarah Lawrence provides a lot of financial aid.
5
@Lisa Or maybe she got a scholarship? Maybe the Dad had set aside the money for her before he went to jail? Maybe she took out loans, like lots of people do?
4
@Lisa
Have you ever heard of scholarships and student loans? Why imply something nefarious without any basis?
5
That SLC allowed this doesn’t surprise me atall. I was a grad student at this time and was severely psychologically abused during an internship. The program director, dean of students, and president did not care. They punished me, which cost me an extra $15,000. I am working class. Similar happened to others in my program.
Sarah Lawrence is about money and image—as for students--they couldn't be bothered.
19
As a Sarah Lawrence alum, I find this absolutely horrifying but, sadly, not unimaginable. Many of the dorms on campus are not your standard large college dormitories but are small houses with 6-10 single rooms and a communal kitchen/living space. The dorm this guy was staying in, Slonim 9, is one of these houses. If none of the students in the house reported his presence (and I’m guessing the first thing a skilled manipulator would do is to make the housemates trust him) then he could have flown under the radar for a while
31
Colleges and universities no longer function "in loco parentis." Once a person is 18, he or she is legally an adult. Colleges no longer disclose grades to parents, even if the parents are paying the bills. There have been cases where students experienced psychiatric and/or psychological problems and had counseling via student services, but the school was unable to notify the parents because the student refused to sign a release of information. I don't buy that all 18 to 21 year olds are too immature to make good decisions for themselves. But as the adage goes, "It's a wise parent who knows his or her own child." If your 18 year old is overly trusting or naive and doesn't talk to you about his or her problems, perhaps he or she should attend a college within a couple of hours of your home. That way you can check up on him or her in person a couple of times a month.
24
Who was the Dean of this institution at the time of these crimes? They should be on trial when this dirtbags is over. I cannot even begin to comprehend how this story can even be true. How long did he live in the dormitory. I cannot imagine parents hearing of a students middle aged male parent moving into a dormitory and liking it. If this story is true then it is a sad commentary on the state of things, especially the girl that was forced into prostitution. Yikes!
48
how does his daughter escape investigation in this article? how was his presence not reported?
45
Agree that something doesn’t gel. When I was in school, we had security & upperclassmen monitoring...sounds like this college doesn’t have its act together.
6
I would like to understand how this guy moved into a dorm...I lived in a 21+ dorm and you'd better believe they monitored the heck out of who was coming and going (mostly because of alcohol issues, but still - security was tight)...that seems really odd that no one thought anything of it. Creepy!
34
How could this guy ensconce himself in student housing?
38
I'm an SLC grad and I am horrified. They really messed up big time here. In SLC's loosey-goosey culture I can see how this could happen. It's a wake-up call for them, it's time they came out of their la-la-land bubble and woke up already.
35
@Honeybee In other forums, "politically correct" is code for denigrating actions that reflect concern for others. Here you're equating the phrase with something very different, namely a lack of concern for what's happening in the shadows. In another post on this article's comments board, you issued a blanket indictment of the geography well to the east of Texas, so I'm not surprised to find the same level of incisiveness here. But I thought there'd be benefit in calling it out, and I hope you're not offended by my doing so.
2
It is hard to believe: 1) how gullible the young victims were and 2) Noone screamed bloody murder at a male adult crashing in his daughter's dorm. Weird, just weird!
32
This is a deeply weird story.
31
Their website headline reads: "Connecting passions. Creating futures." Needs a rethink.
17
Please enlighten me how a college allows a middle age adult to live in its dorm? Sarah Lawrence has some 'xplainin' to do. Didn't any parents know?
26
Why/how was he allowed to move into his daughter’s dorm room in the first place?
24
Why am I not surprised to see Rudy referenced in this story?
73
How could this man live on campus without the college knowing? Where did the money come from to pay this con artist? Where were the parents of these young women while all of this was happening? Too many unanswered questions, which I trust will be answered soon.
21
@texasgardener When I was at a well-known college in Virginia, there was someone that I knew tagentially who managed to live in a storage closet in the science building for 6 months. Nobody ever said anything to the authorities and eventually this person moved out of the store room when he had enough money,
It's also obvious that the people living in Ray's daughter's dorm at SLC were ripe for exploitation. In true sociopath fashion, we saw an opportunity and exploited it.
4
@texasgardener When I was at a well-known college in Virginia, there was someone that I knew tagentially who managed to live in a storage closet in the science building for 6 months. Nobody ever said anything to the authorities and eventually this person moved out of the store room when he had enough money,
It's also obvious that the people living in Ray's daughter's dorm at SLC were ripe for exploitation. In true sociopath fashion, we saw an opportunity and exploited it.
1
How on Earth did this man get away with living in his daughter's dorm?
24
This is beyond disgusting!
26
Some friends of mine got thrown out of campus housing for having a keg party? This criminal was allowed to live on campus in his daughter’s dorm and prey upon the female students? This story is insane.
41
Why the heck was an adult male allowed to live in a college dorm? And no one spoke up? This is shocking.
24
A lot of SMH sore foreheads here. In the subtitle and in two other sentences we read the word "dorm", conjuring up images of an incredible living situation. Halfway down, and in a comment or two, it changes to 'housing', suggesting more like an apartment. The link below from Jersey girl to The Cut article clears up a lot of the what/how of the on-campus dad. Nevertheless, I have to wonder about so many other things...
7
It is shocking and bizarre. In an ‘elite’ college, students supposed to be smart. May be these students got in with rich parents practicing one of those admissions scandals. It is hard to comprehend how these things could happen.
11
Excuse me for not understanding... WHAT????
22
I think this is the single most inexplicable article I have ever read. I checked the calendar to see if it was April 1.
30
Shame on the administration at SLC, but what the heck! What are these students thinking??? There is a difference between stupid and naïve.
13
Shut the place down.
10
I should probably read the original article because there’s clearly more going on here.
12
I'm having difficulty understanding how he "moved into the dorm" without the college noticing.
18
How in the world could a grown man manage to move into a girl’s dormitory at a small private college, live there for such an extended period of time, and criminally exploit so many young women? It baffles the imagination. Sarah Lawrence has a lot of explaining to do and reparations to make. I hope the school is investigated and held accountable for such an egregious breach of trust. Creepy doesn’t even begin to describe it.
24
I remember reading this New York magazine article from way back. The article wasn’t particularly well written, but it was compelling and terrifying AF.
13
And this one is?
As much as I'm enjoying all the comments speculating on weak-mindedness and fragility and all the other we hate the youths tropes, you're pointing your fingers at the wrong people. An 18 year old is only an adult on paper. If a kid is raised up to never question authority and to hate themselves, they will obey and they will seek out people who make them feel good about themselves. It's just as easy for a predator to worm his way into the mind of a grown person who feels they have no other support and no one who cares about them as it is for them to worm their way into the mind of a child under the same circumstances. This didn't happen because the women were stupid, this happened because they didn't think they had anyone else they could turn to with their problems. And by the time they realized he was the wrong guy, it was too late. The problem with the youth is the people who raised them. Deal with it.
11
I understand your point about what contributes to vulnerablilty but I am not sure we can say that it has all to do with being raised to "never question authority." Kids who choose SL are by self-selection those who usually DO question authority (at least certain kinds of authority) but perhaps were raised not to question other kinds of risk. Ideology can blind one to the absolute risk of a situation.
In parenting, overly authoritarian or excessive permissiveness can create the same vulnerabilities/risk profiles. These girls are certainly not stupid but naive, vulnerable, unable to see how inappropriate the situation was, and unable to ascertain where and how to set practical boundaries.
