News 2005

Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students

Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students

Advocating for the health, safety and welfare of all exchange students

Note from CSFES:

Where crimes are committed they must be reported. The stories must raise public awareness and serve to protect other children. Public awareness through the media is the most powerful tool we have to educate the public.

CSFES is currently in the process of converting the reports which appear on the 'Reports of Abuse' page by the year they were reported.

(CSFES is currently in the process of updating page -- thank you for your patience)

NEWS 2005

U.S. Targets Sex Abuse Of Exchange Students

By Robin Wright and Lori Aratani

Washington Post Staff Writers

August 12, 2005

Click here for link

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EXCHANGE STUDENT HOST ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT, by Jeorge Zarazua, San Antonio-Express News, November 17, 2005

The host parent of a 16-year-old German exchange student remained in the Wilson County Jail on Wednesday after the teen complained she was being forced to have sex with him, authorities said.

Timothy Jordan, 29, was arrested last week after the girl and a representative with the exchange student organization that sponsored her alerted authorities of the allegations. Jordan, who lives in Sutherland Springs, is being held on a sexual assault of a child charge in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Wilson County Sheriff Joe D. Tackitt said Jordan admitted to investigators he had sex with the student, who has since returned to her home country.

"He was pretty shaky about it," Tackitt said.

The sheriff said the girl complained she was sexually assaulted more than once since she arrived in Sutherland Springs in August under the San Francisco-based AYUSA exchange program.

Officials with the nonprofit organization couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon. According to its Web site, AYUSA has sponsored more than 40,000 foreign exchange students since it was formed in 1980.

Tackitt said the girl, who was attending Floresville High school, first complained to the organization's area representative about the alleged assaults on Oct. 28. The girl was staying with Jordan, his wife and their toddler.

After investigators interviewed the girl, an arrest warrant was issued for Jordan, who is a commercial truck driver, Tackitt said.

Jordan was arrested Nov. 8 after returning home from work.

CSFES Note:

Wilson County Sheriff Department Case Number: C2005-04032
San Antonio Police Department Case Number: 05-757616

German student's AYUSA Area Representative: Judy Massey
German student's AYUSA Regional Manager: Connie Coutu and Ana Henke
AYUSA's Vice President Government Affairs and Partnership: Craig H. Brown

Student exchange organization: AYUSA International
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EXCHANGE STUDENT SAYS HOST FILMED HER
by John Agar and John Tunison, The Grand Rapids Press, June 4, 2005.

After she found a video camera under blankets in her bedroom, a 16-year-old foreign exchange student thought it was left there inadvertently. Allegan County sheriff's Detective Chris Koster said it was a disturbing way to mark the girl's stay in the United States. Koster testified the defendant appeared to implicate himself by capturing his own image as he backed away from the camera in the doll house. Recordings captured the girl undressing, he said.
Student exchange organization: Youth for Understanding.
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A Painful Exchange
From war-torn Croatia to heartbreak in America

By Amalie Benjamin, Globe Staff | June 2, 2005

TEWKSBURY -- The knee-high cross, covered in flowers, stands upright at the foot of the driveway. The poster of a missing person, half covered now with a note of thanks, serves as explanation. The face, one that belonged to the woman whose remains were found almost two months ago in Tyngsborough, means little to Slaven Krejacic.

It is not his tragedy. But he has lived it.

Strife has surrounded Krejacic, a foreign exchange student, from his native Croatia to Tewksbury. He grew up amid a war in Zagreb, the country's capital, the fighting touching him only obliquely. He came to the United States seeking something different.

He found it.

He had come looking for an American experience. He got one. It wasn't the one he had hoped for.

Living with a host family devastated by the tragedy of a missing daughter, Krejacic had to create his own order: drama, graphic arts, tennis. This was what he wanted. This was convention.

Then came the discovery of the body of Christina Lunceford, his host parents' grown daughter out on her own, seven weeks ago.

Like the war that brought his country notoriety and news broadcasts, the death wasn't his. Insulated from the former and invested only peripherally in the latter, Krejacic could only offer sympathy, not empathy.

''I can't really know her," Krejacic said. ''I don't know the sound of her voice. I don't know how she acts. So it's hard for me to even imagine some connection with her. But I still feel bad for the people who are going through this because I feel connected with them."

With an illusion of perfection, fed by Hollywood, Krejacic had arrived to find a world far from his expectations.

A houseful of children

Michelle Lunceford sits on the couch in a living room dominated by the squawking of a rooster and a television the size of a billiard table. Nearly three weeks since the body of her missing daughter was discovered and identified, Lunceford does not know what to say.

How many children does she have?

The question stops her.

She gets mixed up in verb tense. She had five. Five children along with a number of foster kids and exchange students.

Four of her children remain alive.

