Los Angeles Unified School District has suspended a prominent psychologist decades after a Boulder man claims he was molested hundreds of times by the man he met in Big Brothers.
Peter Ruthenbeck, 47, who has since moved to Huntington Beach, Calif., was notified Friday that he had been suspended indefinitely, said Eileen Skone-Rees, administrative coordinator of the school district’s Nonpublic Services Department.
Ruthenbeck, recently the president of the California Association of Licensed Educational Psychologists, has worked the past 12 years with hearing-disabled children at four schools, she said.
Scott Johnson, 36, said that Ruthenbeck molested him as many as 20 times a year for seven years between 1978 and 1985 when he was 8 to 15 years old.
Skone-Rees said she acted immediately after she was contacted by Johnson’s mother, Paula Morgan Johnson, a Boston psychologist.
“I don’t have any comment,” Ruthenbeck said Saturday. His attorney, Robert Farzad, could not be reached for comment.
Farzad was quoted in the Los Angeles Times confirming that the California Board of Behavioral Sciences was investigating the allegations and that Ruthenbeck was cooperating.
Johnson, a carpenter and musician in Boulder, said he was ashamed of what happened and didn’t want to tell his mother because she is a psychologist and might feel guilty for not preventing the abuse.
“I was tormented about telling my mom for years and years and years,” he said.
Finally, in April, Morgan Johnson said she asked her son if Ruthenbeck had ever hurt him. He said yes.
“I thought I was going to explode with rage,” she said.
Morgan Johnson said she called and confronted Ruthenbeck, who wrote a three-page letter of apology that doesn’t specifically say he molested the boy.
“I am so, so very sorry,” the Times quoted the letter as saying. “Whenever I think about that period in my life, I wonder what was wrong with me.
“You asked me what I was feeling. Since your call I have felt overwhelming shame, guilt and sadness.”
The abuse began on skiing trips to Winter Park, Scott Johnson said. Winter Park was a sponsor of Big Brothers and let participants in the program ski free. Scott Johnson said Ruthenbeck, who was 19 when he was assigned to the boy, had him sleep in his bed.
He would awake with Ruthenbeck fondling him, he said. He tried to sleep on his stomach to avoid being molested, but Ruthenbeck told him that would cause health problems. During the touching, Scott Johnson would suppress sneezing because Ruthenbeck would know he was awake.
Ruthenbeck became Scott Johnson’s Little League baseball and soccer coach and his Boy Scout leader. The abuse ended when Scott Johnson turned 15. Ruthenbeck, who also was a bus driver, moved away two years later.
Skone-Rees said she has never received any other complaints about Ruthenbeck, but had to act swiftly to protect children.
Scott Johnson, who is in therapy, said that when he was 17 he tried to hang himself, that he occasionally shakes uncontrollably and that he sleeps with his clothes on to protect himself. He is intimidated by adults, he said.
“I feel beneath them still,” he said.
Scott Johnson said he reported what happened to a Boulder police detective but was told the statute of limitations prevents any charges from being filed.
Morgan Johnson said she has contacted all the children’s organizations that Ruthenbeck volunteered for.
“If it ends here, at least I’ve accomplished that,” she said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