College institutions are a bridge between childhood and the wider adult world. College is a challenging time and many struggle to work out insecurities, shifting self-identity, fraught social dynamics, life and coping skills, mental wellness concerns and family issues while pursuing an education. Administrators KNOW these dynamics are at play and are supposed to be well versed in helping students. Schools like SL believe their organic progressive philosophy creates an environment that meets these issues head-on. It's why many choose this school.
So it bears asking where was SLC and its staff and vast resources in the lives of these vulnerable young women such that an abusive interloper could supercede their role in these students lives if they did need care and assistance?
14
It's doubtful that this situation, though hard to understand, is isolated. When I taught at a prominent college, one of my students was upset because her dorm mate was allowing a non-student to stay in their room: her 40-year-old dope dealer boyfriend. This was in the 90s.
Peter Nelson
Altadena, CA
23
@Peter Nelson
Maybe it's time to go back to non coed dorms.
5
did you do anything about it to help the student?
in the 70’s My college roommate brought her boyfriend back and was having sex him in the middle of the night in front of me... I was sleeping until I was awoken by the obnoxious noises. First thing in the morning I complain to an administrator who immediately took action and ousted her from the dorm.
Students need to know that admin/ staff will protect them and should be encouraged to complain about inappropriate behaviors such as a students father moving in!
The York magazine article describes how the daughter herself manipulated a group of friends to live with her in this isolated dorm setting. She obviously chose a group of very fragile and disturbed young people. She herself is obviously quite disturbed, as she aligned with her father against her mother in seriously false accusations.
very sad and horiffic story,
If I was the parent of either Claudia or Daniel as described in the New York mag article, I would never support my child living off campus with an older man. One way to do that would be refusing to support your child in such a destructive situation.
8
I keep reading about universities bungling long-term sexual abuse issues by staff, professors and administrators, though this case is beyond the pale. Maybe I’m being a little paranoid, but I’m starting to have a real issue with trusting very many institutions with the welfare, even on a basic level, of my trusting and empathic daughter.
22
As you should. They do not have her best interests at heart. At all.
3
I tend to agree with Sarah Lawrence's statement that he didn’t live there for a year. It would have been an almost unimaginable oversight if he did. Even if his daughter snuck him in, it would have been noticed eventually and the college would have acted. I do believe the story overall though, and I am sure he spent countless hours at the school and brainwashed these students.
8
As best as I can determine from the NY Mag article, he was there from late 2010 to spring 2011, so likely no more than 6-8 months, minus breaks like Christmas, etc.
1
This article was so upsetting for all the reasons everyone else cited. I read the NY Magazine article in the link provided for hopefully more clarity. The NY Magazine article actually explodes into an even more disturbing/crazy story of a sick/psycho con man/cult leader that is so out there that at times the story seems unbelievable, until you read the comments section at the end of the article which spirals into insanity and it becomes clear that Lawrence Ray is either posing as or making others submit comments about the article. This man needs to be put away for a long time, if I had it my way, forever. He is and will always be a menace to society. He clearly lives in an alternate universe and has no qualms about destroying the lives of others to justify his giant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Seriously distressing story concerning once promising young adults that have clearly brainwashed and abused.
24
Sarah Lawrence parents should file a Class Action forthwith. This story is mindboggling.
When I was at Wellesley in the 80s, I tried to keep a cat in my dorm room on the sly, and as much as everyone in the dorm liked Zoe, she was swiftly found out, and my RA (student resident advisor) politely asked me to send her home.
So Sarah Lawrence has no RA's (student resident advisors) or student proctors or any resident faculty Head of Dorm? They leave their students to the wolves? Sarah Lawrence has a reputation as flaky, but their indifference to the safety of their students is beyond Birkenstocks.
College students are still children, any neuroscientist (neuroscience, coincidentally, was my major at Wellesley) can tell you.:The brain of an 18-21 year old lacks a mature capacity for reason. See, e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/science/youre-an-adult-your-brain-not-so-much.html
College age young people need guidance and protection. Sarah Lawrence's negligence is criminal.
35
@Leigh
I was at Wellesley in the 80s, as well, and currently have a kid at Sarah Lawrence, so I can tell you that the housing at the two schools is very different.
SLC does have RAs in its large dorms — like Hill House, where most of the freshman live. But the size of the campus (44 acres compared to Wellesley's 500) and the way it developed means that many of its students live with friends in residences that are smaller than French House or Casa Cervantes. Did French House have an RA when we were there? I honestly don't know.
I'm not excusing what happened or saying that it wasn't unacceptable. But this article is not at all clear about what the situation really looked like. This man's daughter and seven of her friends had arranged to live together in a small house with eight bedrooms. It wasn't Tower Court.
7
How did a non-student come to reside in student housing? Does Sarah Lawrence have a policy that allows parents to live with their child on campus?
17
So many questions:
An old man was released from prison in NJ and moved into his daughter's dorm room in NY? Maybe I've watched too many Hollywood movies but don't ex-convicts have to report their addresses to a parole officer who confirms or perhaps visits said address?
Where were the school administrators, school security or the dorm RA?
Why did none of the young women report this sad state of affairs?
Surely all of them weren't "brainwashed?"
Didn't their parents know they lived with this Svengali after college? They were okay with their daughters living in a weird commune with a 60 year old man?
23
How is that possible?
10
This guy was like Charles Manson, or any cult leader, who preys on vulnerable young people. That this happened at a top liberal arts institution makes it all the more shocking.
Eighteen to 22 year olds may be considered adults in the eyes of the law, but they have not stopped developing emotionally.
I hope Sarah Lawrence - and all colleges - take a good look at how this happened and how they can better protect their students.
19
How in the world does a 60 year old man get away with moving into a girls dormitory?
I hope he is put away for life for his despicable, evil crimes and I especially hope the young ladies he victimized can find peace and get along with the rest of their lives.
The administration needs to be investigated to find how exactly they failed to protect these women.
13
How does a middle aged man with a felony record get to move into a girls dorm at a girls college? Where was the college administration during all this?
12
@Scott
Co-ed college. Co-ed dorm. Also, not really a dorm in the classical sense. A house shared by 8 friends.
8
This guy could be Secretary of Education in the Trump administration.
25
I graduated from Sarah Lawrence in the early 1940's, a time
when the college was fairly new and the faculty included
brilliant professors, many of whom had come to the U.S. to
escape Nazi Germany. It was a new world for me, and I was
very happy there, where I met some lifelong friends and sang
in the chorus under William Schuman,famous for his later
connection with Lincoln Center. I am horrified beyond belief
at this sickening news. Goodbye Sarah Lawrence.
22
Before everyone starts pointing fingers at various authorities, consider that millions of Americans bought into a similar con, then voted a very similar individual, President of the USA, who is currently terrorizing the entire world from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue aka The White House.Similar psychotic, narcissist, grifter, criminal, manipulative with no morals. Also friends with Rudi Guilani, Paul Manafort and Rodger Stone.
Conmen are salesmen, be critical in your thinking, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is a scam. Beware of sharing intimate details with strangers. We need more caution. Parents need to stop overprotective behaviour and start teaching the realities of life, let them learn from minor mistakes early in life.
36
Top of my list on a few fronts. Disgusting. Creepy. Dereliction of duty by a vast number of people. Bizarre. Sick.
How does this college allow a guy that age to "move into" a dorm?
This is not the first of many questionable things that have taken place at Sarah Lawrence. Look them up.
It's just the most outrageous.
13
What kind of college permits adult parents to live on campus? In any capacity whatsoever?
Let’s hope the victims get significant financial compensation from Sarah Lawrence.
10
According to Forbes, SLC was the most expensive college in the country in 2010. Isn't that rich?
Attention all ye rising seniors! Apply in the fall. You've got a good chance of getting in. But it'll cost you.