Even before the tragedy, normal had never been a part of her household. For years, Michelle Lunceford and her husband, Dave, have taken in children, beginning with foster kids and moving on to exchange students 15 years ago. Her house has always been full. She likes it that way.

That's why she took in Krejacic. That's why she also took in Michael Son, an exchange student from Korea. That's why she then took in Christina Kim on an emergency basis, after Kim's original host family didn't work out.

It wasn't chaos to her.

''It's the way I'm most comfortable, with a lot of kids around," Lunceford said. ''And Slaven, actually, is quite compassionate, quite aware. If I were having a bad day, he'd walk in after school, look me in the eye and say, 'Today wasn't so good, was it?' I think he picked up on my feelings probably more than my own family at times."

With Krejacic, the other two foreign exchange students, and two of Lunceford's own children still living at home, the house is replete with people. Then, of course, there are the animals.

More than 100 animals inhabit the house, many in glass cages, which creates the feeling of living in a pet store. A skunk skitters around the kitchen, claws clacking on the tile. There are roosters, a kinkajou (imagine a cross between a raccoon and a monkey), and an African fox.

But what's there cannot ever make up for what isn't.

The skeletal remains of Christina Lunceford were discovered on April 9 in a wooded area in Tyngsborough. Eight months had passed since she disappeared, days shy of her 21st birthday. Dental records were required to identify the body.

Police are considering it a homicide. There were no arrests as of Tuesday.

Krejacic never met her, never spoke with her. Her body was found during his school vacation.

''I really felt bad, but I tried to look at it from the positive side," Krejacic said. ''They expected this, but there was still hope. I just look at it as the agony's finally over. You don't have to worry anymore where she is now. It's not the best place. It's not where you want her to be. But at least you know. At least you don't have to worry about all the other options, the horrible options you were worrying about. I look at it that way. It was hard because I really like these people."

Vague memories of warHe has been through a war. Been through conflict and death already. He was surrounded by suffering.

Does this make it any easier?

He laughs, uncomfortably. For Krejacic, even war wasn't war.

War was more like a game. Abashed at his own words, he calls them horrible. That doesn't, however, change his feelings.

''It was actually fun at times," he said. ''I loved the times when the sirens went off and we'd have to run to the basement. I never saw the war. I was always so protected. It was a game for me, running to the basement. It was like, 'OK, this is fun.' I just liked the excitement. I mean, I was a kid. I didn't really know what was going on. I didn't feel that I was really affected by the war and my dad didn't go to the war, so I couldn't feel it in that."

During the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Krejacic, cloistered in his hometown of Zagreb, didn't see its effects, didn't experience them personally. He was just 5 years old when it began in 1991.

''Because I lived in a big city and I lived in a capital city, so it was really protected," Krejacic said. ''It affected me in a way like a lot of different people came into my city, a lot of new people like refugees and people whose families lost their homes and moved into the city. I met a lot of different people."

Michelle Lunceford interjects. She doesn't want Krejacic to regard his reaction to war that way. She gently siphons off the blame. How could he have understood? To him, war meant sirens. Nothing more.

An agency disconnect

Sally Dake clearly is confused.

The name ''Slaven Krejacic" has not registered and panic lilts through her voice.

Dake, from the student exchange agency that brought Krejacic to the United States, promises to call back. She makes assurances that it will take no more than 24 hours.

''As far as I knew, everything was OK," Dake, director of field coordination with Face the World, said from Boise, Idaho. ''No one had mentioned it at any time. I think it's strange that no one mentioned it."

She didn't know about Christina, weeks after her remains had been found. Neither did community representative Rita Fardella, the person responsible for Krejacic's well-being in the country and the program. Evidently Fardella, who works a day job as a case manager for people with disabilities, was on vacation in early April during the discovery. Fardella said she missed the news.

How could she not know?

''I can only answer that as best as I can," said Fardella, who lives in New Hampshire. ''I came in only for this year, without a contract. I know I'm not staying on. I never signed another contract. . . . I've been getting busier and busier with my own job. I'm not around during the day to go to the schools. I just don't have that kind of time because my own job has been getting more and more intricate."

Dake later stresses that the situation will be different next year, for the next crop of exchange students. The regional director for New England, Martha Perkel, who oversaw Fardella, left the company at the beginning of May.

''You'd think in those smaller towns that things are relatively safe," Dake said. ''You have someone train the reps. You think they know what they're supposed to do. . . . I wouldn't have questioned if there was anything going on there. There isn't anything in the reports that said there was a problem.

''I guess we're learning a lesson here."

A turbulent transition

Krejacic started hesitantly at Lowell Catholic High School. Private school wasn't what he wanted. It wasn't public school. But, if he were to come to the United States, that was his option.

