DeSisto School

The DeSisto School may refer to either the DeSisto at Stockbridge School, or the DeSisto at Howey School, both founded by Michael DeSisto.

Stockbridge Campus c.1982

History

Beginnings

The DeSisto at Stockbridge School was a private boarding school for high school students in Stockbridge, Mass. Founded in 1978 by Michael DeSisto, it closed in 2004, amid allegations by state authorities that the school endangered the health and safety of its students.

Michael DeSisto, after being dismissed as director of the Lake Grove School on Long Island, N.Y., raised $180,000, from the parents of students who supported his vision, and encouraged him to open a new school "where he could put his philosophy into practice". It was established on the 300-acre (1.2 km²) former campus of the Stockbridge School, in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts, near Tanglewood Music Center, and the Stockbridge Bowl. DeSisto's school placed heavy emphasis on discipline, structure, and psychological therapy.

In 1980 DeSisto opened a second campus in Howey-in-the-Hills Florida named the DeSisto at Howey School. DeSisto originally envisioned a string of schools nationally and internationally based on the principles of Gestalt Psychology, and his own therapeutic model. DeSisto stated that the Stockbridge campus would be his "flagship". The DeSisto School would develop a reputation as the place that celebrities, the rich, and political elites could send their children who had difficulty living at home, and functioning in conventional secondary school environments.

In the late 1970s, and the early 1980s, DeSisto and the DeSisto School were favorably featured in articles in Life, Time and People magazines. DeSisto made a number of appearances on national television with his students, including The Today Show.

In 1987 DeSisto opened a college on the Howey campus, named DeSisto College. The experiment was short-lived though when the local government objected. The DeSisto School, and some of its students, sued and appealed in federal court unsuccessfully for the college to continue its operations.

While never formerly incorporated as school campuses, DeSisto ran significant school programs out of his own personal properties in Italy, and San Miguel, Mexico.

Controversies

Quite early on, it had problems from the commonwealth Department of Education which withdrew its accreditation after questions arose about the school's treatment of "special needs" students. The school sued in 1983, and won back its accreditation.

In 1986, the DeSisto School received national media attention with the case of Heather Burdick, from Old Bridge, New Jersey, Burdick was sent to the Stockbridge campus, and ran away from the school after only a few weeks. A group of parents from Burdick's hometown sought to sue The DeSisto School for illegally detaining Heather, but the action failed. The DeSisto School subsequently successfully counter-sued, and after recovering $550,000 in legal expenses was awarded $41,000 for damages. The group of parents then attempted to sue Heather for misrepresenting her circumstances.

The DeSisto at Howey School was not without its problems, either. The DeSisto School sued Howey-in-the-Hills over zoning issues related to the incipient DeSisto College. The town of Howey-in-the-Hills was awarded $203,279.27 in attorney fees and $17,194.12 in costs. The case of DeSisto College, Inc. v. Town of Howey-in-the-Hills, 718 F.Supp. 906 (M.D.Fla. 1989), and its appeals, are often cited and used as precedent where the plaintiff's claim is frivolous because it has no basis in law, the plaintiff rejects any reasonable offer to settle, the trial court dismisses the case without trial, and the plaintiff does not offer any novel legal theories.

On November 15, 1988, The Boston Globe reported that Michael DeSisto, and The DeSisto School had been sued 23 times for breach of contract and fraud.

In 1999, DeSisto produced an off-off-Broadway musical "Inappropriate" with Lonnie McNeil and Michael Sottile based on the journals and life experiences of the student performers. On December 6, 2004 the composer of "Inappropriate", Michael Sottile filed a lawsuit in Berkshire Superior Court against the DeSisto School seeking the recovery of almost $350,000 in damages. Six months previously an arbitrator, in a default judgment, found in favor of the plaintiff Sottile; that he had not been paid for his services.

In popular culture

In 1994 the television series Thunder in Paradise starring Hulk Hogan, featured the destruction of part of the school in the two-part episode titled "Deadly Lessons". It was an actual controlled demolition of an old DeSisto at Howey school building in Central Florida that the production company agreed to perform in exchange for filming rights.

Actress Susan Sarandon narrated a documentary named "Uphill All the Way" (2000) about The DeSisto School, and a bicycle trip through the Rocky Mountains taken by some female students in the year 1999.

In the book Death In Paradise (2001), by Robert B. Parker, the DeSisto School is mentioned briefly several times. In the first mention, Parker names Michael DeSisto as an attendee at a party given by an obnoxious pedophile. Then, he has the pedophile's wife say DeSisto is a good friend of theirs. Later, Parker mentions Michael DeSisto’s school in Stockbridge.

In the last chapter of his book Into My Own (2006), author Roger Kahn describes the negative experiences he had with Michael DeSisto, and the school's family therapy workshops he participated in 1979 with his son, who committed suicide in 1987.

Cornelia Read in her novel The Crazy School (2008), dedicates her book to the students of The DeSisto School. The character Santangelo, and the academy named after him, are loosely based on Michael DeSisto, The DeSisto School, and some of the students and staff who were there in the late 1980s.

Demise

The DeSisto at Howey School closed in 1988, due to declining enrollment, and legal problems with the local government. Following a long legal fight with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over licensing, allegations of child abuse, a Commonwealth-imposed enrollment freeze, and accusations of failing to create a safe environment for its students, the DeSisto at Stockbridge School chose to voluntarily close in June 2004.

A month previously, officials from the state Office of Child Care Services ordered DeSisto administrators to suspend their admissions process. In a letter, commonwealth officials charged the school had "an environment that endangers the life, health, and safety of children enrolled."

Frank McNear, DeSisto's executive director, told the Boston Globe at the time, that the school could not run properly without its customary admissions process.

"They did us grave financial damage when they closed our admissions," McNear said. "We can no longer fight this. They've been saying they want to close us, and they succeeded."

The DeSisto at Stockbridge School was renamed The Cold Spring Academy, and opened a campus in Sarasota, Florida. The Cold Spring Academy permanently closed in 2005.

External links

• DeSisto News Links
• Desisto school closes
• 'School for troubled teens to close in Massachusetts'
• 'Serious Risks' Cited at School for Teens
• Getting that 'DeSisto Glow' Time Nov. 26, 1979
• Uphill All the Way(2000) DeSisto School bike trip documentary
• New York Times Review INAPPROPRIATE January 1, 2000
• WHY GRADE 'A' EXECS GET AN 'F' AS PARENTS Fortune January 1, 1990
• Education Week Q&A with Mike DeSisto, February 16, 1983