7
SLC is extremely generous with financial aid - several of the students victimized were from poor families and where there on scholarships.
11
@Anna Base In addition, it is relatively new as far as colleges and universities go, and hasn't been able to build up an endowment comparable to those of older schools. Further, though it is now co-ed it was formerly a women's college and in many families the money tended to be left to the husband's alma mater, not the wife's.
6
@ellienyc There are plenty of women's colleges and former women's colleges with healthy endowments. SLC's problem likely has more to do with the high percentage of its graduates pursuing careers in the arts.
1
The reason he could do this so long is that the victims were all over 18 and could do whatever they wanted to do. It is like this with every cult-like situation. As is clear from the New Yorker article, Sarah Lawrence took no responsibility for these students; although there were a lot of signs they were in trouble, colleges are not in loco parentis and do not tell parents what is going on, even if the college knows the student is in trouble. Law enforcement does not treat 18 and overs as runaways either. The individuals and groups that prey on vulnerable groups like young college students know exactly how do it. A friend’s child went off into an abusive cult-like situation on her 18th birthday - her parent thought she was at college - the college knew she was not attending classes and that some of the cult members had moved into her dorm room; the college knew because other dorm residents complained about the disruption. Yet nothing at all was done - the last thing a college will do these days is call a parent. The next day, the cult emptied the daughter’s bank account. Although physical and emotional abuse and manipulation are involved in this situation as with the Sarah Lawrence students, no one will do anything because although these are somebody’s children, they are not legally anyone’s child.
23
For the life of me I cannot understand how he did this for so long with impunity.
14
@Ana For one thing, the school knew about this and did nothing, as parents of the victims told NY Magazine. When confronted by a journalist, they refused to comment, and then after the article came out, emailed parents attacking the credibility of the article (the article prompted prosecutors to investigate, and ultimately, indictLarry Ray).
Sarah Lawrence behaved ruthlessly in protecting its own interests at the expense of the truth, and its students, who were terribly exploited while school officials looked the other way.
19
Something seriously wrong with a non-student living in student housing. I think that was the question most people wanted to understand, and yet the article said nothing about it.
84
@RCJCHC I went to SLC in the 90s and more than one friend of mine had a non-student living with them -- in this case, they were all boyfriends, usually former students who had graduated, but it was certainly odd to me at the time.
14
@RCJCHC Google the article in NY Magazine about all of this. School officials absolutely did know about this.
The parents of the girl he pimped met with Allen Green, the school's dean of student life, early on when they realized the guy was living in the dorm. From the article: "Green told them he'd received other complaints about Larry but his hands were tied; a father had a right to visit his daughter on campus, he explained. Green did not respond to multiple requests for comment."
16
@RCJCHC yes, didn't anyone notice this?! The school is partly to blame, but also it seems other people must have noticed him and said nothing. But clinical psychopaths are incredibly manipulative...
1
How did a non-student come to reside in student housing? Does Sarah Lawrence have a policy that allows parents to live with their child on campus?
57
@Melinda Fodder for another article, for sure. So many questions.
1
Where was Sarah Lawrence when all this was happening for months? Nobody employed there ever noticed ?
Reminds me of the Sandusky case: what happens really doesn't happen as long as nobody makes an inconvenient complaint.
Or maybe they did....
33
I understand this man is responsible for all this but what is up with these girls? They were not secluded. They lived in the dorm and attended classes. “Mr. Ray’s extortion scheme relied on false confessions that he extracted from his victims, using tactics like sleep deprivation, psychological and sexual humiliation, verbal abuse, physical violence and threats of legal action...” Really? What kind of young woman is Sarah Lawrence College producing?
20
@Queenie
Surely you don’t mean to imply that a couple of semesters at a particular college could “produce” someone especially vulnerable to exploitation.
4
@Queenie I can't believe that's what you're taking away from this story. The article explains that these were vulnerable, fragile young people looking for direction and validation. It's easy to believe someone's cool dad, who acts like he "gets you" and treats you like an intellectual equal, could gain sway over these kids. Please reevaluate your response and try to find some compassion instead.
9
They were not all girls. Read the New Yorker article for more information
3
The original New York article provides chilling details on the case. It looks like he brainwashed the kids so that parents and administrators were unable to separate them from him.
10
I just don't understand this. A student's father was allowed to live in her dorm for a couple of years? Did the school okay this? Did the school even know this? No student complained to the school? No parents questioned it? How does this story make sense?
29
@Karianne - According to the New York magazine article, parents did complain and were told by an administrator that the school’s hands were tied because a father “had a right to visit his daughter on campus”. As an alumna, I find that explanation ludicrous and insulting to the collective intelligence of SLC alumni, current students, and normal people everywhere. As if the school didn’t know the difference between a normal parent paying a normal visit to campus and a creepy middle-aged man squatting in a dorm. I’m
shocked and disappointed that an employee of the school said that to parents expressing their rightful concerns about the safety of their children.
44
@Lindsay K
It's not a mystery. It's highly plausible that the school did not fight this because it would probably escalate to a long and expensive legal battle. I have sympathy for the victims, but it's still hard to understand how these young ADULTS were exploited like this. Are college students emotionally helpless? And educators, of all people, are to be relied on to identify exploitation and rescue students from it. What if they were not college students but just roommates with jobs? Who then is "responsible" for defending them? We all must rely on our emotional intelligence to defend ourselves against scam artists, abusive, and controlling people. When no longer living with parents or guardians we're on our own.
1
"Emily B" answered my question, but still...I went to a similar private New England college when the dinosaurs roamed the earth (1971-73), and things were much safer then. In 2020, I'm quite surprised that no cameras, or RA's, noticed the unusual presence of a 60-yr. old slob living among 18-19 yr. old women.
21
@Alan Grossberg
The events happened in 2011.
2
3 Questions.
1. "Sarah Lawrence said in a statement that the school had just learned of Mr. Ray’s indictment". The New York magazine article was detailed and publishes in April 2018. What has Sarah Lawrence done since that time?
2. What type of college permits parents to move into undergraduate housing for any length of time?
3. Have Mr. Ray's daughter and her been interviewed?
16
You need only read about cults, like the recent nxivm case, etc., to get some insight into how it is possible for someone determined to manipulate vulnerable young (and not so young) people to do so.
17
I was absolutely disgusted by this story. Why didn't the students alert the school of this man's disturbing and outrageous actions? And, why did the school remain unaware that this was happening on their own campus for so long? Even more disturbing is how this psycho convinced his daughter to let him live with her. He had just been released from prison! Why was he allowed to be anywhere near her? I'm continually amazed at how unobservant and unhelpful people can be when faced with a situation which is beyond just suspicious, and actually seen to be hurting people. We need to protect our young people and care for them and not just pay it lip service.
19
@S. L. A From the NY Mag article the daughter took his side in the custody dispute and he had her brainwashed before these events ever happened. Very sad story.
6
Nowadays all you have to do is tell children, particularly females that they are "empowered" without giving them any tools to actually empower them or teach them anything about life. If you try to teach them about safety and survival you are interfering with their "freedom". Thus, many are ripe for the picking when a psycho comes along. We threw out the baby with the bathwater when we were moving forward in society. Now any of the old rules that let people know who was who and where we stand are passe. And we wonder why things like this happen or why our young people are cutting themselves and committing suicide. We no longer want to take responsibility for actually raising children. Why not just give them a phone instead and tell them they are empowered? Of course there's always the chance they'll be gunned down at school before they even get old enough to go to college because we value our guns more than our children. What a country.
2
Terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the young people who were so viciously controlled and abused by this psychopathic stalker and criminal. This tragedy was allowed to occur due to a widespread lack of leadership among many parties: fellow students, the Administration, parents of the students, etc.
