What Haunts Us

What Haunts Us is about a Charleston South Carolina private school that harbored knowingly a sexual abuser. Eddie Fidcher sexually abused boys at Porter Gaud for 40 years. They knew about it and did nothing. In 1982 he wasn't fired but was allowed to resign. He then taught at College Prep and abused more boys. Finally Guerry Glover and his dad filed a suit against Porter Gaud. The Headmaster, the Major "Maj", who knew, and who was also a pedafile shot himself. Eddie Fischer was given 20 years. Porter Gaud was fined $105 million. Guerry Glover is the hero of this story the moral of which is that it is horrible to sexually abuse children who are haunted sometimes to become suicidal. But it is as bad to ignore sexual abuse and not report it.

Through an unsettling look into the dark history of Porter Gaud High School, Paige Goldberg Tolmach has a created a film of incredible relevance, one which is entirely unafraid to expose the truths behind a scandal which still effects persons to this very day. Here, the perspective is unflinching with horrific details of sexual abuse, suicide, and personal recounting from victims, activists, and perpetrators alike all without a loss of focus. Clearly, it's a subject very close to the heart of Tolmach, a personal project which has been made with the upmost care, concern, and dedication. For a small production team, everything is incredibly professional from the editing, cinematography, animation, and even Tolmach's own voiceover. Everything here is exactly what the title claims, haunting. I don't believe I'll forget the sentiments here anytime soon, for I have been profoundly impacted by the results. Truly a documentary worthy of its title.

The previous positive reviews have expressed it very well.

Good doc about the abuses at a school but misleading in the tagline. The suicides are glossed over and barely mentioned.

I watched this documentary with open eyes. It is easy to say that in the "good old days" these predators had it easy. However, in this film, the high school is a Charleston prep school, filled with talented and often entitled children.

What happened there could happen anywhere--but it was made worse by the status of the school which was willing to hide its secrets to avoid public shame. This didn't work--the rate of suicides of men in the one class is just a leading indicator of the trauma caused by Eddie Fischer and his Citadel buddy Major Anderson. There are other indicators that are have different measures--addiction, cascading abuse perpetrated by victims, among them.

The courage and clarity of Guerry Glover stands out in this film. The director who is an alumnus and had her own story of hearing about the abuse but not reporting it, underlines the ending. This institutional abuse is made more scarring by the refusal of people to stand up and make reports.

That is the specter that haunts us all even if we have never been to Charleston, South Carolina.