TORONTO — The school director at the centre of a controversy over sexually explicit and violent poetry posted on the Internet has resigned.
David Prashker, director of the Leo Baeck Day School, tendered his resignation late last week. The resignation will take effect Aug. 31 and he remains on a paid leave of absence until then, said Brian Simon, president of the school’s board of directors.
Simon declined any further comment.
The school, which teaches 800 students from kindergarten through Grade 8, has been shaken over the poetry, which appeared on Prashker’s personal website. Parents were alerted to it through an anonymous e-mail that was sent in early March. Many reacted with concern over the explicit nature of the poems and their references to rape and murder.
In one poem, Voluntary Admission, Prashker wrote, “I raped her lust I confess,” while in A Song of Self-Overcoming, he writes, “The first act of killing is the hardest yet the bullet like a body pierces the pool of flesh and blood is much thicker than water and the second time is remarkably straightforward.”
Leo Baeck’s board of director responded to parents’ concerns by establishing a sub-committee to review the website, make recommendations and report to the board.
In a letter to parents prior to Prashker’s resignation, Simon also stated that “the board intends to retain an information technology specialist to review the security of the school’s electronic mailing lists. The fact that this e-mail was sent to so many parents suggests the possibility that someone accessed proprietary electronic information of the school without authorization.”
As of The CJN’s press time, there was no indication who was responsible for the e-mail.
Prashker, a native of London, England, was recruited in 2004 to run Leo Baeck, Canada’s only Reform day school. The school operates two branches, one at Bathurst and Eglinton, the other in Thornhill.
In a biography that he provided to The CJN when he first came to Toronto, Prashker stated, “away from work, I play guitar reasonably, piano very badly and spend a lot of my free time writing and researching for my books, of which there are now about a dozen, mostly novels, but also two scholarly books.”
His website, which was taken down last week, contained some of his poetry spanning the period from 1973 to 2003, which pre-dated his arrival at Leo Baeck.
Lawyer Allen Kaufman, whose son attends Leo Baeck, said Prashker’s poetry was “sexist and degrading.”
He said it’s irrelevant that it was penned on Prashker’s personal time outside the school. “It shows an appalling lack of good judgement for the head of a school to put these kinds of sexual fantasies on paper and think it’s alright to disseminate them on his personal website.”
Kaufman added that Prashker held a “very sensitive position.”
“If you want to be head of a school, your behaviour has to be above reproach… We hold them to a higher standard because we entrust them with the care of our children,” he said.
Prashker did not return a call for comment last week.
