An editorial landed on LNP's online section yesterday! In case you don't have a paid subscription, I'll copy the article down below for you!
THE ISSUE
Every year, Field of Screams in Mountville “serves up scares to paying visitors from throughout the mid-Atlantic,” journalist Ann Rejrat reported in an extensive article published in last Sunday’s LNP | LancasterOnline. “But a Spotlight PA investigation found a pattern of allegations that the true horrors occurred behind the scenes, and accusations that management failed to adequately respond. Interviews with 18 current and former volunteers who worked at Field of Screams from 2006 through 2024 described a hostile environment where some unpaid adult staff sexually harassed, forcibly grabbed and groped young volunteers, and pressured teenagers into sex.” Spotlight PA is a nonpartisan newsroom; its partners include LNP | LancasterOnline.
You’d think that a haunt operated by two former teachers would be a safe place for teenagers seeking camaraderie and a creative outlet.
That might be wishful thinking.
It’s long been an open secret that something was awry at Field of Screams, a Mountville business operated by brothers and former educators Jim and Gene Schopf.
But what journalist Ann Rejrat found when she investigated the popular draw — a fixture on the fall calendar since 1993 — made our stomachs turn.
Consider the inexperienced 17-year-old girl whose 32-year-old manager lavished her with attention she barely understood before one night asking her, “Do you want it?” Before she even responded, “he was pushing me down and I was bent over,” she recalled in an interview with Spotlight PA, “and that was that.”
She viewed the sex as consensual and was of the legal age of consent in Pennsylvania, if barely. But there certainly was an appalling imbalance of power that suggested workplace sexual harassment.
And her story — so bravely shared — was far from isolated.
Five years ago, Field of Screams volunteers began posting about alleged abuses on Facebook. They were met with shocking indifference.
In February 2020, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office and the West Hempfield Township Police Department issued a joint statement saying they were aware of the “various social media postings and will take the appropriate action on reports they receive from individuals who believe they are either a victim of a crime or have information about a crime.”
And then ... crickets.
This passivity enabled Field of Screams to note in a recent statement to Spotlight PA that the claims against the operation have been “unsubstantiated.”
Just in case we didn’t get that, the company added: “To be clear, there have been no criminal allegations made against Field of Screams at any time.”
West Hempfield police Chief Jason Jay said his department did not contact the people who had posted online in 2020 — or those who had posted new complaints last year — because the posts were anonymous.
But, as Spotlight PA pointed out, not all of the posts were anonymous.
The police said they couldn’t investigate until individuals filed police reports, even as teens continued to volunteer at Field of Screams. Ensuring their safety should have been a priority.
As Richard Settgast, an associate clinical professor of law at Penn State Dickinson Law, told Spotlight PA, law enforcement officials can and do initiate investigations based on online activity.
If we were law enforcement officials, or the owners and operators of Field of Screams, we would have been intent on rooting out staff members who allegedly preyed on volunteers.
As Spotlight PA noted, “Several volunteers said they brought allegations of abuse directly to the brothers in charge ... and while they were assured they would be investigated, the accused continued in supervisory positions.”
Cecily Feliz, who volunteered at Field of Screams, shared an email with Spotlight PA that she sent to Jim Schopf in 2018. It detailed how an adult volunteer pressured Feliz’s friend, who was 17, into a sexual relationship.
Feliz followed up after getting no response and Jim Schopf told her he would look into the situation.
Feliz also wrote in the email that the adult volunteer “had attempted to do this with a girl that was 15 years old.” She provided additional details in the email: “He asked her to ‘come into the woods and have sex with him’ and got angry when she refused to, he also sent this girl sexual photos of himself.”
This should have been viewed as a five-alarm fire.
As Spotlight PA reported, “The adult volunteer did not return to Field of Screams the next season, Feliz said. She remembers being told he decided to leave because people were talking about the allegations.
“But Schopf didn’t reply to her emails again.”
We find this deeply troubling.
We’re also mystified as to why Field of Screams relies on volunteer labor. Why doesn’t it pay all of its staff?
It’s a limited liability company — it’s not a charity. And given the site’s popularity, it must be a fairly lucrative operation.
A pass to all four of its attractions on an off-peak day is $40. If you want to skip to the head of the line, it costs an additional $15. On the last two Saturdays of October, those prices rise to $60 and $35. And a “new and improved” “Chainsaw Bar” for customers 21 and older likely will only add to the profits.
Has the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry ever examined the labor conditions at Field of Screams? Because the complaints posted to Facebook were not just about sexual advances made toward volunteers; they also mentioned long hours without breaks and volunteers being yelled at by the owners, according to Spotlight PA.
Also, must the workers, paid or not, at every level at Field of Screams obtain the same child abuse clearances that are required of employees and volunteers in other settings where children are present?
In 2020, Charlotte Hoover told Fox 43 that she started doing makeup at Field of Screams when she was 13. She said she formed close friendships there.
“Like everybody at Field of Screams is their own degree of messed up ... and you find a home within the misfits,” Hoover said. “It’s something you do for fun ... over time, that fun has been, like, completely overshadowed by a bunch of really awful things.”
The kids who volunteer at Field of Screams likely don’t hold much sway with local officials.
The Schopf brothers, on the other hand, “have a stock in major events that go on in Mountville,” Feliz told Spotlight PA. “They are a serious part of the economy of the town.”
According to the Schopfs’ website, they jointly operate two farms and two roadside markets.
Feliz believes this is why former volunteers have been trying for years to get people to take seriously their allegations of abuse, to no avail.
Why worry about kids when there’s money to be made in a field in Mountville?
Talk about horrifying.
GET HELP
YWCA Lancaster runs a 24-hour sexual assault hotline that connects callers to free, confidential counseling and therapy services for community members impacted by sexual abuse, harassment or assault: 717-392-7273.
Report suspected child abuse to ChildLine: 1-800-932-0313.