St. George's School Sex Abuse Scandal Accuser Group Expands

By Sam Dangremond
Town and County Magazine
January 05, 2016

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/news/a4690/st-georges-sex-abuse-scandal/

St. George's School, a boarding school perched on an idyllic 125 acres overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Middletown, RI, looks like an academic paradise. 

But recent developments in a nascent sex scandal suggest that more than 40 students may have been the victims of abuse at the school—mostly in the 1970s and 1980s—according to the Boston Globe.

In December, St. George's released the findings of an investigation it conducted into allegations of abuse. The report found that "23 students were sexually abused by three school employees in the 1970s and '80s ... The perpetrators were fired, but the prep school did not report them at the time to child protection services, as mandated by law.

"In addition, three other employees during the same period engaged in sexual misconduct with a single student apiece, bringing the total to 26 victims of staff abuse, according to the draft report to alumni, signed by headmaster Eric Peterson and board chair Leslie Heaney," the Globe reports.

But one attorney representing a group of alleged victims told the Providence Journal the school's report is "a sanitized version of the truth." 

Lawyers Eric MacLeish and Carmen Durso say that they have been contacted by more than 40 people "with stories ranging from molestation to rape by staff and students at the Episcopalian prep school."

At a press conference today, three former students spoke of alleged abuse by former athletic director, Al Gibbs, who is now dead.

Questioning the independence of Will Hannum, the lawyer who conducted the school's investigation (he is a law partner of the legal counsel at St. George's), MacLeish and Durso have asked that the school hire an independent law firm to look into the abuse allegations.

They released a 36-page response to the December report from St. George's; it includes "graphic descriptions of two student-on-student rapes and details of assaults by several staff. It names names, and tells of victims' anguish—including one former student who burned himself repeatedly with cigarettes." 

"It's a big day, and we're very pleased that there's a growing interest in this story,'' Scott said before the news conference, according to the Providence Journal. "We've got a good body of support from people from the school supporting our requests."