Eddie Fischer

Eddie Fischer (center) with Porter-Gaud faculty and staff, a shot from the documentary, "What Haunts Us." Provided 

The Terrace Charleston Film Festival, which runs March 15-18, includes a documentary film that dares to scrutinize one of Charleston’s most tender wounds, a collective injury inflicted by a sexual predator.

“What Haunts Us,” a new film by Porter-Gaud alumna Paige Goldberg Tolmach, strives to come to terms with the damage caused by Eddie Fischer, who taught at Porter-Gaud from 1972 to 1982, and subsequently at College Preparatory School and James Island High School. He was discovered to have abused 20 boys at Porter-Gaud, and as many as 50 total.

The documentary concentrates on the Porter-Gaud Class of 1979, which has lost six people to suicide in the years since the scandal became public. Among the questions raised by the movie: How was it possible for so many people — teachers, administrators, students and parents — to remain ignorant of, or silent about, Fischer’s behavior?

Fischer was arrested in 1997 largely as a result of persistent efforts by one of his victims, Guerry Glover, whose father Harold Glover filed a civil suit against Porter-Gaud the following year. In April 1999, Fischer was sentenced to 20 years in prison. (Guerry Glover is featured prominently in the movie.)

In October 2000, a jury found that two school officials, Principal James Bishop “Skip” Alexander and Headmaster Berkeley Grimball were negligent for failing to stop abuse they knew about. The trials made national news. A series of legal settlements ensued. The school and its affiliate, The Episcopal Church, paid out millions of dollars to numerous victims and their families.

In 2002, Fischer died while serving time. Alexander killed himself just before the trial started. Grimball remained in his position until 1988 and died in 1999.

Now the scandal will receive renewed attention in the city where it all unfolded, at an independent movie theater just a couple of miles away from the prestigious private school.

Eddie Fischer

Eddie Fischer in a still from the movie, "What Haunts Us."

Provided

'In his sunshine'

Tolmach said she was compelled to make the movie, to confront all she didn’t know about those terrible years, after her child was born and after learning in late 2011 about another sexual predator, Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

“What Haunts Us,” her first movie, was difficult to make, she said. It led to all sorts of unsettling discoveries, self-recrimination and distress, admiration for those who have managed to survive the abuse and, ultimately, a degree of healing.

“It was heartbreaking, totally heartbreaking,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into. It broke my heart for the little girl I was then, the friends around me and as a mother now. We never learned anything (about the case) because we never talked about it. That wasn’t OK. I had to do something about it. In order to protect my son in the now I had to go back to the then.”

At Porter-Gaud, Fischer was her teacher.

Paige Goldberg Tolmach

"What Haunts Us" filmmaker Paige Goldberg Tolmach. Provided

Tolmach started at the school as a fourth-grader in 1977 and graduated in 1985. She remembers hearing a rumor or two, and knowing about the boys who went to Fischer’s home.

“We knew he had favorites,” she said. “We knew he hung out with a flock of boys in the summer. All we knew as children was it was funny. ... They wanted to be in his sunshine. We thought it was cool to be one of Eddie Fischer’s boys. We just didn’t realize how deep it was.”

Then, suddenly, Fischer vanished.

“His departure was unexplained,” she said. “We came back from summer vacation and he was gone.”

He hadn’t gone far. With recommendations in hand from his Porter-Gaud supervisors, Fischer landed a position first at College Prep, then at James Island High.

Shame and confusion

Carlos Salinas was among the many Porter-Gaud boys molested by Fischer.

“For me the big relief came ... when Guerry blows the lid off and I talk to him that night when the article comes out,” Salinas said. He told Glover he was not alone and offered to help with the campaign to bring Fischer to justice. “It was a major liberation. That’s what really sets me free. It’s no longer something I hide, this is something I share. I resolved to talk freely about my experience.”

It also helped Salinas to go through a ritual soul-cleaning ceremony in the Colombian Amazon, where he had connections and was working to protect indigenous tribes.

“I literally vomited the evil out of myself," he said.

In hindsight, he could see the patterns. At the time, people could tell something was wrong, but couldn’t discern the nature or extent of the problem, he said.

“When someone is always there, it’s hard to recognize that he shouldn’t be there.”

Salinas transferred to Porter-Gaud from a Catholic school when he was entering seventh grade, and it was a big culture shock and difficult adjustment, he said.

“Fischer was one of the first to reach out to me,” Salinas recalled. “He must have realized I was a duck out of water.”

He paid Salinas a lot of attention. He spoke a little Spanish. He looked out for the new middle-schooler.

“He was seen as kind of a cool guy, so I certainly did not shy away from that attention,” Salinas said. Besides, he was used to interacting with adults, so none of this seemed terribly odd. A few years later, though, it did get odd.

Salinas was in 10th grade and could drive. He was invited to Fischer’s beach house one day and figured, why not? He dismissed his mother’s observation that visiting a teacher at his home was, well, weird. But teachers were trustworthy, right?

“I know what I’m doing,” he told his mother.

Fischer confided to Salinas that he was a gigolo with a huge ring of women ready to pay for sex with young men. To the student, this was a shared secret. Salinas declined to participate in the sex ring, but was embarrassed because he felt he had betrayed his teacher’s confidence, he said.

He was trapped emotionally, he was vulnerable, confused, and he fell victim to Fischer’s sexual advances.

“I’d always felt bad,” he said. “I know the rational argument (that children are not at fault), but that doesn’t take away the pain and disappointment.”

Salinas said he wishes he had spoken up sooner “because of all the kids who came after.” But shame and confusion have a paralyzing effect.

“That’s the evil mastery at work,” he said.

A ripple effect

Porter-Gaud Head of School DuBose Egleston said the new documentary has “provoked a very good conversation.”

Egleston said he has participated in many discussions about preventing sexual assault and helped to implement robust new policies and procedures that better safeguard students. He also has spoken with victims and learned a lot, he said.

The trauma of sexual abuse affects generations, Egleston said. “There’s a ripple effect. Some have moved on, others are struggling.”

Some have remained part of the Porter-Gaud community, others are reaching out now.

“It’s been great to be able to talk to some of the victims and hear their story and be able to apologize as much as possible to them, and tell them what we do now,” he said.

The school sent a note to alumni dated March 1 notifying them about the screening of Tolmach’s movie.

“We deeply regret this painful part of our past and the poor manner in which the school treated the victims,” Egleston wrote. “To those victims and their families, we offer our sincerest and most heartfelt apology, knowing full well that no apology will ever return to them what was so horribly taken away.”

Egleston and several others from the school will attend the screening of “What Haunts Us” and join the conversation afterward.

'Too much to lose'

Tolmach said it’s important to know the full story to “help us protect our children in the future.” Some current Porter-Gaud parents don’t know about the Fischer scandal, she noted.

“I feel like, as parents, we don’t want to believe this can be true, so we tend to look the other way. It’s not because we are bad people. We walk away from it, and that leaves a lot on the table. We can’t do that.”

There is too much to lose.

“Two victims died, basically by suicide, while I was making the film,” Tolmach said. “The ripple effects don’t end.”

Much can be done, from introducing formal safety practices to telling children how to recognize inappropriate behavior.

“You have to educate people,” Tolmach said. “We all play role when bad things happen. If we have a hand in the badness we certainly could have a hand in the goodness.”

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Contact Adam Parker at aparker@postandcourier.com or 843-937-5902.

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Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press, and "Us: A Journalist's Look at the Culture, Conflict and Creativity of the South," published by Evening Post Books.

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