- The school where Clarence Thomas sent his children has been accused of forcing students to work hard.
- According to a ProPublica report, Harlan Crow was burdening Thomas at school with $6,000 a month in bills.
- Thomas is accused of judicial malpractice for failing to report the gifts he received from Crowe.
That same year, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sent a child in his care to a private boarding school reportedly funded by major Republican donor Harlan Crow. I sent that. Parents testified that the academy used children for free labor and was “unsafe.”
according to New report from ProPublicaThomas decided to send his teenage nephew. raised “as a son”, Hidden Lake Academy in Georgia, a therapeutic school for troubled teens, in 2008 for about a year.
That same year, Hidden Lake Academy was nominated at a hearing by the House Committee on Education and Labor. “Child Abuse and Deceptive Marketing by Teen Housing Programs”.
In written testimony, a parent of a former student at the school said the academy’s “environment was unsafe and unnurturing.”
She wrote that the school was using the children as free labor, and that the academy’s owner, Leonardo Buccellato, said, “The HLA, his private residence, his mother’s house, and clearing the land for new stables. 2008 hearing.
Its parents said the students were told to “run up and down hills at the instructor’s pace for hours” and “carry logs and rocks across fields for hours in all weather” and ” I was forced to pick up goose droppings without wearing gloves.” ,” according to the hearing materials. These activities can last “as long as eight hours,” write the parent.
The school closed in 2011. wrote on a now-defunct website It says its services have helped students “gain academic confidence” and “gain a positive self-image.” According to the school, the lush campus offers students a “variety of campus recreational activities” such as fishing and canoeing, and facilities include “spacious bathing facilities” and “beautiful lake views.” I was.
Judge Thomas was accused of judicial misconduct after he detailed receiving an unreported lavish gift from Crowe in a series of reports from ProPublica.