by P.D. Lesko
The August 20, 2024 Ex Parte Order signed by Judge Tracy E. Van den Bergh was short: absent a hearing, to protect children, she stripped long-time Greenhills Head of School Peter Fayroian of his parental rights. The judge’s Order was in response to a seven-page Motion filed on behalf of Fayroian’s ex-wife Rachael Waring. In that Motion, Waring’s attorney outlined the specific details of a nightmare: a father’s alleged sexual abuse of his pre-teen daughter.
At a Sept. 18 hearing at which the 62-year-old Fayroian requested his parental rights be restored, the Greenhills Head of School sat with his head in his hands, appeared frustrated, tearful, and threw his head back while his lawyer asserted to Judge Van den Bergh: “First off, he denies the allegations; he has been cleared by CPS; he’s been cleared by the Police….”
The Judge silenced the lawyer: “He 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….The bottom line is that I don’t want to end up with a dead child….We are going to reexamine custody.”
Consequences of child sexual abuse can include depression, anxiety and anger, suicidal ideation, which Fayroian’s victim described suffering from, according to Court records.
The newspaper asked Fayroian to comment, as well as members of the Greenhills Board of Directors.
On Oct. 28, the Greenhills Board, through its attorney Christopher Trebilcock, an Ann Arbor labor and employment lawyer, threatened to sue The A2Indy, alleging in a three-page letter, that the newspaper through its reporting on the allegations against Fayroian of sexual and physical abuse, intended to deliberately damage the private school’s reputation.
Among the emailed questions to the Greenhills Board members, the newspaper asked if the Board members had been apprised of the allegations of sexual and physical abuse levelled against Fayroian, if Greenhills parents had been apprised of the alleged sexual and physical abuse allegations against Fayroian, if parents had been told that Judge Van den Bergh had terminated the Head of School’s parental rights, and whether Greenhills officials planned to put Fayroian on leave until he was cleared of the allegations of sexual and physical abuse.
Some of these questions were answered in an Oct. 29 letter sent from the Greenhills Board to the parents.
At a Sept. 18 hearing, Judge Van den Bergh stated that she has seen sexual abuse cases prosecuted well after allegations had been made and investigated.
In Michigan, the statute of limitations for most criminal sexual conduct (in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th degrees) is 10 years from the date of the crime or the victim’s 21st birthday (whichever is longer). 1st degree criminal sexual conduct does not have any statute of limitations.
In a 160-page Response to the Motion in support of the Ex Parte Motion which stripped Fayroian of his parental rights, Fayroian’s lawyer Andrew Bossory didn’t deny his client had appeared nude before his two children repeatedly. The Response, instead, argued that “it is a reasonable social choice to sleep naked and it’s not verboten for a young child to see a parent occasionally nude.”
Researchers who study under what circumstances child sexual abuse occurs have found that child sexual abuse is seven times more likely to occur when an adult “exposes their naked body to the child.”
Dr. Susan Bartell is a child and parenting psychologist who practices in New York. Bartell pointed out that “kids don’t have the cognitive ability to understand nuance.” While Bartell believes it’s always fine for children to be naked around their same-sex parents, she says a different dynamic eventually develops with mothers/sons and fathers/daughters.
Fayroian’s Response included color photos of Fayroian with his children (of whom their father’s 2020 divorce granted him joint custody), and photos of two birthday cards, suggesting that a hand drawn birthday card could be evidence that sexual abuse never took place.
“A Hundred Affidavits? Please.”
During the Sept. 18, 2024 hearing at which Fayroian asked for his parental rights to be restored, Judge Van den Bergh rebuked Fayroian’s lawyer Andrew Bossory for including a large number of character letters in the 160-page Response to the Judge’s Aug. 20, 2024 Ex Parte Motion. Van den Bergh said:
“Please don’t ever attach a hundred affidavits, or whatever is on here, again. They’re hearsay. They’re hearsay and they have no relevance. I’m not saying you did anything Mr. Fayroian, but attaching a hundred affidavits of people saying this person is a really nice guy and a great parent….I’m sure there are lots of sexual abuse cases in the world where very famous people were an amazing coach and an amazing leader and sexually abusing children. People don’t sexually abuse children in public. Please.”