I read the NY Mag article, and it is very clear that the Administration knew or at least had suspicions that Lawrence Ray was up to no good, and they could have dropped the proverbial hammer on him and banned him from campus entirely, but they chose not to.
Why didn't fellow students complain more ardently to the Administration, and why didn't the parents of these students bombard the Administration with phone calls demanding Lawrence Ray be banned from student housing and the campus?
The question now is how can Sarah Lawrence make restitution to the victims of this monster of a man? My heart goes out to Claudia, in particular.
What can those of us do that live and work on college campuses do to ensure that this never happens again?
24
One of the most distressing and shocking stories I have read. And that it went on for 8 years, frankly boggles the mind. Did his daughter not graduate or move on? How did he keep this going? I hope this guy gets put away for life.
130
@Will Rothfuss He was not at the school for 8 years ... he lined up his victims there over the course of several months.
6
My question exactly. This began when his daughter was a sophomore and went on for 10 years. So Ray continued to exploit these young women 7 years after graduation? And unless I missed it, how was the scheme finally discovered?
4
@Will Rothfuss After a quick Google, Talia Ray has indeed moved on and is working for a Voting Rights org in NC which is where her dad used forced labor of her pals to build an irrigation site on their family home - I read the FBI indictment and she may be an “Associate”.
13
This story makes no sense. It is utterly incoherent. This predator lived in his daughter's dorm room for ten years? How was she a student in the same dorm room for ten years? He's not charged with kidnapping so how exactly did he make these students hand over money and body? Hypnosis? How would college students have access to $1 million to give to a stranger? Although I am willing to believe nearly anything about someone in corrupt Kerik's company, this sounds very fishy. Let us recall the sexual abuse case in California against a doctor and girlfriend that was just dropped. Turns out the prosecutor just made up the entire accusation of "1000s of rape videos." The one thing I do know is that cops and prosecutors lie all the time, especially about salacious cases.
5
@AR No, according to the NY Mag article, he moved in with her after getting out of jail, and stayed for the rest of the school year. After that, he moved himself and the kids he was grooming to an apartment in New York. He picked vulnerable kids with emotional problems and worked on them day and night, convincing them that they owed him money for damaging this stuff. Some of the kids begged their parents for money to give him, and one girl prostituted herself. The abuse lasted long after their time in college.
13
"Mr. Ray moved in with his daughter in student housing at Sarah Lawrence."
I need to ask the question: How in the world was this possible or allowed? We're talking about student housing. There are very specific guidelines in student conduct manual that strictly forbid students from housing long term guests. The maximum is usually about a week.
It's not like the RAs or RDs are stupid. The presence of someone like Lawrence Ray would set off alarm bells in very short order. Why didn't this happen at Sarah Lawrence? Something is extremely wrong with even the premise behind the entire scenario.
I understand we're talking about a campus house but still. I've seen campus-run houses before. It's not like students are left alone to their own devices. Especially as sophomores. I refuse to believe no one at Sarah Lawrence communicated with Lawrence Ray during his residency there. It's just not credible.
Some explanation was provided to someone. I would like to know who.
15
@Andy
Um, my R.A. in college was stupid.
3
Read the NYMag article. Really scary and really creepy and it sheds much light on the sad vulnerability of these kids. It also made me think about the entire GOP and how they have come under the complete sway of DT, and how those of us who haven’t scratch our heads in amazement and wonder ‘how could they?’
36
When I was in college (a small, private, liberal arts school very much like SLC), every floor of every dorm and every college-owned house off campus had at least one, and usually two, Resident Assistants (RAs). They were upper-classmen (and in a couple of instances visiting professors needing housing, who would usually be the RA coordinators and run the program) whose job was to make sure that rules were followed and to be a resource for the students living on that floor. Does SLC not have RAs? If they did, did they report it and the administration did nothing about it or did they not say anything?
Also, is it really possible that no student living in the dorm said anything about the creepy, old guy living on their floor? For the cost of a school like SLC (currently $56K per year!), you'd better believe I'd have been in the administration offices in a heartbeat if this was going down in my living space.
I just find it super hard to believe that this could have gone on without the college being aware. So many questions....
38
@Josie Agreed. I also did not understand, could not fathom, at all how someone's father could move into a college student dorm and not be asked to leave within a day. Where were the RAs? Or the other residents?
21
If Donald Trump was running Sarah Lawrence at the time this fiasco was occurring I would fully understand the situation without much additional information. But alas, he was preoccupied elsewhere.The question then is ,who were the administrators of the college at that time, what did they know, and when did they know it? If this doesn't top the bizarre annals of college life in the USA, what does?
11
We hear all the time about the exploitation of women and the need to address safety. This alleged "psychotic con man" fresh from prison enters a dorm room of his daughter and lives there. No one at this elite ultra progressive institution knows or cares it appears. Disaster follows.
At an educational institution where common sense reigned there would be a complete and thoroughgoing investigation and plan for changes. Does anyone think SLC is capable of insuring at least a modicum of security for its dorm residents? No, of course not. That would be too traditional, too "confining", too old school "in loco parentis". If a non-student adult with a prison record takes up residence, we can't do anything appears to be SLC's motto.
16
It was not a dorm room: it was a multi-bedroom apartment
2
A father living in a dorm with his daughter and the other students being aware and shrugging it off? Is that because it's not uncommon nowadays? If so, this is a very different generation of college students from my own. Also different kind of college to allow it. This story is so bizarre that I wondered if it is true. Must give some parents second thoughts about sending their kids to Sarah Lawrence next Fall.
44
@blgreenie I think that is in part the case. I went to school there and have always felt they had a propensity for admitting vulnerable kids from uncommon backgrounds. I would have just been creeped out if someone's father had moved in to any dorm I lived in while there, but there are a lot of alternative family situations producing kids that are not at all creeped out by that stuff. I likely would not go there if I had my life to live over and probably wouldn't recommend that any young people I know go there.
20
Most comments so far share a bafflement around dorm oversight (or lack thereof). I hope I can shed some light: While I can’t speak for SLC, I did go to a very similar school in New England. The short answer is that there isn’t any oversight. Schools like this are radically progressive and independent. There is simply no handholding when it comes to dorm life. Students often draw up there own rules, and sort out minor conflicts themselves. Kids are not prone to reporting up to authorities, particularly something minor like “long term guests”. We had plenty of these couch surfers where I went to school, and if I’d heard about a dad, I might think it a bit odd, but it wouldn’t have phased me much. Everything was weird at my school. That was part of the whole experience. I might have even thought they were safer because they had a parent with them? Before you get too upset about this, realise that SLC students and parents essentially know all of this going in: that their kids are entering into a highly independent and unconventional environment. The fact that it’s a shock just illustrates the rarity of the incident. I’m sure SLC will take this as a major lesson, however, since students at these types of schools are at risk of indoctrination more than most. Not owing to dorm oversight per se, but rather the deeply raw personal journeys these kids are experiencing during this stage of life makes them prime targets for cults and predators. The answer is addressing mental wellness.
48
@Emily B I did go to Sarah Lawrence and can tell you that it, and probably your school, also has a habit of attracting "creative" though emotionally vulnerable and often damaged kids just ripe for this nonsense and then waste valuable resources catering to their "needs," which is one reason why I would not go there if I had my life to do over and would not recommend any young people I know go there. When I was at SLC there was some oversight of the traditional dorms, which I believe their house was likely not. There were always self-selecting groups of non-freshmen living in off campus houses and the like, probably with any variety of "guests" that nobody paid any attention to. But I am shocked that when this was reported to the student life director he did nothing and hope he is no longer there. When I was there I do believe they would have done something if such a thing had been reported to them, but I guess times have changed.
