Charges dropped against nun in student threat case

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WOODBRIDGE, N.J. - Charges were dismissed Monday against a 69-year-old nun who had been accused of threatening to knock out the teeth of a student she was disciplining for leaving class without permission.

   Louis Faccone, whose 11-year-old son was sent to see Sister Catherine Iacouzze, the assistant principal and disciplinarian at St. Cecelia School, withdrew the harassment charge he had filed against the nun in municipal court.

   The Diocese of Metuchen fired Iacouzze in December.

   "Being a woman of faith, I firmly believed that in the end, truth would triumph over treachery," she said after the hearing had concluded, declining further comment.

   Faccone said Iacouzze admitted to him that she had threatened his son. But the stress of proceeding with the case was too great for his family, Faccone said.

   "I brought this matter because of the actions she did against my son," Faccone told Municipal Court Judge Emery Z. Toth. "Since bringing this action, I have learned through the diocese that there are numerous complaints of this type of student abuse on file against Sister Catherine Iacouzze.

   Iacouzze's lawyer, James Mackevich, denied the nun threatened anyone. He said she was guilty of nothing more than making a sarcastic remark to a sassy student.

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“The phrasing was, With an attitude like this, you're lucky you have all your teeth,'" Mackevich said outside court after the charges were dismissed. "The implication was You’re being so disrespectful that you’re lucky something hasn’t happened to you in the past.’ There was no present or future threat.”

   Mackevich said the sixth grader left class without permission last fall, went down a stairway he wasn't supposed to be on, and went into the gym without supervision. He was seen by a teacher who brought him to Sister Iacouzze's office, Mackevich said.

   "She tells him four times to be quiet and stand still," the attorney said. "It's a sixth grader being disciplined. Can you imagine filing charges every time a third grader gets yelled at?"

   Mackevich said he was not aware of any similar complaints that had been made against the nun; a spokeswoman for the diocese did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

   Iacouzze does not plan to appeal her termination from the school, her lawyer said. She said her immediate plans are to take a long vacation.

   Faccone said his son now attends a different Catholic school.

                                January 10, 2005 12:16 PM

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Corporal punishment was not abolished in Boston’s schools until 1967; which means I was slapped, rattaned (‘rat-handed’), and generally struck and man-handled for several years while in grade school. Yes the nuns would belt the living daylights out of you, and so would the priests.

The really sad part which I distinctly remember was when kids were hit for being, well, just kids. The high felony of giggling in class would earn a first grade girl a good slap across the face (and from a full grown adult women it was devastating).

Sister Arnold slapped me so hard across the face when I was in the first grade while playing during recess that I was cross-eyed for an hour. Some times after a slap the ringing in my ears wouldn’t go away for a whole day. Telling your parents meant nothing or would earn you another slap for being bad in class.

For a similar experience, please read: ‘Such, such were the Joys’ by George Orwell, as he related his initial experiences at an English boarding school.