Note: This article has been updated to reflect the receipt of an email on Oct. 30, 2024 from Neda Ryan, the Chair of the Board of Greenhills. The spelling of Ms. Ryan’s first name is Neda, not Neta.
by P.D. Lesko
When asked by the newspaper on Friday evening Oct. 25, 2024 to answer questions related to the fact Greenhills Head of School Peter Fayroian had been accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 13, his daughter, the Chair of the Greenhills Board of Directors sent an email on Oct. 27–an email that was not received until Oct. 30. In her email, Neda Ryan asked to talk off the record “to correct what appears to be some fundamental and incorrect understandings of the shared parenting time dispute involving our Head of School and his ex-wife.” On Oct. 30, Greenhills’ lawyer Christopher Trebilcock sent a PDF copy of Neda Ryan’s original Oct. 27 email to the newspaper.
Greenhills Head of School Peter Fayroian, who was also asked to comment on Oct. 25, did not do so. On the evening of Oct. 28, the A2Indy published “Greenhills Head of School Accused of Sexual Abuse.”
In mid-Sept. 2024, a tipster contacted the Ann Arbor Independent with information about Greenhills Head of School Peter Fayroian. The tipster said Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Tracy Van den Bergh had issued an Order suspending Fayroian’s access to his children. The reason, the tipster said, was related to allegations of the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 13, Fayroian’s daughter. A search of the Washtenaw County Trial Court records online turned up case number 20-000326-DM. A record dated Aug. 20, 2024 showed that on that date the Judge had signed an Ex Parte Order “Suspending plaintiff’s parenting time.”
On Oct. 29, the day after the newspaper broke the story about Fayroian being accused of sexual abuse by his daughter and the child’s mother, to whom, court records show, the daughter revealed the alleged sexual abuse, members of the Greenhills Board of Directors issued a statement to the parents of the school’s students. Download and read that entire statement below:
The Chair of the Board, Neda Mirafzali Ryan, a 2003 graduate of Greenhills, speaking on behalf of the Board, informed parents that the present allegations of sexual abuse were not the first brought to the Board’s attention. Then, Ryan assured Greenhills parents both the CPS and the AAPD had denied the victim’s allegations and “closed the case,” making it appear as though the Head of School had been cleared.
Fayroian has not been cleared, and Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Van den Bergh forcefully drove home that point during a Sept. 18, 2024 hearing at which Fayoian’s attorney, Andrew Bossory, attempted to made the same claim that Greenhills Board Chair Ryan did in her Oct. 29 statement.
At the Sept. 18 hearing, Fayroian’s lawyer Bossory said to Van den Bergh, “First off, he [Fayroian] denies the allegations; he has been cleared by CPS; he’s been cleared by the Police….”
The Judge silenced the attorney and said, “He [Fayroian] hasn’t been cleared. He hasn’t been prosecuted. There are allegations that haven’t been substantiated. Let’s be clear….He hasn’t been cleared….”
Watch the tense exchange between Fayroian’s attorney and Judge Van den Bergh in the video below, provided by the Trial Court.
In the Greenhills’ Board Oct. 29 statement, Ryan also told parents that the newspaper published the story without contacting her: “Nevertheless, and without following up to speak with me, the author published the story on Monday evening.” After being apprised on Oct. 25 that the article would be published on Monday Oct. 28, Ryan responded via email to the newspaper’s request for comment, but her email was not received until Oct. 30, when resent as a PDF by lawyer Christopher Trebilcock.
The newspaper, in the email below, asked Board members several questions and solicited comments.
The Greenhills Board members instructed local employment and labor attorney Christopher Trebilcock to threaten the newspaper with a SLAPP suit. The article, Trebilcock asserted in his three-page letter, would damage Greenhills’ reputation. Andrew Bossory also contacted the newspaper on behalf of Fayroian, and threatened a SLAPP suit, because, Bossory alleged, the article contained libellous content and used the phrase “alleged sexual abuse.”