34
@ellienyc I don't even understand what this means, do you think vulnerable and damaged kids shouldn't be allowed to go to college? They shouldn't get help?
1
@Emily B
Glad you survived Emily.
schools like sarah lawrence,
former aka 7 sisters
dozens of great schools for rich kids who aren't Ivy.
i'd love to go to Bard
When you hear about the level of control this guy exerted over these girls and boys, you realize that many more people must have known about this. Classmates, teachers, employers... Claudia's employer apparently eventually bought her a ticket to leave, but why did no one else step in before? I understand the challenges of the parents especially after their children no longer trusted them, but I want to believe that other adults in their orbits would have helped. Instead it sounds as if everyone looked the other way.
Thank you to New York magazine for having done the investigative digging and reporting to bring this to light and hopefully inject some justice into the situation. It sounds as if the institutions in which so many of us place our faith failed to act. I feel so horribly for these kids and pray they will somehow be able to recover.
16
So much wrong with this 10 year episode. But Michigan State would still have Nasser if someone had not brought it to light. Where are the people who are in charge?
34
I'm shocked that this took so long.
And shame on Sarah Lawrence doing an "investigation" that was no only inadequate but for allowing a grown man--a parent--to move into his daughter's dorm room.
I feel awful for the kids--and their parents--who were exploited. What a nightmare this must have been.
I hope this creep gets life (somehow, I doubt there will be any restitution).
35
How do you live in a dorm and not have anyone in charge know about it? This is a shocking and disgusting story.
67
@Anita It's been an age since I lived in a dorm, but our RA was never there. There were drunken parties, fights, people trashing our bathrooms and she was never there to do anything about it.
3
@Anita Some of the housing at Sarah Lawrence is not what you think of as traditional big dorms with long floors. Some is smaller buildings or even former private homes that some self-selecting groups of students choose to live in. I went there in the 60s. The school seems to still have a habit of attracting vulnerable, sometimes damaged people susceptible to this type of nonsense and waste resources catering to them. One of the reasons why I would not go there if I had my life/college education to do over.
6
"Mr. Kerik was quoted as saying: “Larry Ray is a psychotic con man who has victimized every friend he’s ever had."
I think Mr. Kerik meant to say that Ray was a *psychopathic* con man.
13
@TRF - Maybe both.
2
This is horrific. What trauma those women faced, I hope they can heal from such abuse. Monster.
7
@Scs
It wasn't only women that he used.
Sarah Lawrence College what is your answer to this? Because, you need to answer for this.
142
When did they move Sarah Lawrence from Bronxville, NY?
12
@ARS It has always been in Yonkers, but, for mail delivery purposes in Bronxville. Both the college and many private home owners living in that area use Bronxville as their mailing address though they pay their RE taxes to Yonkers and, if they have kids, send them to Yonkers schools
1
Technically it’s never been in Bronxville, but in Yonkers with an Bronxville PO. Bronxville proper is only one mile square. Often when people say they live in Bronxville, they technically live in Yonkers.
1
So Ray the ex-con moves in to his daughter's dorm room and Sarah Lawrence College does nothing to remove him? Yikes!
58
I'm sorry, how was this man permitted to live in a women's dormitory? This is nuts.
103
@JRK Slonim Woods is co-ed, I was a resident between 2015-2016.
5
Good writing. Like NY Times sports. Well written, and even though I’m not a fan, I read. There are monsters. Nothing makes them obvious. The Times is the right venue to meet expose them. Lights, camera, journalism.
13
@Dave The source article from New York Magazine is also very good, with much more explanation of how everything unfolded.
5
What was the admin at Sarah Lawrence thinking?
21
Kudos to the state of NJ for allowing this man to take a plea bargain 10 years ago. He would still be in prison and unable to commit his latest deceptive crimes. Read the New Yorker-The Cut article.
https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html#_ga=2.2469173.468000108.1581428869-670136931.1579699282
He has associates who are friends of Individual-1, aka POTUS45 so don't expect these charges to stick. Trump wants to give Roger Stone a get out of prison early card and I am sure it will be passed on to the likes of Lawrence Ray too.
What a corrupt, unjust society we live in, well black and brown people like me have always known it to be so.
60
@Jersey girl Thx for this. The New Yorker-The Cut article is a lot more informative, but still... all that time, all those students with eyes and ears, sounds like Jeffrey Epstein should have been in the story
6
"On Tuesday, Mr. Ray, 60, once a close associate of former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik." Who else would he be associating with?
Much like Stone, Barr and Trump.
32
How is it possible for him to have moved into his daughter’s dorm? How? Awful.
26
The college likely thought it was educational, and it was. It teaches that money is to be sought by any means. It's the philosophy of America.
It's difficult to be sympathetic when this guy was living in a dorm with young women and had a record of criminality. Even if all the cops are dirty and the college administration is in on it, the young people should have the spine to push the guy out. It is only those who believe in magic who are susceptible to such simplistic scams. These kids were raised to be victims, only not to a two bit conman, but rather to our corporate overlords. Everything about this says that these girls were bred and educated by their parents to be taken advantage of. Good serfs who know their place.
7
how did the housing and student affairs administrators at SLC allow a fiftysomething ex con to move into a student dorm? what specifically was the role of his daughter, who knew of his past and surely witnessed the results of his predation? how could they overlook a situation that became so toxic New Yorker magazine was alerted and did an investigation? and if the story was published last april, ten months ago, what took so long? baffling and pathetic.
Dateline NBC will be all over this one.
52
@drollere
It was New York magazine not New Yorker.
5
If the allegations are correct, this man is truly a monster.
However, there are pieces of the picture that are missing. How could a middle aged man "move in" to a college dormitory? My understanding is that Sarah Lawrence denies this took place.
Also, how did he get his victims to do all the things he is accused of? All colleges have support infrastructures for their students, and Sarah Lawrence is not a poor school - they have many resources.
This story is similar to the story about recently convicted cultist Keith Raniere and NXIVM. He did similar things to his victims, and even persuaded many to act as accomplices.
I don't get it. How do cults happen? And what can or should society do to prevent this sort of thing without interfering with the rights and freedoms of adults?
22
@Alex
Read the article in the New Yorker.
1
@Alex - Golly, and how did Epstein get away with manipulating and abusing young women for so long? I don't get it. Mmmmm...male patriarchy?
6
Wow. What a terrible, abusive con this man propogated on these naive young women as well as so many others. I am stunned it took so long to stop such a miscreant. I don't wish to pick on Sarah Lawrence, but I have to pointedly ask how any adult male (or any non-student of any gender for that matter) could have been permitted to live in campus housing, exposing these girls so inappropriately to begin with and allow this interloper and abuser to gain a foot hold? If this scenario was unfolding, many people looked the other way or chose not to investigate the rumors that were surely percolating around this situation. That living situation could not have gone unnoticed for months on end, so how did that happen?
The college needs to speak to this failure and collapse of their safety and security policies. And this man needs to rot. A nightmare for these kids and their families. His poor daughter. Those poor girls. How is this possible among young women the likes of which a school like Sarah Lawrence attracts, keen of intellect and independent of mind? Shocking story.
247
Julliard School of Music used to allow anyone to stay overnight in their dorms as long as a valid driver’s license was left downstairs in an office. I don’t know if this is still their policy, but it was a magnet for adults preying on youngsters.
13
@Name ... agreed the man is vile. But what about these 'poor' girls - did no one have any backbone to stand up to a creep? I am sorry, but the women I know who have told this creep to take a hike - and not in such polite tones...
