Oprah Speaks Out On School Scandal

Winfrey "Shaken To The Core" As Dorm Matron Faces Indecent Assault Charges

(CBS/AP)  Oprah Winfrey said Monday she wept for half an hour when she heard a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at her school for disadvantaged South African girls. She promised to "clean house" starting with the headmistress.

Calling the allegations of abuse at a school she founded in South Africa "one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating experience of my life," Winfrey appeared as part of a press conference detailing the investigation of child abuse which led to the arrest of a school employee.

Last month, a 27-year-old dormitory matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy south of Johannesburg, South Africa, was suspended in connection with allegations involving indecent assault and soliciting under-age girls to commit indecent acts.

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Tiny Virginia Makopo faces 13 charges of indecent assault, assault and criminal injury committed against at least six students aged 13-15 and a 23-year-old at the school.

"When I first heard about it I spent about a half-hour going around my house crying," Winfrey said at a news conference.

Makopo said she was innocent when the charges were read during a bail hearing in Johannesburg. The magistrate released her on bail of $450, but she is restricted in her travel and contact with others. She left court today, with a court appearance ordered for December 13.

Winfrey founded the boarding school near Johannesburg last January - but by March, parents said students at the academy were being treated as virtual prisoners, permitted little or no means to communicate beyond its walls, CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports.

Today, over the satellite hookup from Chicago to Johannesburg, Winfrey acknowleged that a system designed to protect students had become a way to intimidate them, Reynolds reports.

Winfrey said she was grateful to finally being able to speak about the events, as police investigators has asked her to remain silent while the investigation was being conducted so as not to jeopardize the case.

Winfrey said she was informed on October 6 by Samuel that fifteen girls had come to his office to see him with a list of grievances, including suspected sexual abuse of one of their classmates. The suspect was immediately removed from campus.

"I was, needless to say, devastated and really shaken to my core when I first heard this news," Winfrey said.

She spoke with the founder of the Child Trauma Center in Houston, Dr. Bruce Perry, who informed her that, under U.S. law, suspected child abuse must be reported to child protective services, which is also the case under South African law, so she alerted Superintendent Andre Needling and told him that there was suspicion of some kind of sexual abuse.

"I told Andre that I wanted to conduct an independent investigation to determine what exactly had happened and that I would appreciate his advice and his guidance in this matter." Needling said his department would work in cooperation with the school's investigation.

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The reason for hiring an independent investigative team, Winfrey said, was "because my experience with child predators is that no one ever, ever abuses just one child.

"Although the girls only had spoken of one classmate, my first priority was to determine how many girls had actually been affected and to what extent."

A team of three investigators, lead by Robert Farley, commander of the Child Exploitation Unit of the Cook County Sheriff's Office, flew from the United States and spent a week interviewing students and staff. Winfrey precede the investigators, companied by Dr. Perry, and she spoke to all of the girls personally, encouraging any who had been harmed to come forward.

"I told them that although they had apparently been living in an atmosphere that repressed their voices, that this was a chance for them to break the silence and to take their voices back."

By the next day, five other girls had stepped forward.

Because the girls were afraid of repercussions from the remaining dorm matrons, Winfrey said, all remaining dorm matrons were removed; teachers were placed in rotation in the dorms.

On the weekend of October 14, with the information collected, calls were placed to the parents to inform them of the situation, and a meeting was arranged for the following weekend. Winfrey returned to South Africa and met with the parents and daughters, apologizing for the "unfortunate circumstances."

"I promised to institute immediate changes to create a new model of excellence in social, emotional and academic life for girls at the
school."

At the press conference in Johannesburg, John Samuel, chief executive of the academy, said that this has been a difficult time for the school community, but that "We are beginning to heal.

"The girls who have been affected have received and continue to receive the best counseling and support, and all of our learners are getting support from the academy, their peers, and their families. On campus, there is a sense of relief that the investigation has concluded and we are returning to a normal way of life.

"The spirit of the girls remains strong."

"This has been one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating experience of my life," Winfrey said, "but like all such experiences, there is always much to be gained, and I think there is a lot to be learned.

"I'm also very grateful to their parents and to their guardians and their caretakers for their continued trust and their support in me and also in the school.

"What I know is, is that no one - not the accused, nor any persons - can destroy the dream that I have held and the dream that each girl continues to hold for herself."

Superintendent Andre Neethling, from the police's sexual offenses and child protection unit, told the news conference that there had been at least three serious cases of indecent assault and that the abuse had taken place over four months.

The star talk show host said officials at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls hid facts from her and told students to "put on happy faces" and not complain to her.

She said the school head mistress's contract would not be renewed and indicated others also would be dismissed.

Winfrey said she was not responsible for hiring at the school but that the screening process was inadequate and "the buck always stops with me."