The newspaper responded and reminded Fayroian, Bossory, Trebilcock and the Board members of Greenhills that SLAPP suits are an affront to the First Amendment and little more than an abuse of the Courts to silence the media.
The U.S. news media are protected from vindictive and frivolous libel/defamation suits by a variety of court rulings, first among which is the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court’s Sullivan decision. The Michigan Legislature is presently awaiting a second reading and to vote on anti-SLAPP legislation which would further protect the state’s media outlets from individuals and businesses that try to abuse the courts to punish newspapers for investigative reporting, and to silence individual critics.
Some parents who received Neda Ryan’s letter were stunned, angry and taken aback by the Board’s statement to the Greenhills community.
The newspaper was contacted by multiple Greenhills parents who shared their reactions and opinions about the Board’s statement. All were asked to confirm their children were enrolled at Greenhills. While the parents were eager to share their comments, all requested to do so anonymously out of fear that their children and their families would be targeted or retaliated against.
The parent of a first year Greenhills high school student said: “If Peter had his parental rights suspended in August, why was this kept a secret? Neda’s explanation is crazytalk–previous allegations? The Board was monitoring? Monitoring what, Peter’s parenting time with his kids?” This parent then questioned whether allegations of inappropriate conduct by any staff member at Greenhills would be dealt with appropriately. “The school counselor wrote a letter in support of Peter. That’s unprofessional on both sides and very concerning.”
In an email, the newspaper asked Neda Ryan whether the Board had been aware their Head of School had solicited character letters from several of his own employees. The newspaper also asked Ryan whether Board members could comment on the issue of the power imbalance involved in Fayroian asking people who work for him to swear to his fitness as a parent.
Neda Ryan has not yet responded.
A second parent who contacted the newspaper was concerned that the Greenhills Board was “circling the wagons” and putting student safety last. “Have we learned nothing in the last decade about allegations of sexual abuse? It’s insane to have anyone in the school who has ever had any sexual abuse complaints filed against them. I appreciate Neda’s efforts, but the school’s handling of this has been irresponsible and less than transparent, in my opinion. Neda’s explanation is not good enough and neither is the Board’s handling of this.”
According to the latest data reported to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Greenhills has a student enrollment of 635. Over half of the students are white (325), with the next largest demographic being Asian students (171), then Black and Hispanic students (43 and 27, respectively). According to the Greenhills’ website, 46 percent of families pay less than $10,000 for tuition and the remaining 44 percent pay between $10,000 to above $20,000 in tuition each year.
Greenhills’ 2023 990 federal income tax filing reveals the school took in $19,974,416 in tuition revenue and has assets in excess of $27.5 million. Grants to students amounted to $2.4 million, or about 12 percent of the total tuition revenue. That’s down from 12.5 percent in 2019 and down from 13 percent in 2017. According to the 2023 990, the school employed 189 staff members (71 FTE teachers), and compensated Head of School Peter Fayroian to the tune of $428,024 in salary plus $84,556 in other compensation.
One woman who read the Oct. 28 article was furious that the newspaper had reported on the allegations against Fayroian. In her email, Joan Chen said the article was poorly written, one-sided and “vindictive.” Further, Chen criticized the “data” presented in the article which cites research that shows the frequency of intrafamilial child sexual abuse, and the percentage of children who are sexually abused who report the abuse.
A Greenhills graduate, 20, now a college student, offered a different perspective. She contacted the newspaper at the urging of her parents, to whom a copy of Neda Ryan’s letter had been forwarded.
The student said: “I am a survivor of sexual assault-date rape. What the [Greenhills] Board wrote and was sent to my parents made me physically sick when I read it. If they don’t think sexual abuse happens at Greenhills, they need to wake up. It does and it won’t stop with Board members who look the other way because Fayroian is a man and they need to protect him and their reputation. What girl, what young woman, will tell the Greenhills school counselor or Peter Fayroian about their sexual abuse in the home or out of it? Thank you. #TruthMatters.”
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