Houston Doctor Helps Oprah With School Crises

When Oprah Winfrey first heard reports that students were being abused at her $47 million school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa, she wept.

Then the media mogul and philanthropist pulled herself together and called Dr. Bruce Perry, a child psychiatrist who lives and works in Houston.

Perry, a renowned researcher in the field of childhood trauma, accompanied Winfrey to South Africa shortly after she learned of the problems at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg. Winfrey spoke of Perry's help at a dramatic Monday morning news conference in which she acknowledged that former dormitory matron Tiny Virginia Makopo had been dismissed amid allegations of abuse, assault and soliciting underage girls to perform indecent acts.