A few weeks after a sensational New York magazine exposé revealed an alleged sex cult led by a student’s father at Sarah Lawrence College, the school has finally addressed the allegations.
“My heart goes out to those, SLC alumni and otherwise, whose lives may have been impacted by this parent,” wrote college President Cristle Collins Judd in an email that went out to the Sarah Lawrence community Thursday evening.
The allegations broke last month when the cover story, penned by James D. Walsh and Sarah Lawrence alum Ezra Marcus, revealed details of a cult that reportedly began on campus in 2010 after con man Larry Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm.
The college has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Ray’s residence on campus, telling New York magazine that the school “had no record that Larry Ray lived on campus at any time.” President Judd reiterated this claim in her email, adding that the college has “found no evidence to support the claim that this parent lived on the campus during the 2010-11 academic year,” following a “thorough search of its records across many offices.”
Judd went on to address the “demonstrably false claim” that Allen Green, the college’s Dean of Equity and Inclusion, resigned as result of the allegations. Citing an October 2018 announcement from the college, Judd explained that Green — who was featured heavily in the New York magazine piece but reportedly declined repeated requests for comment — had planned to retire at the end of the 2018-2019 school year, before a”terrible fall” left him on academic leave for the spring semester.
“I should not have to disclose personal information such as this to combat acts of irresponsible character assassination, but do so with his permission to quell uninformed media speculation as to why he is not now on campus,” Judd wrote.
The president explained that the college had previously refrained from addressing the sex cult allegations, “both out of respect for the privacy and well-being of the former students involved and also because of the real limits imposed by federal law on the College’s ability to discuss current and former student education records.”
Judd signed off by thanking the community for their “continued support and confidence in SLC.”
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