Of American children who are sexually abused, 90 percent of them know their abuser and about one-third of those sexual abusers are immediate or extended family members. Only 10 percent of children are sexually abused by a stranger. According to research, 86 percent of sexual abuse goes unreported all together. Older children and female victims are, according to research conducted in 2020, more likely to report abuse, and particularly if the child has access to someone they can trust.
Refusing to acknowledge the acts of an intrafamilial abuser, particularly an abuser with a public position within a community, is common.
In the clinical language of Seto, Babchishin, Pullman & McPhail, in “The puzzle of intrafamilial child sexual abuse: a meta-analysis comparing intrafamilial and extrafamilial offenders with child victims,” published in 2015, “intrafamilial offenders display fewer interpersonal deficits than extrafamilial child sexual abusers.”
“I’m sure there are lots of sexual abuse cases in the world where very famous people were an amazing coach and an amazing leader and sexually abusing children. People don’t sexualy abuse children in public. Please.”
Judge Tracy Van den Bergh in response to character references from individuals, including Greenhills employees, submitted on behalf of Greenhills Head of School, Peter B. Fayroian
In plain language, some types of abusers are capable of establishing relationships with other people. Research also shows that these types of abusers typically manipulate the people around them, by appearing charming, warm, kind and caring.
Bossory’s 160-page Response on behalf of his client included notarized letters from people attesting to Fayroian’s character, his doting parenting and, in several cases, attesting to the fact his children love him and that Peter Fayroian would never hurt his children.
The letters contained in the Response were a chilling reminder of the societal pressure, trauma, and difficulties faced by abused children and reporting parents.
In one character letter, a mother states that her daughter feels comfortable around Fayroian, hugging him and not objecting to Fayroian’s touches.
In another notarized letter, former U-M Dean Dr. Anne Curzan attests to Fayroian’s fitness as a father through the lens of their long-time friendship.
Among the letters Fayroian and his attorney presented, several were from employees whom Fayroian employs at Greenhills (the Choir Dir., the Administrative Coordinator, the Human Resource Dir., and Harriet Butz, Greenhills’ clinical social worker and the school’s Dir. of Counseling).
Ann Arbor resident Bruce C. Judge in his letter mentions that he “chaired the committee” at Greenhills that selected Fayroian. Judge assured Van den Bergh that, “There are no circumstances in which Peter would allow either of [his children] to feel fear or come to harm.”
Ann Arbor State Rep. Jennifer Conlin, currently running for re-election, wrote to the Court about Fayroian’s fitness as a parent (and his lovely home) throughout her professional relationship with Fayroian. Conlin served as the President of the Board of Directors at Greenhills for three years and met with Fayroian twice monthly during that time.
When asked in an email if she’d been told by Fayroian that the AAPD had authorized charges against him, and that Fayroian had not been cleared of the alleged charges of sexual abuse by the date Ann Arbor’s State Rep. had written her letter, Conlin did not respond.
Joe Breakey, LMSW, Fayroian’s nextdoor neighbor, said in his letter: “In my close-up view of Peter’s world, he shows zero signs of inappropriate behavior or dysfunction in how he relates to his kids. The kids exhibit zero behavior that make me suspicious in any way.”
When asked if he’d been told by Fayroian that the AAPD had authorized charges against him based on the credibility of the victim’s statements, and that Fayroian had not been cleared of the alleged charges of sexual abuse by the date the Licensed Master Social Worker had written his letter, Breakey did not respond.
Breakey’s letter is dated August 25, 2024, five days after Judge Van den Bergh stripped Fayroian of his parental rights.
Another local social worker, Greenhills parent Ruthann Thorne, MSW, wrote to “express [her] unwavering support for Peter B. Fayroian in the custody dispute concerning his children.”
Greenhills Board member Preeti N. Malani, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan, vouched for Fayroian on Michigan Medicine letterhead. According to the University’s policies outlining the use of official letterhead, “The University of Michigan’s letterhead should be used for official institutional business and purposes and to be consistent with the University’s mission.” In addition, “Faculty and staff must get prior authorization to use the university’s stationery, name, logos, or other marks for personal, professional, commercial, or financial activities outside of their university responsibilities.”
