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Oprah's Scandal Provides Valuable Lesson

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 18, 2007

When talk show host Oprah Winfrey opened a $40 million school in South Africa earlier this year, People magazine called it "Her Proudest Day," as well it was.

Not surprisingly, critics quickly rained on her parade, questioning why the school only admitted girls and why Winfrey didn't build a similar school in the United States.

Winfrey's dream escalated into a nightmare recently with allegations that a dorm matron abused girls at the school. She told reporters that after receiving the news, she walked around her apartment crying for half an hour.

Then, she stepped up and took responsibility, saying "the buck always stops with me." For that she earns an "A" in accountability.

Oprah could easily have passed the buck, given that she's half a world away and didn't oversee hiring at the school. Instead, she stood up for the girls and set out to right the wrongs at the school that bears her name.

Think of how different things might have turned out had Catholic Church officials confronted the abuse taking place in their parishes, instead of ignoring the problem or shuffling troubled priests from parish to parish.

Oprah, who was a victim of sexual abuse as a child, feels these girls' pain. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will recover and continue its mission. And in the process of a nightmarish scandal, Winfrey modeled for the world a lesson in taking responsibility.

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