St George’s, One of the Richest Prep Schools, Faces Tens of Millions in Lawsuits for Sexual Abuse

GoLocalProv
December 28, 2015

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St. George’s, the exclusive prep school in Middletown, Rhode Island which reports assets of over $200 million, has admitted that after decades of denial that at least 23 students were molested by multiple faculty and staff.

St. George’s, which sits high above Second Beach and claims one of the most picturesque campuses in the world, has a long list of high profile alumni including John Nicholas Brown, actress Julie Bowen, Bill Bush, Tucker Carlson, many of the Astors, Senator Claiborne Pell and poet Ogden Nash.

On December 23, in the midst of the holiday week, the school released a letter to alumni including a report that admitted widespread sexual abuse. The report prepared by the law firm Schwartz Hannum admits that at least six staffers were involved in sexual abuse, but only named one of the former employees — Al Gibbs.

Report Released

The lead attorney on the review William E. Hannum III, Managing Partner of the firm, is a graduate of the prep school Deerfield Academy which also had a high profile sexual abuse case. Many alumni question Hannum’s independence and therefore the value of the report.

Gibbs was an athletic trainer at St. George’s from 1973 to February 1980, when he was dismissed after a male student discovered Gibbs photographing a nude female student in the athletic training room. Gibbs passed away in 1996. 

“Based on seventeen first-hand accounts (by students from the Class of 1976 through the Class of 1982), Gibbs engaged in a range of inappropriate behavior and sexual misconduct including kissing two female students publicly, telling students to remove their clothes without reason, taking nude photos of three students (and in some cases showing such photos to other students), fondling or grabbing the breasts of seven different students, touching the genitals of three students, and in one case rape.”

The report says, “Regrettably, the School did not report misconduct by Gibbs to any state agency at the time of his termination in 1980."

The other five abusers were not named in the report released by St. George’s. Also, the report unveils there were student abusers and none of them were named.

A second molester, called Perpetrator #3 in the report molested a number of students. The report states, “Based on four first-hand accounts and nine second-hand accounts, Employee Perpetrator #3 reportedly engaged in sexual misconduct with at least three students. Witnesses reported that Employee Perpetrator #3 frequently entertained students in his apartment. He also reportedly hosted smaller groups of students on off-campus trips."

The three first-hand reports of sexual assault by Employee Perpetrator #3 reportedly happened off campus. The misconduct by this former employee included providing alcohol to students, writing love letters to a student, watching pornography with students, touching students sexually, including fondling a student’s penis, engineering nude encounters with a student, and sleeping in the same bed with a student.”

St. George’s Faces Economic Catastrophe

If the lawsuits against Roman Catholic Diocese tied to massive sexual abuse and cover ups is any indication, the prep school is likely to pay tens of millions and may threaten the school's viability.

St. George’s reports total assets in its 2014 (for the 2013 year) 990 form of $219 million against liabilities of $29 million. The school is ranked one of the 25 “richest prep schools in America," according to Business Insider.

A review of the payments made by many of the Dioceses around the country show payments ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions per victims. In a number of cases, either to avoid payments or because the diocese assets were exhausted, dioceses declared bankruptcy. Those include the Diocese of Portland, Oregon; San Diego, CA; Davenport, Iowa and a number of other Dioceses. According to one report, in total $1.3 billion was paid to approximately 2,000 victims. Some of the largest individual payments have been in the $5 million range.

Alumni Have Petitioned

A group of alumni of St. George’s has called for a true independent report. The petition has been signed by over 500 alumni. Their petition states in part:

Currently, they (victims) must go through a lawyer, who is also the partner of the School’s counsel, to share their experiences or seek assistance with therapy costs. Many of them have told us that they do not feel safe doing this.

We, the undersigned, insist that St. George’s School establishes without delay:

An independent, clinician-directed assistance fund for former students who need care and treatment as the result of being sexually assaulted while at the School;
An objective and thorough investigation, conducted by an independent third-party, and with full disclosure of the findings to the School community;
A disclosure to its alumni of the important facts discovered through that independent investigation.
Many of these cases of abuse reach back over thirty years, but some are more recent. St. George’s must take responsibility for the harms caused by its neglect, and immediately help those who continue to suffer from those crimes.

Anne Scott, Class of ‘80

Katie Wales, Class of ‘80

Joan ‘Bege’ Reynolds, Class of ‘79