Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

5/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Child Abuse Within ISKCON Schools 

Unlike most instances of child abuse that occur in the home, ISKCON's children were abused and neglected within the confines of the movement's schools, by unrelated adults and older children acting on a teacher's behalf.  During these formative years of ISKCON's development, the movement's children were educated in boarding schools, living more or less separate lives from their parents. It was here that some of ISKCON's children were physically, psychologically, and sexually abused.10     

As Prabhupada saw the public school system in America as indoctrinating ‘children in sense gratification and mental speculation,’ he referred to the schools as “slaughterhouses”’(J. Goswami 1984:1).  By contrast, the gurukula as he envisioned it, was specifically meant to train students in spiritual life, so that they could return back to Godhead.  Given that the fundamental goal of the gurukula was to train students in sense control, children were removed from their family as early as age four or five years. Prabhupada believed little hope existed for a child to learn self-control within the nuclear family because of the ‘ropes of affection’ between parent and child.  Children thus attended the gurukula on a year-round basis, with occasional vacations to visit with parents.  They resided in ashrams with children of similar age and sex.  Ashrams varied in size and the number of children they took in.  In 1979 there were 6 8 students living in each of the boys ashrams in Los Angeles.  Reports indicate that in other gurukulas the number of students residing in an ashram ranged as high as 20 or more.  An adult teacher lived in the ashram and took responsibility for supervising the children, and tending to their day-to-day needs (Rochford 1997).  

ISKCON's first formal gurukula was established in Dallas, Texas, in 1971.  The Dallas gurukula remained the only school of its type within the movement, until 1976, when it was forced to close by state authorities.  At the time of its closing the school had approximately 100 students, the majority of whom were between the ages of four and eight.  With the impending demise of the Dallas school, gurukulas were established in Los Angeles and at New Vrindaban in 1975.  In 1976, the Bhaktivedanta Swami International Gurukula began accepting adolescent boys as students in Vrindavan, India.11  Between 1975 and 1978 a total of 11 ISKCON schools opened in North America.  Gurukulas also started in France, Australia, South Africa, England and Sweden, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Regional schools appeared in Lake Huntington, New York, and central California (Bhaktivedanta Village), in 1980 and 1981 respectively (Das, M. 1998). 

As the last two regionally based ashram-gurukulas closed in North America by 1986, ISKCON schools became almost exclusively day-schools.  The only exception in North America today is the Vaisnava Academy for Girls located in Alachua Florida, for high school aged women.  The school has both day-students and students living full-time in the ashram.12  World-wide only the Vrindavan and Mayapur, India, schools remain ashram only gurukulas.  A sizeable majority of ISKCON's children in North America presently attend state-supported schools (Rochford 1997, forthcoming), a trend found in a number of other countries as well.   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^
 

Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

5/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Child Abuse Within ISKCON Schools 

Unlike most instances of child abuse that occur in the home, ISKCON's children were abused and neglected within the confines of the movement's schools, by unrelated adults and older children acting on a teacher's behalf.  During these formative years of ISKCON's development, the movement's children were educated in boarding schools, living more or less separate lives from their parents. It was here that some of ISKCON's children were physically, psychologically, and sexually abused.10     

As Prabhupada saw the public school system in America as indoctrinating ‘children in sense gratification and mental speculation,’ he referred to the schools as “slaughterhouses”’(J. Goswami 1984:1).  By contrast, the gurukula as he envisioned it, was specifically meant to train students in spiritual life, so that they could return back to Godhead.  Given that the fundamental goal of the gurukula was to train students in sense control, children were removed from their family as early as age four or five years. Prabhupada believed little hope existed for a child to learn self-control within the nuclear family because of the ‘ropes of affection’ between parent and child.  Children thus attended the gurukula on a year-round basis, with occasional vacations to visit with parents.  They resided in ashrams with children of similar age and sex.  Ashrams varied in size and the number of children they took in.  In 1979 there were 6 8 students living in each of the boys ashrams in Los Angeles.  Reports indicate that in other gurukulas the number of students residing in an ashram ranged as high as 20 or more.  An adult teacher lived in the ashram and took responsibility for supervising the children, and tending to their day-to-day needs (Rochford 1997).  

