The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-03
FORMER HEAD OF B. H. s. COMMERCIAL
 SCHOOL UNDER FIRE
Hobart H. Todd, Head of New York Parental School,
 Charged With Brutality

Hobart H. Todd, former head of the commercial department ot fhe Bridgeport High school, who left this city in 1896 to enter education work in New York city. is under fire for ai- Tleged brutality in the New York par ental school, of which he is the prin- cipal. It is possible that an inquiry will begin from official sources as the result of an affidavit now in the possession of Herbert A. O Brten, a membere of the New York school board This affidavit. made by a for aner e1nploye of the school, chargss that Hobart H. Todd, principal of the school, struck and gagged boys as a means of punishing them and that other employees beat the boyFk as.
 Principal Todd said last night tfht he had heard of the charges and thinks they were inspired by spite. He says that they are unqualifledly and that superintendent of Schools Maxwell has assured him of his sup port and confidence.
 The disciplinary school is one of the finest in the country. It tops a high hill surrounded by 107 acres of wood and farm land in which the
 boys play and work.
 At present there are three double cottages for housing the 215 boys and when the entire plan for the institu- ton is filled out there will be eleven more cottages, in which, all the tru- ants and incorrigibles of the five
 boroughs will be cared for. The school as it stands was completed in 1909 at a cost to the city of $750,000.
 The stories of cruelty came out through an investigation made by the parents of Gustave Rouff, the son of an undertaken, Gustave Rouf of Ozone Park. MT. Rouff heard that his son had been beaten and sent a physician to the school to examine him. The
 physician reported that there were
 distinct welts on the boys back.
 Then MT. Rouff turned the matter over to William F. Kennedy, a law yer, with a request for an lnvestlga- ton. MT. Kennedy finally secured the affidavit of Charles Langford, who with his wife had been employed as
 caretaker in one of the cottages. Langford said in his affidavit that
 during the last six months he had been in the school he had acted as
 discip1inarian and that boys turned
 over to him for discipline had shown the effects of severe beatings. He said that Band Master Rossio beat the boys with his drum sticks, that a baker named Gerard used his fists on them and that on one occas- ion he saw Supt. Todd strike a. boy with his fist. Another means of pun ishment used by MT. Todd, he said, was to force a pencil gag into a boy s mouth with cruel effect.
 This affidavit finally found it's way into the hands of Commissioners O'Brien, who said it would be re- ferred by him with other affidavits to District Attorney Matthew J. Smith
 of Queens county for investigation. Heatherington said last night that 70 complaint had been made to him as yet.
 "Our boys here are truants and in- corrigibles," said Principal Todd last night, and some of them are harden we can with them and accomplish l many good results, but occasionally the evil in them breaks out and we have to be very stern with them. But we never beat them, the utmost we go to in that respect is to use small switch upon their hands.
 am not at all afraid of an investi- gation and it is not worrying me in the slightest. Supt. Maxwell, under whose care this school directly comes, has assured me of his absolute con- f1dence in my methods. The charges of cruelty are absolutely false.
 we try by keeping the boys busy from o'clock in the morning till I7:30 o'clock in the evening to keep them from mischief, but it will break out occasionally. We have them study little and work in the open a good deal. They work in the wood
 land and raise vegetables on the farm, which are supplied to the other
 corrective schools in the city''@ The school is located on Jamaica Road, between Jamaica and Flushing Principal Todd visited the reunion of the commercial classes in Beardsley
 park here two years ago.. He was
 married in this city and is still well known here.