15
@Name You should pick on Sarah Lawrence. Read the NY Magazine story and you'll see they turned a blind eye to this guy when parents begged them to step in. Then they went into spin mode and tried to discredit the article that brought Larry Ray to prosecutors' attention and ultimately got him indicted.
It goes far beyond a lack of security.
47
How in the world could he "move" into her dorm and live there without someone from the school taking note--and throwing him out. This is totally bizarre and incomprehensible.
48
@Irene I don't understand it at all. Not one single person said something? Not one adult questioned this? It doesn't make any sense.
20
@Irene especially creepy that he was living in his daughter's dorm room...I shudder to think what his interactions with her throughout her life were like, and how much he must have messed with her mind up to that point.
4
I agree
but remember psychologically needy people idealize charisma...
these students were under his spell
just like the millions who love trumph
Why is the daughter, the Sarah Lawrence student, not named or her role discused here? Although she undoubtedly was also a victim of Lawrence Ray, as a college student she probably y also was legally an adult when this was happening and thus presumably an accomplice.
14
@vkt I would assume he abused and manipulated her too
1
are people accepted as students at sarah lawerence that out of it?
mind blowing...
11
Hard to fathom how Sarah Lawrence failed to see this happening and take quick action to clear this guy from campus.
18
"Mr. Kerik was quoted as saying: 'Larry Ray is a psychotic con man who has victimized every friend he’s ever had. It’s been close to 20 years since I last heard from him, yet his reign of terror continues.'” The most Machiavellian ones manage to cause deep damage, in plain sight, before accountability catches up with them (if it ever does).
11
rest of his life in prison, please....
21
How despicable of him (and criminal obviously). How did the school not know? This is outrageous!
11
What is wrong with our young women? How did they not see this for what it was and report this guy to the police? We are failing as parents, raising fragile children.
21
That the dorm may have been secluded is hardly an excuse for an adult parent living in his daughter's dorm room. Didn't ANY of the women find his presence there awkward and mention it to their parents, faculty, or administrators? This didn't happen so long ago that women (or their boyfriends) would have been so naive as to think it was normal or safe. Of course, after 9/11 security was enhanced in many places, and now most schools have CCTV surveillance and keycards for entering campus buildings. Regardless of how he got away, what a creep! I'm sure he'll be organizing crime when he's back in prison.
14
@Brian The groups that live in those smaller houses are usually self-selecting groups of friends beyond the freshman level, and probably like-minded about many things.
4
I question the parents of the students in this dorm group. If they had serious suspicions of inappropriateness, and the admin exercises no authority, they could refuse to support their child’s choice of living arrangement.
Parents can set limits on their children, even adult college age kid.
i’m not at all the authoritarian type but i’d never continue paying college fees if my child was living in such an ‘ arrangement’.
I find it really odd that Sarah Lawrence doesn't know who's living in their student housing. Was this a dorm or student apartment owned by the school? Because you'd think they would keep a closer eye on who is living on their property. As this story illustrates, literally anyone could be living there.
263
@Natalie
A campus owned student house. You don't see these very often. We're generally talking about fraternities or sororities bought-out by the campus under some agreement intended to enhance public safety. Fewer parties, more fire alarms. That sort of thing.
These living arrangements are generally reserved for upperclassmen/women. I'm more confused why sophomores were living in a campus house. That doesn't make much sense but I'm not familiar with Sarah Lawrence.
In any event, there should have been an assigned RA living on the premise. The RA knows perfectly well long term guest, usually boyfriends, are against school policy. Someone dropped the ball mightily in the case of Sarah Lawrence. Ray's presence should have been reported to school authorities.
Ray's presence probably was reported to school authorities. We just don't know the details yet.
37
As another commenter mentioned, Slonim Woods is a collection of small houses not on the main campus. Sarah Lawrence College acquired houses from the surrounding suburban area as it grew, leading to some less-traditional housing options. This contrasts with my friends' universities where I had to go through a security desk at a high rise dorm. Ostensibly there is a visitor policy, but getting a pass is not necessary for most activities on an open campus.
@Natalie According to the NY mag article from last year they knew but "their hands were tied".
4
How on earth was he allowed to live in a student's dorm without anyone at the school noticing that someone's father was now in residence?
17
How is a 50 year old man able to live in a women’s college dormitory? PERIOD!
This country is utterly void of common sense.
23
@Practical Thoughts
Not a women's dorm. A co-ed house shared by 8 people.
1
How does a college allow a man such as this live in the campus housing with his daughter? Were there any campus staff who were involved in this? It is unbelievable that this can go on for 10 years. I am sure at least one of his victims talked to friends. The school needs to hire an independent law firm to investigate and present a full report otherwise parents will be stupid to send their children to this school
25
How is it possible for an adult non-student male, to be able to reside on campus with its young female students ? I understand that colleges afford more freedom than boarding schools, but there should be at least a resident tutor or assistant in each dormitory responsible for the safety of the students. Mr. Ray must have stood out like a sore thumb and could not have been confused for just another student.
25
@mm
He wasn't confused for another student. From the New York magazine article: The dean of student life told complaining parents that "he’d received other complaints about Larry but his hands were tied; a father had a right to visit his daughter on campus, he explained."
The school dropped the ball. Badly.
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@JSL
A right to Visit not to live with her. He likely knew how to manipulate/ abuse his dtr into acquiescence. She likely then pleaded / manipulated housemates. College employees didn’t know or didn’t want to know. The college’s role was to enforce its own policies. If it had simply done that...
3
New York magazine article writer blatantly lied in their original piece. Do a little digging and you’ll find out they walked back many of the “facts” in their story
2
As others have suggested, I also suggest that those who question the veracity of this story to read the New York magazine article. It is much more detailed than this article and speaks to how many of these college age students could get themselves involved in such a bad situation. I'm just surprised that these charges took so long.
22
I am also an alum. Though I love the school and culture for many reasons, I met many many vulnerable people there. Nothing about this surprised me one bit.
37
@Sm While "vulnerable people" were undoubtedly involved here, there is no excuse for the administrators of an institution of higher learning to not apply basic principles in barring the quasi-admission of a manipulating pervert. The dean and others have much to answer for here.
7
Utterly incredible and unimaginable. You can’t make this stuff up.
9
As a Sarah Lawrence alum, I am appalled that this happened. I didn’t live on campus when I was there but I am familiar with its structure. I had some classes in an academic building that stood alongside Slonim Woods and which also housed some administrative offices, so there were definitely employees around in addition to students. Yes, it was quiet there at times but it wasn’t totally off the beaten path. Now maybe it was different at night or on the weekends. I don’t know. But even so I have no idea how a grown man managed to move into a dorm there and go unnoticed for so long, particularly during college business hours.
It sickens me to think that this hideous abuse got its start on the Sarah Lawrence campus, and that the school that was a place of gentle encouragement and happiness for me was so otherwise for them. The campus is beautiful, the academics remarkable and the faculty wonderful, but I am saddened and angry to know that this abuse started in a place that should have kept these kids safe and thriving. I received the college’s statement via email today and I hope they cooperate with the investigation fully if asked. It will be the absolute least they can do. I also received my annual fund solicitation notice in the mail today, and while I’ve made modest donations every year since my graduation, I’m going to see how they handle this before I donate anything this year. This whole thing is shocking and terribly disturbing.
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@Lindsay K I've faced the dilemma of whether to continue my donations to educational institutions when they have fallen well short of my standards of decency. (Aside, parents should be filing a class action against Sarah Lawrence.)
I took my cue from an independent Harvard Alum association years ago that determined it was ludicrous for Harvard Alums to continue giving money to an institution with a billion-dollar endowment. So these Harvard Alums started an organization (HASA, maybe?) to inspire their fellows to become more conscious of their giving practices, and to put their money more closely in alignment with their beliefs.