ISKCON's first formal gurukula was established in Dallas, Texas, in 1971.  The Dallas gurukula remained the only school of its type within the movement, until 1976, when it was forced to close by state authorities.  At the time of its closing the school had approximately 100 students, the majority of whom were between the ages of four and eight.  With the impending demise of the Dallas school, gurukulas were established in Los Angeles and at New Vrindaban in 1975.  In 1976, the Bhaktivedanta Swami International Gurukula began accepting adolescent boys as students in Vrindavan, India.11  Between 1975 and 1978 a total of 11 ISKCON schools opened in North America.  Gurukulas also started in France, Australia, South Africa, England and Sweden, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Regional schools appeared in Lake Huntington, New York, and central California (Bhaktivedanta Village), in 1980 and 1981 respectively (Das, M. 1998). 

As the last two regionally based ashram-gurukulas closed in North America by 1986, ISKCON schools became almost exclusively day-schools.  The only exception in North America today is the Vaisnava Academy for Girls located in Alachua Florida, for high school aged women.  The school has both day-students and students living full-time in the ashram.12  World-wide only the Vrindavan and Mayapur, India, schools remain ashram only gurukulas.  A sizeable majority of ISKCON's children in North America presently attend state-supported schools (Rochford 1997, forthcoming), a trend found in a number of other countries as well.   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^
 

Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

5/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Child Abuse Within ISKCON Schools 

Unlike most instances of child abuse that occur in the home, ISKCON's children were abused and neglected within the confines of the movement's schools, by unrelated adults and older children acting on a teacher's behalf.  During these formative years of ISKCON's development, the movement's children were educated in boarding schools, living more or less separate lives from their parents. It was here that some of ISKCON's children were physically, psychologically, and sexually abused.10     

As Prabhupada saw the public school system in America as indoctrinating ‘children in sense gratification and mental speculation,’ he referred to the schools as “slaughterhouses”’(J. Goswami 1984:1).  By contrast, the gurukula as he envisioned it, was specifically meant to train students in spiritual life, so that they could return back to Godhead.  Given that the fundamental goal of the gurukula was to train students in sense control, children were removed from their family as early as age four or five years. Prabhupada believed little hope existed for a child to learn self-control within the nuclear family because of the ‘ropes of affection’ between parent and child.  Children thus attended the gurukula on a year-round basis, with occasional vacations to visit with parents.  They resided in ashrams with children of similar age and sex.  Ashrams varied in size and the number of children they took in.  In 1979 there were 6 8 students living in each of the boys ashrams in Los Angeles.  Reports indicate that in other gurukulas the number of students residing in an ashram ranged as high as 20 or more.  An adult teacher lived in the ashram and took responsibility for supervising the children, and tending to their day-to-day needs (Rochford 1997).  

ISKCON's first formal gurukula was established in Dallas, Texas, in 1971.  The Dallas gurukula remained the only school of its type within the movement, until 1976, when it was forced to close by state authorities.  At the time of its closing the school had approximately 100 students, the majority of whom were between the ages of four and eight.  With the impending demise of the Dallas school, gurukulas were established in Los Angeles and at New Vrindaban in 1975.  In 1976, the Bhaktivedanta Swami International Gurukula began accepting adolescent boys as students in Vrindavan, India.11  Between 1975 and 1978 a total of 11 ISKCON schools opened in North America.  Gurukulas also started in France, Australia, South Africa, England and Sweden, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Regional schools appeared in Lake Huntington, New York, and central California (Bhaktivedanta Village), in 1980 and 1981 respectively (Das, M. 1998). 

As the last two regionally based ashram-gurukulas closed in North America by 1986, ISKCON schools became almost exclusively day-schools.  The only exception in North America today is the Vaisnava Academy for Girls located in Alachua Florida, for high school aged women.  The school has both day-students and students living full-time in the ashram.12  World-wide only the Vrindavan and Mayapur, India, schools remain ashram only gurukulas.  A sizeable majority of ISKCON's children in North America presently attend state-supported schools (Rochford 1997, forthcoming), a trend found in a number of other countries as well.   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^