Rachel Bendit, the wife of U-M Regent Mark Bernstein, also penned a testimonial for Fayroian, as did Richard B. Commons, the President of the private Harvard-Westlake School since 2011. In 2015, the school newspaper, The HW Chronicle published “After Assault.” That article reported, “Colleges across the nation have come under intense scrutiny this year for their handling of sexual assault cases, but the issue isn’t limited to college campuses. In a Chronicle poll of 432 students at Harvard-Westlake, 10.9 percent said they had been sexually assaulted….” Then, in 2023, there was the spate of suicides at Richard B. Common’s private school.
Common wrote to Judge Van den Bergh, “It is appalling that Peter has been accused of mistreating his children is any way. I speak not only as a witness to Peter’s love for [his children] but also as a lifelong educator with a legal obligation to observe and report suspected neglect…”
It wasn’t “neglect” for which the AAPD had filed charges and asked the County Prosecutor to prosecute Fayroian: it was for alleged sexual abuse.
Fayroian’s character witnesses also included Charles A. Tierney, III, Head of School at Northfield Mount Hermon boarding school in western, MA. Fayroian had been Head of School there between 2011-2017.
In an article published in the Ann Arbor Observer in 2018 “Fayroian Returns,” Fayroian was quoted as saying while Head of School at Northfield Mount Hermon he had fired a “a veteran teacher” due to allegations of impropriety. In a 2016 article about Fayroian’s firing of Gary Partenheimer over allegations of misconduct with a female student, Fayroian’s director of communications assured a New Hampshire newspaper, “there is no evidence that any further incidents have occurred in the past 25 years.” Tierney’s school is presently being sued over the alleged sexual abuse of a female student by a female teacher over several years starting in 1999.
In 2016, Fayroian told a New Hampshire newspaper, “NMH has zero tolerance for any sexual misconduct by faculty and staff members against students. Ensuring student safety and respecting students’ personal boundaries must be the priority of any educator and any school.”
Fayroian has not been accused of sexually abusing, physically abusing or engaging in inappropriate conduct with any Greenhills students. He is accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 13, which in Michigan could be charged as Criminal Sexual Conduct in the First Degree.
It’s unclear if any of the people who wrote letters on behalf of Fayroian were aware CPS investigated him, that the AAPD had authorized charges against him, charges which were submitted to County Prosecutor Eli Savit.
Parental Nudity
Fayroian’s ex-wife, in her Motion in support of the Ex Parte Order signed on Aug. 20, 2024 terminating her ex-husband’s parental rights, alleged that the Greenhill Head of School appeared nude in front of his daughter, including when he “soothed” her after a nightmare. The Motion also alleged that Fayroian encouraged his 11-year-old son to sleep in the nude and to wear no clothing when using the hot tub at Fayroian’s home.
In the 160-page Response, Fayroian strongly denied the allegations involving his son and that he sexually abused his daughter. The AAPD Detective, however, found the victim’s statements credible.
Experts say that parental nudity can teach children body acceptance, and nudity is not a problem as long as there is no discomfort on the part of the child or the parent and no sexualization involved. Fayrorian, however, was reported by his daughter as being nude in front of her two years after the alleged sexual abuse had happened.
Dr. Dawn Huebner, PhD. is a parenting coach. She says, “Nudity between parents and children is fine as long as both are fully comfortable.”
Fayroian, through his lawyer’s 160-page Response to convince Judge Tracy Van den Bergh to set aside the Aug. 20, 2024 Ex Parte Motion, included allegations that Rachael Waring is mentally ill (a sociopath and a narcissist), and there was a pattern of Waring attempting to sabotage Fayroian’s relationship with his children.
According to experts in the field of child sexual abuse, one common trait associated with sexual abusers, is engaging in “blame-shifting” also referred to as DARVO: Deny, Attack and Reverse Victim and Offender.
When asked, Waring said she divorced Fayroian to escape a long-term abusive relationship.
One of the requests Fayroian made through his lawyer in the 160-page Response was that Rachael Waring undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Fayroian, through his lawyer, didn’t suggest the victim was lying, but rather that Fayroian’s “mentally ill” ex-wife had fabricated the allegation, then gaslighted and brainwashed the victim into believing she had been sexually abused by her father.
Kathleen Coulborn Faller is the Marion Elizabeth Blue Endowed Professor Emerita of Children and Families; Professor Emerita of Social Work at the University of Michigan. She has written nine books and approximately 90 peer reviewed articles, conducted more than 300 juried international, national, and state conference presentations and presented more than 250 workshop addressing controversies of interviewing children about sexual abuse.