''I was kind of bored," Krejacic said of life in Croatia. ''I really wanted to change everything. I just wanted to see something completely different, so I just decided to go somewhere totally different, where I don't know anybody and I don't know anything. I just wanted such a radical change."

He got it.

Krejacic arrived in the United States just as Lowell Catholic was beginning classes in the fall, weeks after Christina had disappeared and after he was supposed to come. There had been visa problems. The transition didn't go smoothly, or quickly.

''I really wanted to go back home," he said. ''It was so tough. It was just that radical change. Maybe I had, like, bigger expectations. I was really, really in a bad condition, like, the first month. I really wanted to stay in bed the whole day long."

The changes were dramatic. He had wanted that. But it was far harder than he had expected. Different. Maybe too different.

He was popular enough back home that his friends made sure his prom was postponed until he returned to the country. But here he had to start over, get through life amid the sharp wit and sharper tongues of American teenagers.

''The hardest thing is if he were a senior in his own country, he'd have all his friends, doing things every day," Lunceford said. ''Now you come to America, the seniors already have their friends. They already have their little cliques and their little groups. It's hard to get into one in the 12th grade. If they come as a ninth-grader, the kids have more of a chance of being popular and having more friends."

Tennis helped. By the time spring season arrived, he was far more comfortable with his surroundings, his new country. Krejacic scanned a mental list of potential activities and settled on the sport. Self-deprecating in his assessments of his tennis prowess -- or lack thereof -- he acknowledges his mediocre play wasn't the reason he decided to join.

''He had never really played organized tennis, but he was hoping to get an extracurricular activity in while he was in the States," Lowell Catholic tennis coach Dave Gilpin said. ''That's why he joined."

Krejacic disappeared from the courts for two weeks after the discovery of Christina's body. He didn't talk about it much when he returned, Gilpin said, and his play was no different. He still served well, still had trouble with the low ball, still tried to improve.

Heading home

Krejacic graduated with honors from Lowell Catholic last Friday, Lunceford said. The high school's website says he is hoping to attend the Croatia University of Journalism. He was scheduled to head back to Croatia today. The prom awaits.

A few weeks ago he said he was missing the urban lifestyle, club hopping until dawn. That, he said, is normal for him.

It was different in Tewksbury, smaller and sadder.

The tragic situation at his guest family's home cut into his search for normalcy. There was someone gone. He may not have known her, but the void was unmistakable. Amid the clutter and the craze and the clucking, he could see it. He could feel it.

And yet, he understood it could never be his.

''In order to know somebody," Krejacic said, ''you really have to meet the person. I didn't have that."

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Student exchange organization: Face the World (FTW)

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EXCHANGE STUDENT COORDINATOR ARRESTED
by Warren Watkins, Sherwood Voice, May 26, 2005.

Doyle Meyer, 35, was arrested by the Sherwood police department and arraigned in Sherwood District Court Tuesday, May 24, on rape charges after accusations were made by two male foreign exchange students. One victim said that between early January and the end of February of this year, Meyer had coaxed him into a sexual relationship. The boys said Meyer initially would give Weinberg massages and over the course of time gained the victims' trust. Meyer talked him into lying in bed with him naked, and eventually had sex with him. The victim provided an audio CD containing a telephone conversation between the two. In the recording, police say, Meyer could be heard saying he shouldn't have had sex with the boy.

CSFES Note: Another German boy came forward after reading article.
Student exchange organization: ERDT/Share

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FORMER TEACHER PLEADS GUILTY IN MOLEST CASE
by John Hall, North County Times, February 16, 2005

FRENCH VALLEY ---- A Murrieta man pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting a female foreign-exchange student who was living in his home last year.

Both sides were ready to start Peter William Ruzzo's trial and the prosecution on Monday had flown the now 16-year-old victim in from Germany to testify, Deputy District Attorney Kelly Hansen said.

But Ruzzo, 35, decided to plead directly to Superior Court Judge Michael Hider just before lunch Wednesday. Hider accepted the guilty plea and agreed to sentence Ruzzo to three years in state prison. Ruzzo, who has posted bail and is out of custody, is scheduled to return to court next month for sentencing.

"There are all sorts of reasons people plead guilty and Mr. Ruzzo has his own reasons, " Ruzzo's attorney, Michael DeFrank, said Wednesday. His client close to do "what will have the best results for everyone involved," he added.

Ruzzo was a teacher at Hemet High School when the crimes occurred. The crimes against the then-15-year-old girl happened from March through May of last year and all took place at Ruzzo's Murrieta home, Hansen said.

Ruzzo pleaded guilty to each of the charges against him: six counts of lewd acts with a child and one count of penetration with a foreign object. All seven counts are felonies.

"The defendant once told the victim that when he saw her foreign-exchange photo that he considered it a challenge, even before she got here, to have sex with her." Hansen said.

Student exchange organization: EF Foundation for Foreign Study
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