Few issues resonate as deeply with Oprah Winfrey as child sexual abuse, notes Reynolds, so it's no wonder that this episode has come as a great shock to her and her millions of fans.

It was at the $40 million school in the Gauteng Province founded by Winfrey, a school with an enrollment of largely underprivileged young girls, where the abuse allegedly took place.

At the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in January amid great fanfare, the television personality said, "I wanted to educate girls because I was a poor girl, a poor girl who grew up with my grandmother, as so many of these girls."

But by March complaints were starting to surface. Several parents charged that their children were being held as virtual prisoners at the school, with visits limited to one a month, and with cellphone and e-mail use tightly restricted.

The issue is a personal one for Winfrey, herself a victim of sexual abuse. On her show in 2005, she confided to viewers, "I was shameful for so many years and I realized the reason I was ashamed is because I took responsibility for [my abuse]. I blamed myself for it. So you can release the shame when you realize that it wasn't your fault."

In a statement released over the weekend, Winfrey told the students, whom she calls "her girls," that it isn't their fault, either.

"It is my deepest hope that the accused is brought to justice. ... Any time a child has the courage to step forward, it is our duty as adults to listen and take immediate action."

Parents of the schoolgirls want the punishment to fit the alleged crimes.

"I think she must take a long sentence," said Masechaba Hine, mother of two girls who attend the academy. "She is okay to rot in jail."

[erasmus6]

"You have to pay extra for blood & guts." posted by tuckerndfw

How much?

[erasmus6]

"It wasn''''t possible to produce an epic dramatic episode within the time & budget constraints of the producer." posted by tuckerndfw

Well...it would have been nice if I could have seen him fall down or see blood on his face but I guess that will have to do.:)

Awhile back someone sent me an email with a little video, titled "This is what happens when you gossip at work". It was so funny. It shows a woman standing in a hall talking with another woman and then two other women walk up to her and one of them hauls off and slams her fist into her nose. She hit her so hard it knocked her back a few feet. She had this horrified look on her face. (it still makes me laugh just thinking about it) Anyways, I kept playing it back, thinking if it would just have gone a bit longer I would have seen the blood pouring out of her nose. What can I say?? I''m a bit sadistic.:)

[flipantflaw]

'' .. it is farce / sci-fi / impossible in one, it is surreal, lieutenants what hold hands and weave bouquets, recycle garbage / garden to educational props w/ accents / dances with jingles, shopgift grass / dirt for cures for cancer / other margaritas, shift / toggle / travel, dance get well feed world get sick tax world hike naked dance dressed porn songs rallyd round billions sick beds swimming drifting tens millions spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail crossing yseedsberry trail groups dotted w/ homed sheltets, speckled w/ drip compost fertilizet / drip water irrigatet, decorated with folk playing zero resistance free form tai chi aikido yogaerobic inkblot sport and puzzle for life and lunch the musical epic quest to cure the common death and the wondet supet flora poet ballot ballet bowl and the lusty forge your own epic karaoke feed the world with free food / free medicine for each and all forever and ever more, tho they''ve chased me to punish / persecute, and i''ve chased them to tell them not to punish / persecute, i''ve seen them heal, i''ve seen them save, i''ve seen them speak love into hearts with effortless unrewarded ease, they taught courtesy / effeciency / the absence of detention when the rule books demanded otherwise, my heart is of disbelief, they did not do these things, and if they had: i''d not surrender my disbelief to be myself so unyielding .. ''

[erasmus6]

"I hope you enjoy having your fantasy visually fulfilled if not in actuality." posted by tuckerndfw

I watched it but it didn''t do anything for me. He was still standing after she slapped him. I wanted to see blood and guts!:)

[valerie2008]

I respect Oprah deeply and I honor the way she runs the school, but this is horrible.I feel bad for her because she''s trying to make a better place for these kids and now this happened.But, I will keep Oprah and the kids in my prayers.This is just a bump in the road and they will get over this. God Bless.

[flipantflaw]

'' ... the media loves to make a living reporting lots of peoples hardships, yet people don''t have one of those grocery / conveinence / restaurant relationships with their market share providets ... folk seeking marketshare must get killed in a conspiracy or must behave in some socalled extreme embarassmant fashion in order to attain any scraps of major media attention ... that or pay a fortune scarcely any can afford ... and even then you best not be some lazy naked ignorant profane blemished promiscuous child wishing for a less cruel world ... ''

'' ... 90,000 countys of 90,000 folk, 90,000 networks of 90,000 folk, 300 villages of 300 folk, 300 channels of 300 folk, 20 homes of 20 folk, 20 sites of 20 folk, 5 folk around each of 4 sick beds ... ''

