Eminent violin professor is jailed for five years
NewsA court in Detroit has sentenced Stephen Shipps, the former chair of the department of strings at University of Michigan School of Music, to five years in a in federal prison for child exploitation.
Shipps, 69, pleaded guilty to to one count of transporting a 16 year-old girl across state lines for sex on repeated occasions during the early months of 2002. Other intended charges against him were set aside in a plea deal.
Detroit News reports: Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward called Shipps a coercive abuser who stole the adolescence of at least nine minors who trained on the violin with Shipps and babysat his children.
Shipps will also pay $120,000 in restitution.
He is one of seven UM faculty members to be accused of sexual misconduct.
The violinist Lara St John, who was present at the sentencing, writes: 60 months of jail for child rapist/erstwhile violin teacher #stephenshipps.
Amazing that it took literally decades to get this
That Shipps has sunk.
‘Eminent’ violin professor? Hardly. This story has reminded people that there was a violin teacher named Shipps. That’s all.
And now it’s all turned to Schipps.
Stephen Shipps is — I guess we do have to put that in the past tense “was” – a very talented violinist with some worthy recordings to his credit. Perhaps not “A List” among teachers, but certainly one of the “names” in the tight little island of the violin world and thus eminent enough I suppose. He betrayed his profession and that great trust that is placed in teachers, and did enormous harm. He is receiving a just punishment, and indeed may have gotten off lightly, so the self-destruction of his reputation may seem a piddling thing compared to the destruction of the young talents and young people entrusted to him — anything like pity for him would be misplaced under these circumstances — but that is not the same as saying that that reputation did not exist.
Of course Lara was there.
I believe Lara being there was most helpful for the victims of this monster. She has become a leader for those that never had a voice. We should be celebrating her courage, because it came at quite a cost.
At least he is in prison. Sometimes they get away with
The crime.
One of so many synergies between UMich and CIM.
It’s not enough. Federal sentencing guidelines can be much easier on a defendant because they’re more technical than state, weighing each offense against any mitigating factors put forth by the defense. Federal prison, while not a resort as it’s sometimes portrayed, is still much more sanitary and ordered than state. Shipps got off light. Those 27 letters of recommendation for probation by his friends and family might well have spared him the additional eight months, which wasn’t enough anyway. Some justice in this case is no justice. Life in prison in general pop: that’s justice. Shipps wrecked lives. Believe me, it’s true. He even destroyed music for some of his victims. There was a suicide. There were hospitalizations. He was a shameless manipulator, a serial predator, and there’s nothing to “recommend” there. Those letters were as wicked as his crimes. What do these people think, that the deaths, hospitalizations, and the stoppage of his victims’ playing of their instruments is OK because he found God or whatever? That there should be no restitution, that the terrible consequences of his acts somehow sprung out of his victims’ minds with absolutely no connection to what he put them through? I guess Ann Arbor’s upper crust elite just doesn’t want to admit that people get victimized: that there are psych hospitals, that people can be hurt in multifarious ways and left to deal with it on their own. That they can be chucked out into the cold dark night like pieces of trash when the predator that consumes them like hamburgers decides he’s had enough use for them. Shows where some people have their heads at. Let’s face it, the man really was a monster. I even question his supposed “religious conversion.” It’s possible that he saw what the prevailing winds of society were when it came to #Metoo and decided, “Better convert, they might come after me, too!” Thank goodness they did—now that’s some real mercy. This sentence is about restitution, but there is such a high chance that he would have done it again that it’s also a preventative measure. The defense motion alleging he engaged in no more illegal conduct after 2002 is not really for certain. He started the “Stings Prep Academy” and its odd that it seems no one might have considered that a hunting ground. I’m not sure whether to believe it, but one thing’s for sure: I wouldn’t want him around my kids. With what he’s got, there really is no changing someone. Anyway, it’s great that this chapter in classical music misery is over and hopefully it serves as a reminder to the like minded that you just don’t do that. All said: good riddance to bad rubbish. For five years, that is.
Sixty months seems a trifle compared to what these young people went through and are still are going through. They lost childhood, some have lost interest in their violin and can no longer listen to music because of what it triggers, they have poor relationships, they have done self harm including cutting themselves, and numerous other terrible side effects of being abused and raped by someone in power. Parents entrusted Shipps with their children and instead of being a mentor and teaching them their craft, he took advantage of these children, of their youth and innocence. Shipps should be put away for life considering how much he has damaged these formerly young people, now adults.
Now, when are they going to get to the conducting department.
Now that’s a damn good idea…
If they want men like this to get more prison time they need to raise the age of consent. It is 16 in Michigan. That’s why they had to get him on a charge of transporting a girl across state lines.