Federal judge dismisses gay-conversion-related lawsuit by former student against Hershey School

A federal judge in Harrisburg on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by a former student at the Milton S. Hershey School who alleged that the institution subjected him to gay-conversion therapy.

Judge John E. Jones III ruled that Adam Dobson “failed to identify any basis in the record to conclude that what he characterizes as gay-conversion therapy resulted in the injuries he alleges.”

“Plaintiff’s subjective accusation that Defendants engaged in ‘gay conversion therapy’ does not make it so,” the judge added.

Hershey School spokesperson Lisa Scullin said Thursday that the decision vindicated Dobson’s former house parents, Andrew and Deanna Slamans, who were school employees.

Dobson claimed that he was forced to watch an hour-long gay-conversion video, and that it was followed by a campaign of prayer sessions and other efforts to get him to change his sexual orientation.

The Hershey School acknowledged in 2017 that boys boarding at the institution watched the video, but said it was not conversion therapy. Based on court records and the school’s statements, three boys besides Dobson could have watched the video.

In a statement through the school, the Slamanses said, “We cared for Adam deeply and his betrayal of us and the school has caused us great pain.”

In the litigation, Jones wrote, Dobson “confirmed that the [Slamanses] never explicitly mentioned his sexual orientation during the prayers” and “never indicated in the prayers that they preferred that he be straight,” but focused on “resolving his confusion and forgiving.”

Dobson’s attorney, Matthew Weisberg, said Thursday that “we are — and are sure our client is — just simply disappointed.” Weisberg added that he would discuss Dobson’s options with him, including appeal.

Tuition-free Hershey is the richest private school in the United States, with about $13.8 billion in assets, IRS records show. It owns a controlling interest in the Hershey Co. chocolate giant and benefits from a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio.

Lawyers for Dobson filed his lawsuit in 2016. He said he had to watch a video of the late pastor Sy Rogers as punishment for downloading gay porn as a high school freshman, which was flagged by the school’s IT department.

Rogers, whose website says he had been married since 1982, was a leader in the ex-gay movement as an official with the now-defunct Exodus International. He has said he lived a gay lifestyle and had begun a sex change when religion put him on a new path.

As a junior in high school, Dobson had suicidal thoughts and wrapped a belt around his neck but did not carry out a suicide, the lawsuit said. He was expelled in 2013 after that episode.

In 2017, after the Dobson case was publicized, a Hershey graduate who was gay and had boarded in the Slamanses’ home said he also had been forced to watch the Rogers video.

Jones’ decision is the second recent win for the school.

In late March, the judge dismissed a suit filed by the parents of former student Abbie Bartels, who took her own life after the institution would not let her return to campus due to her depression and suicidal thoughts. The Bartelses’ case also was filed in 2013. Attorneys for the girl’s parents are appealing the decision.

In 2019, The Inquirer and the Reporters Committee for a Free Press filed to unseal documents in the Dobson and Bartels cases. The court has ruled that documents would be unsealed, with some redactions. The documents have not yet been released.