The George Hazen Scandal

The George Hazen Scandal is the name give to the series of sexual abuses committed by George Hazen against several students at the School of American Ballet between 2007 and 2012.

## Background

In 2007 37 year old George Hazen, a male faculty member and former dancer with the New York City Ballet met 17 year old SAB student ‘Allie’. After becoming friends with ‘Allie’, Hazen had offered to help her get a job with the company in exchange for sexual favors. After ‘Allie’ complied, Hazen secretly recorded her performing sexual acts with him and used it to blackmail her into doing increasingly more degrading things to avoid the videos being released. ‘Allie’ finally managed to break free when she graduated from SAB and was hired by a company in Miami.

Hazen’s next known victim was 16 year old student ‘Olivia’, ‘Olivia’ met Hazen a year earlier when she had arrived at study at SAB. Hazen had followed his now familiar path and offered the naive aspiring dancer the chance to secure herself a career in exchange for servicing him sexually. ‘Olivia’ agreed and as with his previous victim, Hazen took compromising video of her and used it to blackmail her into doing what he wanted. Like ‘Allie’, ‘Olivia’ eventually managed to get away from Hazen when she quit ballet to attend college.

Hazen’s youngest victims were 14 year old Lindsey Shaw and her 12 year old best friend Amanda Marks. Both Lindsey and Amanda had idolized Hazen before coming to SAB, Hazen used their admiration to his advantage and began sexually abusing them. Despite Lindsey trying to shield Amanda from the worst of the abuse, Amanda became Hazen’s favorite and she was subjected to the worst treatment of any of Hazen’s victims. Amanda’s abuse culminated in a horrific incident where Hazen and his friend repeatedly raping her over the course of 6 hours, the two only let her go after she promised to keep quiet. After the incident, the two ejected the then 16 year old Amanda onto the streets of Manhattan at midnight. Amanda wandered aimlessly around until around 1am when she called Lindsey to pick her up, both wanted to report it but feared being ostracized and loosing the opportunity to achieve their dreams of being dancers.

Hazen’s final known victim was 16 year old ‘Charlotte’, Hazen followed a familiar routine of befriending ‘Charlotte’ and offering her special treatment in exchange for sexual favors. Unlike the others, ‘Charlotte’ was more experienced in the world in general and didn’t initially fall for his propositions. After a group event, ‘Charlotte’ ended up having a one night stand with Hazen and while she was asleep he photographed her naked and tried to use it to blackmail her into being his next victim.

## Discovery

Instead of acquiescing to his blackmail, ‘Charlotte’ reported Hazen to the police. Charlotte’ was ostracised at SAB and people were reluctant to believe the highly regarded Hazen would do something like that. Eventually in October 2012, Lindsey came forward to report her experiences with Hazen. Lindsey was about to head off to become an apprentice at the San Francisco Ballet and was worried what would happen to Amanda if she left her alone.

After Lindsey and ‘Charlotte’ reported their abuse, ‘Allie’ finally found the courage to come forward and report Hazen as well. In the wake of the scandal Hazen was forced to resign from SAB and was arrested in early November 2012.

## Aftermath

Hazen was convinced to plead guilty to several charges including sexual assault, sexual assault with a minor, coercion, as well as possessing child exploitation material in the form of the pictures and videos of his victims that he recorded. Hazen took a plea deal in early 2013 and was sentenced to 38 years. Public reactions were scathing, 38 years was only 13 years more than the maximum sentence for one conviction of sexual assault on a minor. Despite this, Hazen is scheduled for release in 2051 when he’ll be 81 years old.

‘Allie’, ‘Charlotte’ and Lindsey spoke publicly about their experiences and even participated in a documentary about the incident that came out in 2014. ‘Olivia’ and Amanda never spoke out publicly and while it was eventually revealed both were survivors of Hazen’s, neither wanted this to define them. Amanda eventually wrote a memoir in 2015 as a way of telling her story but she subsequently kept out of the limelight.

The School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet both condemned Hazen’s actions and promised to implement changes to better protect their students, especially minors. During the media spectacle caused by the incident, a prominent female dancer came forward and told her story of how in 1995 while both members of the same ballet company, Hazen had forced her to perform oral sex on him.

## Known victims

* ’Allie’ (born 1991)
* ‘Olivia’ (born 1992)
* Lindsey Shaw (born 1995)
* Amanda Marks (born 1996)
* ’Charlotte’ (born 1996)