A Prominent Sex-Abuse Survivor Hopes #MeToo Finally Gets Her Rapist Fired
By Gustavo Arellano, December 18, 2017, Jezebel
For the past 16 years, Dr. Thomas Hodgman has taught at Adrian College’s Music Department, where he currently serves as the choir director. He enjoys a tenured position at the school even though, in 2005, the Catholic Diocese of Orange County, California paid a $1.6 million settlement to Joelle Casteix, after she filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Hodgman repeatedly sexually assaulted her and gave her an STD in the late 1980s.
Back then, Casteix was his student at Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High School. She was 15 years old. He was 25. Documents released as part of the settlement show a 1989 letter signed by him and Mater Dei’s principal that stated Hodgman “not only admitted to dating” an underage Casteix and another student, “but having sexual intercourse with them.”
Hodgman still teaches at the private, Methodist-affiliated Michigan college even though for the past 12 years, Casteix has repeatedly asked Adrian College to fire him, going so far as to post his Mater Dei confession online and meet with school officials (an Adrian College spokesperson told the Toledo Blade in 2005 that Hodgman had suffered “personal harassment” by Casteix, and that “we’ve supported Tom Hodgman since we hired him.”).
But in the tipping point of #MeToo, when powerful men are seeing consequences for decades-old abuses, Casteix hopes her rapist will be held accountable.
In November 2017, she published an open letter addressed to Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking, and cc’ed the school’s Title IX coordinator and the former president of the school’s Association of Professors. Casteix once again called for Hodgman’s dismissal, but added that she would be no longer play their victim. “The blame is not mine to bear. It is his and it is yours—for condoning the molestation of children,” she wrote. “With the recent scandals involving Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and other powerful men in media and Hollywood, the dam is breaking.”
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
Your tax-deductible gift to SNAP can help offset the cost of our important mission. If you are not in a position to contribute, you can still support us by sharing this letter with those who can. As we continue to fight for survivors across the globe, your donation or sharing the great work SNAP does will help us continue our work to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, and prevent abuse.
Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director