'' ... how bright to not only invest in trillion dollar baby raping warfare to save one''s own babys, but then to admit it to the masses whos babys got raped in the trillion dollar baby raping warfare ... ''

'' ... full disclosure is not an issue, unless there is an absence of marketshare where and when full disclosure becomes quite the putrid eyesore ... ''

[jchris3670]

It''s a shame that no one understands the severity of the incident, but can only cast judgement on Oprah, Well hum let me guess WHY, because she''s not only BLACK, she''s a FEMALE and she''s got a HELL OF ALOT OF MONEY that she worked very hard for and deserves every bit of it!!! OPRAH IS NOT THE ONE TO DESPISE FOR THE IMMORAL DEMEANOR OF ANOTHER TWISTED INDIVIDUAL!!!

[flipantflaw]

'' ... blue blue first aid on the trail blue blue inkblot sport and puzzle on the trail blue blue sellart basketball on the trail blue blue zero resistance tai chi aikido yogaerobic on the trail blue blue subsistance blooms on the trail blue blue ... ''

'' ... maybe gods do not invest so much in wars and laws and disciplines that rape small babies and small children because they do not love them, maybe they do it because they do love them: that is to say, if most folk most time experience the infinite bliss of eternity where all their wishes come true, then maybe mortal suffering is a rarest paradise for those that live in paradise, a chance not to have all ones wishes come true ... and from a earthly perspective: who deserves most the best: small babies and small children ... hence kids are 99 percent more likely to suffer injury or death by discipline and are 99 percent more likely to be disciplined ... ''

'' ... the only environmental awareness what matters is the kind policed by multi trillion dollar baby raping war mongets ... ''

'' ... how come is it every so-called great civilation ever saved all the girls by raping more girls by investing more money in baby raping warfare than most of the enemys past and present combined ... ''

[iceman_1960]

"...the ugly s*exual assaults that darken the lives of male prisoners, and comparatively rare in women"s prisons."

Those inflicted by other inmates, I meant (lurid Hollywood depictions notwithstanding.)

There it is generally some despicable male guards doing it.

[iceman_1960]

It is very unusual -- not unheard of, but unusual -- for sexual abuse to be inflicted on young girls by older women.

Even in American prisons, the ugly s*exual assaults that darken the lives of male prisoners, and comparatively rare in women"s prisons.

[iceman_1960]

(According to a tradition, Lao Tzu accepted Christ at the last moment.)

[iceman_1960]

"in fact, he"s noted for saying among other things "give a man a fish, feed him for a day - teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime".

No, dogsoul, Jesus didn"t say this at all. It is a Chinese proverb attributed to Lao Tzu (who was not a Christian)."
- Posted by random_radar at 04:44 PM : Nov 05, 2007

LOL !!!!!

What Jesus actually said (discovered in ancient Judean scrolls unearthed just this morning) was:

"Give a man a fish, and he"ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he"ll sit in a rowboat drinking beer all weekend."

[dmhphils]

I really think Oprah deserves a break from all the critics who sit around and don''t DO anything worthwhile for anybody else while stuffing their cheeks with chips and dip and melding with their sofas.

At least she is one of the few individuals with a huge pile of money who is willing to part with some of it for somebody else''s benefit. That in itself deserves some recognition by the slothful slugs with keyboards. Thank you.

[memerider]

Oprah is clearly upset that her dream has been sullied by predators. Child predators are everywhere, and this is a new venture for Oprah, so it was undoubtedly unexpected. It will take some time, but I suspect she''ll perfect her school model and the school will graduate some very well-adjusted women with bright futures.

[nyckate]

zootallures2

What are you - an idiot??

How much clearer can it get that she''s not going to allow abuse of the students??

I could care less if you''re a fan or Oprah or not - its just that your comment was remarkably stupid.

[jowand]

This sounds like the stuff she used to have on her show years ago, exploiting other peoples stupidity and misery.

[tomtomasters]

Tell me one school in the world that has not had sexual situations, and I will have to call it repressive and a lie. Oprah this is nothing..don''t worry about it. They will do anything to make up or discredit you; to sue you for money. Is this what learning is about? How to use *** to defame people, how to sue people, how to make *** a bad thing? The world is full of malcontent misfits.

[mattcbsmatt]

That is a great relevant news story so is my butt farting

[erasmus6]

"It seems your fantasy was fulfilled about 35 years ago. . . so you can rest easy now." posted by tuckerndfw

I guess....but it sure would have been nice if I could have been there and watched her do it.:)

[kingreb09]

Please go to amazon.com and type in THE GAME by Jerry Webber and purchase the book entitled THE GAME, by Jerry Webber. Tell all of your friends to do so as well. You will not be disappointed and proceeds will go to help a homeless.