Here's one suggestion to fill a current need: Australia has lost more than a billion animals to their bushfires (which rage on), even losing entire species. The koala was already threatened, but now they've lost half their population. Surviving animals are desperate and many organizations trying to help are equally desperate. Here's a link if this suggestion appeals to you in any way, of course, there are myriad other causes on Earth. https://www.thedodo.com/in-the-wild/how-to-help-animals-australia-fires
25
How did this guy move into the dorms?
Parents everywhere who are paying for dorms should hound the universities they pay money to for information about dorm security. Based on my observation, there isn't much. Good questions to ask are 1) when and under what circumstances non-residents are allowed on the elevator and floors where students' rooms are, 2) what ID is required of visitors and if it is photocopied, 3) whether visitors are allowed in after certain hours, 4) whether the front desk is staffed at all hours, 5) whether there is provision for substitute staff in case an employee gets sick or leaves employment, 6) what training students receive about security (e.g. don't bring home strangers to your dorm room from the bars, etc. Parents who pay good money for dorms thinking their child is going to be safe and secure are in for a rude awakening about how little security there really is.
28
@Charlie
I'm a recent grad of SLC (2017), and having commenced my attendance past the on-campus portion of these abhorrent happenings I feel as though I can speak to some measure on the school's safety.
According to the school's guidelines, all visitors must be announced at the admission's building, Westlands, at which point you and your guest fill out a physical form detailing the projected length of stay while the security guard makes a photocopy of the ID. Guests are allowed to stay (overnight) a maximum of 3 days in a row, and there's no discrimination as to who the guest(s) may be.
In order to get into any building on the campus you need an access card. In buildings that are jointly residences and classrooms, the only people whose cards function past 10pm are the residents. The residences themselves do not have a person checking IDs, as the residences typically only house 6-20 students, so any person travelling in and out of the building with a current student who can scan to get in is able to wander. It's actually a lot easier to have somebody stay with you that hasn't been signed in than to consistently sign somebody in and out.
At the beginning of every year, the freshmen receive an arduous series of lectures meant to enforce safety procedures, but what 18(ish) year-old goes to live on their own for the first time and wants to follow a stringent set of rules?
The school simply does not have the resources necessary to maintain a necessary standard of safety.
2
The answer to all of the questions (and uninformed judgments) being asked or made so far can be found in the New York Magazine article by following the embedded link in THIS article. It's a most fascinating story of a con man so brazen he even had, as an informant, the FBI fooled for a few years. The agent was just one mark among many, many other educated and older, supposedly savvier people.
It's also a must read for anyone who still believes there's no such thing as coerced, false confessions in police interrogations. This guy didn't even have police training but he was a master at it.
37
None of these kids felt they were able to tell their parents about what was happening? That is very sad and strange.
22
When I was at SLC in 1989 - 1991, I lived in the proper dorms (that Modernist slab of cubicles next to the stately Westlands house). On the first floor there was a gathering nook called for some reason "the ice cream parlor" donated by alumni Yoko Ono.
Night in and night out, students would smoke weed, drink, and blast music until four in the morning. Our student speaker for graduation ceremonies in "91 was at that time a known drug dealer who kept those parties going. Your author called security several times because I couldn't sleep, and security did absolutely nothing.
So why would they care about blackmail, extortion, torture, and sex trafficking?
45
@John
Mind, blown.
I went to college in the mid to late 80s, and I can't even fathom how that big a difference existed between where I studied (public university in Texas) and where you studied.
6
I spent several years living in college dorms and never once came across such an anomaly - such a situation would have stuck out like a red flag (whoever heard of a 60-year old living in a dorm room). Weird - but weirder still is how several young adults fell victim to an obvious creep . . .
13
Colleges let resident advisors play the role of in loco parentis. But R.A.s are just kids themselves and only doing it for the stipend. My kids know that R.A.s are absolutely worthless as authority figures and should never be consulted about any matter of importance.
8
There is no such thing as in loco parentis if the student is over 18 and legally an adult
2
The school, no matter what laws or concepts anyone is hiding behind , bears a lot of responsibility for absolutely not paying attention at all. Horrible.
16
All of this truly strains the bounds of credulity.
Does Sarah Lawrence, as a matter of policy, permit parents to move into their children's college housing?
Can it really be the case that none of the young women who were so viciously demeaned and exploited ever sought counseling support from the college? And never mentioned any of this to their parents?
What about the parents whose bank accounts were being drained? Did they notice? Did they care?
One of the most shocking revelations of inhuman depravity I've ever read.
There has to be much more to this story. As it stands, it is nightmarish to the point of seeming hallucinatory.
120
Non students should not have been allowed to live in student housing. No matter if there is an urgent family need, the situation is ripe for problems. The college dean should have evicted him. Easy call.
This all makes me wish for the return of parietal laws!!
7
This is just bizarre; there seems to be a big piece missing about how this man ended up living in a small dorm with his daughter. When I lived in the dorms we had access cards and during the evening hours there were security checks and non residents had to sign in and out.
14
Hi Will R! Great article, and what a weird and terrible guy he is! I remember back when you and I were at SLC, there was no warning from the school that a man was lurking in bushes and stalking students.
There was lechery by a few professors too. Strange that some students went for it.
It was so unethical of the professors to do that.
In this case, there were so many red flags for so long that one would think it would have been noticed by the administration.
Institutions and the like, often don’t say anything about these dangers — to protect their reputations.
15
Did none of the young women mention to their own parents that the DAD of their housemate was living among them? I'm trying to understand how this went on for so long.
23
What about Ray’s daughter, who had her father fresh out of prison move into a college dorm? She seems to bear some responsibility too. It’s just crazy that the college did not know this was going on.
22
@Treetop I agree. She was an adult. Not only should they have thrown her father out, they should have thrown her out as well (actually, they should probably have never accepted her in the first placeA).
3
Read the NYMag piece. It’s clear she was long “convinced” by her father.
2
I'm sure I'll get criticized for this post. I too wonder about how this all happened, but I also wonder about the critical thinking skills of all of the victims. I work in social services, so I am well aware that it sounds like I am victim blaming. I am not. It is an honest wondering. Sarah Lawrence is an elite private school, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that these young people weren't likely desperate for money, homeless or otherwise in dire straits, all of which make taking advantage quite easy. How is it that he was able to con all of them? Did every one of the victims have extremely low self esteem???? How was this able to continue for so long??? Was there not one who spoke out or worse, SL knew but didn't think it was a big deal??? Was there no little voice in anyone's head saying 'something's not right, this seems weird, etc.. and finally, I'm astounded that there wasn't anyone checking on the well being of the students during all of that time. Nothing?? I hope there's a lot more to this story that will ultimately explain how this might have happened and how it continued for so long. His charisma just doesn't seem obvious from the photo and maybe there IS lots of money involved. Maybe he's super charming or has mad coercive skills. I truly don't understand and I'm feeling a primal scream coming on.
76
Read the NYMag piece, linked within the NYT story. It offers many more details. The coercion happened over time and with tactics that would reasonably find adherents in a group of older, easily-Influenced adolescents who haven’t seen much of the world. This was further underlined by the fact that the perpetrator was the father of a friend.
25
I think I understand your comment. Before I even get to the kids, I don’t understand how the Dean of Students at an elite college could possibly consider what this man did as ‘visiting his daughter’. And where were the parents and faculty and advisers? The descriptions of the man’s actions with these young adults are beyond belief.
30
@Leah Reitz
I feel the same every time I read a story about a cult.
20
It is incredible that would happen in 2010-2020. It is not like we are living in 1820s when only information came from a single, local newspaper. I am sorry to say we have not advanced in maturity in spite of all the crime tv shows and documentaries being saturated on the airways.
