St. George’s Taps Pr Firm Tied to Boston Diocese’s Effort to Avoid Paying Abuse Victims

GoLocalProv
January 27, 2016

http://www.golocalprov.com/news/st.-georges-taps-pr-firm-tied-to-boston-dioceses-effort-to-avoid-paying-abu

Despite promises by the leadership of St. George’s to be transparent and get to the bottom of the sexual abuse scandal that has claimed more than 40 children as victims, the prep school has hired the controversial Boston public relations firm Rasky Baerlein. The firm worked to create the message for the Diocese of Boston’s effort to avoid payment to victims by declaring bankruptcy.

In 2002, Rasky Baerlein was hired by the Diocese’s law firm Goodwin Proctor “to advise the firm on communicating the complexities of a bankruptcy filing to several audiences, including priests, parishioners, and the wider public, according to the sources,” reported the Boston Globe.

Despite representing two of the most widespread sex abuse cases in New England history, the PR firm denies this is a specialty. In an email to GoLocal, President of Rasky Baerlein Joe Baerlein writes, "No (we do not have a sexual abuse specialty) we are a communications and public affairs firm with offices in Boston and DC. We have mostly corporate and institutional clients across a series of vertical industries, i.e., healthcare or energy. We do a significant amount of work in reputation and crisis management.”

The Board of St. George’s hired Rasky Baerlein to manage the communications tied to questions about the years of sexual abuse. The firm prominently claims that they are experts at crisis communications:

A smart, strategic communications plan – developed in close coordination with the legal team and executed with care – helps confront misinformation, advance positive messages, and condition the environment for a favorable result. We’ve worked with leading law firms to guide clients through contentious legal battles, including complex multi-state litigation, civil and criminal proceedings in state and federal courts, and class action lawsuits.

Bankruptcy to Avoid Payments to Victims and a Trail

While the Boston Diocese ultimately did not file for bankruptcy and did pay a reported $100 million to settle the lawsuits, many other Dioceses around the country did file for bankruptcy protection to minimize their payments and to avoid much of the disclosure that litigation would force.

Cardinal Law of the Boston Archdiocese PHOTO: City of Boston Archives, Flickr

In the December 23, 2015 letter from the leadership of St. George’s School to alumni, the school wrote about allegations of sexual abuse, "...the School has sought to better understand its past, so that we can help those students who were harmed, help heal the community as a whole, and help ensure the safety of the School’s current and future students.”

St. George’s Has Pledged Open Investigation, But Getting Answers is Nearly Impossible

St. George’s board of directors, who hired the PR firm, pledged to reverse the course of secrecy and to conduct an open review. After the board released their initial review, many victims called for a separate and independent investigation of the sex abuse crimes. Consistently, the school claims openness, but key questions about the abuse, cover up, and failure to report abuse to law enforcement go unanswered.

As part of the December 23 letter the Board wrote, “In response, nearly one year ago, the Board moved, at its own initiative and expense, to commission a full investigation into these matters, seeking the truth about the School’s past, without reservation and without limitation. The investigation mandate was wide open – it was not focused on any one era, one incident, one perpetrator, or one allegation. We wanted to know all we could about the past and what had happened, so that we could help.”

A similar letter released earlier this week addressed to alumni, parents and friends of the school further pledged openness and disclosure, "The St. George’s Board of Trustees is absolutely committed to doing everything we can to respond to the allegations of sexual abuse at the school. We apologize to the victims of this abuse, and they are in our hearts and minds as we try to sort out what happened and learn from it."