Sex abuse scandal hits Rhode Island school
St. George鈥檚 School is placed high on a Middletown, Rhode Island, bluff. This is where Astors, Bushes, and Vanderbilts were educated, and it looks the part. But the natural beauty of the campus belies a darker history of the Episcopal school: Former students are alleging that the school was the site of several decades of sexual abuse that has just recently come to light.
After nearly 40 years, former St. George鈥檚 student Anne Scott broke her silence. Ms. Scott attended the school in the late 1970s, where by the school鈥檚 athletic trainer, Al Gibbs. The assaults had an immediate impact on Scott, but she says that Mr. Gibbs threatened to 鈥渃ome after her鈥� if she revealed what had happened. She remained silent for years.
Memories of the assaults tormented Scott for years, she says. She received therapy for several issues throughout her twenties, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Finally, Scott brought a $10-million anonymous lawsuit against the school. St. George鈥檚 tried to reveal her name during the proceedings. Its lawyers asserted in court that Scott could have consented to Gibbs鈥� advances. At 67, he was more than five decades older than the 15-year-old Scott. In the end, Scott dropped the case, but in recent years, other alumni have come forward with allegations against Gibbs, who died in 1996.
Recently, Scott decided to . She is represented by Carmen Durso and Eric MacLeish, and has now been joined by over 40 others who also say that they were victims of sexual abuse.
Under pressure from alumni, the school released a in December. The report states the school has been conducting an investigation since 2012, though the administration did not request a full investigation until 2015.
The report identifies nine perpetrators. Six were teachers at the school, three were students. Only Gibbs is identified in the report by name, though Mr. Durso and Mr. MacLeish identified 鈥淓mployee #3鈥� as former choir director Franklin Coleman.
One former student, Hawk Cramer, who says he was abused by Mr. Coleman told The Boston Globe that he came forward after realizing that . Because the headmaster who fired Coleman did not report him to child protective services, the choir teacher was able to find another job working with children.
Mr. Cramer confronted the man himself, but Coleman was unrepentant. Cramer then called Coleman鈥檚 current headmaster. 鈥淎t that point, I felt I had done what I needed to do,鈥� Cramer told the Globe, 鈥淏ut I just found out that Coleman didn鈥檛 retire from Tampa until 2008. So how many other kids suffered?鈥�
Another, a woman who was first molested by Gibbs at 13, was astonished to find that after reading an inquiry letter sent by the school in 2012.
St. George鈥檚 is not the only prestigious prep school to face allegations of this nature.
At Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts, of inappropriate sexual conduct with students. According to a report issued by the current administration, the school issued warnings to one of the teachers, but did not interview a student who came forward after the first warnings were given.
A 2008 letter issued by Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols, a private school in the Boston area, states that the school, 鈥渇ailed to respond 鈥� in an appropriate way鈥� to accusations that one of its teachers had with three students. Although the teacher was eventually fired, the letter acknowledges the school鈥檚 failure to report the teacher to the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. The teacher was later sentenced for raping his nephew.
Today, St. George鈥檚 is offering support to alumni. It has organized a victims鈥� support group and will reimburse victims for therapy costs. Nevertheless, alumni are now in the school's administration. With these recent scandals to put things in perspective, some abuse victims say they hope that schools will be forced to respond more readily and transparently in the future.