7
It was several decades ago, but there were a lot of reasons that I wanted to go to Sarah Lawrence. One was the possibility of a 4 year scholarship if you promised to teach for a year. My mother interfered and badgered, and I went to Wellesley where she was convinced I'd get a good education. I did get a good education. My daughter went there, too. The school ie enough in touch with what is going on in the dorms so this could never happen there. And, as an alumna donating, I know my money is doing good. How tragic to see what's happened at Sarah Lawrence.
22
I work in college student affairs and, although I'm far from an expert on dorms, parents should be aware that student housing is often no longer owned or operated by colleges, but rather by independent corporations that are in the business of developing and operating dorms/apartments near campuses.
138
Let me guess, this is an effort to thwart unions...
3
@G
That isn’t true at SLC- I’m a student here right now and we all live on campus in the dorms run by the school because it’s a pretty small campus.
11
nice was for the college to try and avoid liability...
if the school doesn’t own/ manage the dorms then why pay for admin such as dean of student life?
total lack of responsibility
2
Has anyone looked into whether Mr. Ray contributed money to Sarah Lawrence? It seems, even by the standards of 15-20 years ago, that allowing a grown man to dorm with his daughter for any period of time is just insane. Given my understanding of how our culture normally operates, I can see no reason why the Admin folks would permit this, so a plausible explanation is the money angle. I hope there is more reporting on this story.
189
I agree with the comments below, and although the article is informative, why is the even bigger question never addressed as to how this man got to live in the dorms to begin with, and why are the parents not bringing charges against the school for allowing this horror to occur on their campus.
240
I lived in Slonim (not Slomin) House as a junior at SLC in the early 80s. Located in Slonim Woods, it was very much off the beaten path and secluded. I can absolutely see how a man lived there without administration’s knowledge. We were basically on our own, coming and going whenever, guests parking unregistered, no problem. I don’t remember there being any sort of gate or anything that you had to go through. It’s actually Bronxville (not Yonkers) - a much more upscale area. Maybe I was naïve not to worry about security, but it was a different time back then.
97
@Emily Shane Addresses are confusing in Westchester. Sarah Lawrence College is in the Bronxville Post Office address, but it is actually located in the city of Yonkers. (It's one of those "Bronxville PO" locations. There are also "Bronxville PO / Eastchester" and "Bronxville PO / Tuckahoe". Bronxville itself is a geographically tiny village.
8
Now that this has been published Sarah Lawrence better change the population of that dorm. And the parents had best move their children out immediately.
8
@Kelly I am also a Sarah Lawrence grad and can confirm SLC is only in the Bronxville PO. As people with private homes in the area, or looking for private homes in the area, can attest, when you have young kids and want them in the best public schools, you buy in real Bronxville and pay Bronxville taxes to get them into the Bronxville school; when you are empty nesters you get rid of that house and consider moving to real Yonkers (but Bronxville PO), where taxes are much lower and public schools stink, but since your kids are now grown you don't care about that.
6
After reading the story from NY magazine, it's a relief to hear that this guy may end up locked away, where he can't manipulate (and destroy) more people. How he was able to so completely co-opt these adults is baffling. The parents of the kids showed remarkable restraint in not resorting to violence to stop him.
42
It boggles the mind this could happen in our communication-saturated society we live in. How could anyone allow him to move in, and how could we let our children down to the degree that they were victims of such an obvious fraud?
74
Last summer I got together with 3 of my old college buddies at our alma mater. We graduated back in the late 70’s, so we were quite aware that dormitory security (non-existent back then) would likely prevent us from touring our old dorm on our own, even though it was summer and nobody was living there. I contacted the alumni office, who in turn got me in touch with someone else, and eventually a contact with a dorm supervisor. This person eventually decided that 4 dudes in their 60’s wanting to merely see the floor and take photos posed no threat to anyone, so a guided tour was organized. After an hour of nostalgia, we left and she locked the doors after us.
So given the hoops of fire I had to jump thru for an hour walk-thru of a college dormitory in the summer - how on earth did this guy MOVE IN during the academic year and proceed to wreck havoc unchecked???
349
A much older con man just released from prison moved into a women's dorm building and lived there for apparently about a year, and a school investigation did not find anything? No one from the school noticed? Something is seriously wrong with this picture. If any of the administration officials responsible for those young women's safety in the dorms at the time are still at the school, still working in education (or even retired but still alive), they need to be questioned, at the very least.
445
@Grainy Blue Where were the RA's for that dorm? Every dorm has resident assistants who live in the dorm and keep tabs on all the going-on's in the dorm they are payed to protect. My son was an RA for two years. This story is so unbelievable you'd think it was fabricated! Are there that many little rich college girls who can't think for themselves? Appalling and disgusting. Even way back when I was a student, the universities kept a close watch on us. I remember they caught us using the roof to sunbathe (our windows opened up to the roof) and they put a stop to it.
20
That "dorm" likely didn't have "RAs" because it wasn't a traditional big dorm. As I recall, during my time there, the big dorms where freshmen lived did have advisors.
6
According to Wikipedia, "Classes are structured around a seminar-conference system through which students learn in small, highly interactive seminars and private tutorials with professors."
How could this have happened in such an environment?
96
@writeon1 "Classes are structured around a seminar-conference system through which students learn in small, highly interactive seminars and private tutorials with professors."
Actually, that sounds like exactly the environment this would occur in.
18
The classes and tutorials have nothing to do with living arrangements.
6
I don't understand why the school administrator allowed someone who does not have direct academic business with the school to live in their dorm. I had never heard it done until now.
305
@D.D. It reads like he did not ask or receive permission to live on that campus. He moved into his daughter's (not his) housing unit and probably for part of a semester which is all he needed to make contact with some of her student friends. Student housing is not much different than renting an apartment. Students are usually over 18 which means they live unsupervised lives independent of parents and school officials.
13
@D. C. Miller - "Student housing" is different from a dormitory. Dormitories are normally on or near campus and are supervised by a Resident Advisor or similar person. If this was really a dorm, as the article seems to say, I find it incredible that nobody in a position of authority and responsibility at Sarah Lawrence was aware of his activities. On the other hand, student housing, as you say, can be very similar to living in an off-campus apartment. If that was the setting, it's more understandable that he managed to spend so much time there. Still seems like Sarah Lawrence has a lot to answer for.
60
Actually, most college housing dorms have RAs who are around to help students with issues. It is mind boggling that non of the students had the common sense to speak to someone at the school! Didn’t they realize how creepy and in appropriate the situation was? So happy my daughter did not attend that school!!!
26
I am so confused as to how the administration at Sarah Lawrence allowed an adult man to live with college students for so long. I know that we want to give young adults freedom to grow and not be helicopter-parented, but at the same time, the administration should really figure out a way to strike a balance. This is absolutely insane.
506
@Teddy
My daughter and I both went to Berkeley, so you can imagine the characters who tried to talk or bum their way into dorms and "student housing" (I assume that means privately owned buildings affiliated somehow with the university?)
If I, or my daughter's father, ever found out that a grown man was actually living among the young women, he would have departed immediately on the point of my husband's shoe.
Where are the parents of these young victims? I hope they are suing the bejeezus out of the college. The damages alone should put Sarah Lawrence out of business, and they deserve it richly.
129
Read the NYMag piece linked within this story. It explains exactly how this could happen—maybe save for how the college “let” Ray move into what is on-campus, but unmanaged student housing.
15
@Teddy
Sarah Lawrence does have a couple of graduate programs (MFA and a couple of others). He might have claimed to be an older grad student living in on campus housing (a dorm).
4