Sexually abused by his choir teacher as a schoolboy
It was only 10 years ago, in a piece written for New York Magazine, that Lessig publicly revealed he had been sexually abused by his choir teacher while in school.
Reflecting on his time at boarding school, Lessig says others were certainly aware of what was happening to him and other boys.
But no one did anything. "The thing that was most striking to me about that experience was not so much the abuser," Lessig says. "It's the people around who could have picked up a phone, and who didn't."
It's a reality, Lessig asserts, that has shaped his thinking about "what is it about institutions and structures that brings out the best or the worst in people."
2008:Criticized Catholic Church for immunity on sexual abuse
Lessig was a choirboy. As a kid, Lessig sang in his church choir in Williamsport, Pa., and went on to attend the nonsectarian
American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J., where a choir director sexually abused him and other classmates. In 2006,
Lessig defended before the New Jersey Supreme Court a fellow alum, succeeding in stripping some immunity from nonprofits that fail to prevent abuse.
Lessig criticized the Catholic Church in 2008 for defending its own immunity, a move he said "will guarantee more kids are abused in the future," and accused the church of protecting its own self-interest during the clergy sex abuse scandal.