Faller published “Is the child victim of sexual abuse telling the truth?” Faller’s research has concluded: “Children almost never make up stories about being sexually abused. In fact victims are often revictimized in multiple ways for truthfully asserting they have been sexually abused. Perpetrators usually deny their abusive behavior.”
Rachael Waring stands out from among mothers whom Faller has studied who frequently “have reasons for not acknowledging the sexual abuse.”
Shortly after Waring says she was told about the alleged sexual abuse, court records show she sought out the help of experts at Mott’s Children’s Hospital and elsewhere, who, after interviewing the victim, advised Waring to contact Child Protective Services.
On Sept. 3, 2024, Judge Van den Bergh denied Fayroian’s Verified Motion to have the Aug. 20, 2024 Ex Parte Order set aside. She scheduled an Evidentiary hearing, but Fayroian’s attorney requested an adjournment, a fact Judge Van den Bergh put on the record at the Sept. 18, 2024 hearing when Fayroian’s attorney complained that an Evidentiary Hearing was necessary within 50 days of the Aug. 20, 2024 Ex Parte Order.
Next, Fayroian submitted a Motion for Sole Custody. In that Motion, he asked that Judge Van den Bergh order “Psychological/Psychiatric Evaluation of the Defendant (Rachael Waring).” Fayroian in this Motion moved to have his wife’s parenting time limited pending result “of her mental health evaluation.”
On Sept. 12, 2024, Fayroian submitted a Motion to Compel School Attendance. For several weeks after Fayroian’s parental rights were terminated, Rachael Waring kept her daughter out of school. Van den Bergh granted this Motion, but ordered that Waring’s daughter attend a different school (instead of Greenhills). In justifying the ruling, the Judge pointed out that Fayroian had asked several of his employees to write character letters on his behalf. She questioned the reliability of the contents of the letters, and how a return to Greenhills might impact the alleged victim, since Greenhills staff would surely know about the allegations through Fayroian’s solicitation of the character references. Fayroian also solicited character letters from staff at the school where his son is enrolled.
Setting Aside the Aug. 20 Ex Parte Order
A little over a month after Judge Van den Bergh terminated Fayroian’s parenting time on allegations of sexual and physical abuse, on Sept. 24, 2024, Judge Van den Bergh signed an Order to set aside her Aug. 20, 2024 Order. She restored joint parental-time arrangements with the modification that no parent would have five consecutive days with the children; at most each parent would have two days.
The Judge silenced the lawyer: “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….The bottom line is that I don’t want to end up with a dead child….
Sept. 18, 2024 hearing, Judge Tracy Van den Bergh presiding
Van den Bergh’s Order requires Fayroian’s daughter to spend weekly time with her father, unsupervised, despite a request for supervised visits made by Waring’s lawyer. Judge Van den Bergh also ordered that “the minor children will have their own bedrooms.” Fayrorian stands accused of sleeping nude with his children.
The Order signed on Sept. 24, 2024 requires the entire family to obtain psychological evaluations by a therapist whom the Judge described as one of the best trauma specialists in Michigan.
On the same day Judge Van den Bergh signed her Order, records show Fayroian filed an appeal with the Michigan Court of Appeals and engaged Jordan Ahlers-Smith, an appellate attorney from the Speaker Law Firm. In his Court of Appeals filing, Fayroian is asking for sole custody of his children, despite the fact that, as Judge Van den Bergh pointed out, “He hasn’t been cleared” of the allegations of abusing his children.
On Oct. 11, 2024, Fayroian’s attorney filed a Motion to Show Cause why Rachael Waring should not be held in contempt for violating the Judge’s September 24th Order, which had stipulated the alleged victim should begin psychological treatment as quickly as possible, but had not ordered individual treatment for the younger sibling. Waring had taken one child to a child and adolescent psychologist at U-M, and had made an appointment for the other child with a child psychiatrist at the University of Michigan.
On Oct. 13, Judge Van den Bergh denied Fayroian’s Motion.
Rachael Waring’s attorney Kevin S. Gentry has filed a Motion for Immediate Consideration with the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The Michigan Court of Appeals can take up to 24 months to hear an appeal, but that Court moves petitions involving minor children and First Amendment (FOIA) issues to the top of the docket.
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