Priest accused in St. George's sex-abuse scandal faces church investigation in Pa.

By Karen Lee Ziner
Providence Journal
February 06, 2016

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20160206/NEWS/160209461

An article from the Hendersonville, N.C., Times-News of July 21, 1982, naming the Rev. Howard W. White Jr. as assistant headmaster at Asheville Country Day School.

St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, Pennsylvania, where the Rev. Howard W. White Jr. was a "fill-in" priest.

In small-town Pennsylvania, congregants at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford are praying for the Rev. Howard W. White Jr., who faces allegations of sexual abuse of teenage boys.

Mr. White, a former assistant chaplain at St. George's School in Middletown, is embroiled in a widening sex-abuse scandal at the elite Episcopal prep school that dates to the 1970s. On Saturday, authorities confirmed that White is now under investigation for sexual abuse in North Carolina, where he was formerly a church rector.

"The congregation has been very supportive of him, holding him in prayer, sending him cards, bringing him soup," said the Rt. Rev. Canon Audrey Cady Scanlan, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. "They’re caring for him as they would care for any member of the congregation who is in a time of need."

The church has begun an investigation into White's actions — at the same time that both Rhode Island State Police and an independent investigator try to uncover the full extent of what occurred at St. George's. And dozens more former students have come forward to say they were victims of sexual abuse at the school.

White and others implicated in the St. George's scandal have not been criminally charged; however the school has acknowledged that sexual abuse took place, and apologized to victims and the school community. The school has sent information to Rhode Island State Police, which are conducting a criminal investigation.

A private investigation conducted last year for St. George's found six suspected perpetrators who were school employees, with some two dozen victims, and several students who were suspected perpetrators.

The number of possible victims who have provided credible allegations of abuse — ranging from sexual molestation to rape — has risen to at least 40, according to the lawyers for SGS for Healing, an alumni-victims' group. Much of the abuse took place in the 1970s and '80s, but allegations from 2004 have also come to light. A third-party investigator, hired by the school and SGS for Healing, has begun an independent review.

Allegations against White, 74, include that he raped and/or sexually molested a St. George's student in multiple states and Canada in the early 1970s, according to a report by SGS for Healing. That former student elaborated in an interview with The Providence Journal. The school's report said that White — whom it refers to as "Employee Perpetrator #2" — had "inappropriate and potentially sexual misconduct with at least three male students."

The school quietly fired White in 1974 after a student's parent reported the misconduct, which White admitted to the headmaster, according to a 2015 investigation report St. George's issued in December. But the school never notified child-protection authorities — as required by the state's 1974 mandatory reporting law.

That same year, a cryptic letter to White from headmaster Anthony M. Zane urged White to seek psychiatric help and not to work at any other boarding schools. Still, White went on to become academic dean and chaplain of Chatham Hall in Chatham, Virginia, and headmaster of what was then the Asheville Country Day School in Asheville, North Carolina.

Starting in 1984, White served as rector of Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville, North Carolina. Police there are investigating a new allegation of abuse.

White retired in 2007 to Pennsylvania, in the borough of Bedford, population 2,800.

White had served as a "fill-in" priest at St. James, a historic Gothic Revival church in Bedford with 50 congregants, until reports of systemic sexual abuse at St. George's made headlines in December. It was just days before White marked his 50th anniversary in the Episcopal ministry.

In January, Bishop Scanlan placed White on administrative leave after Rhode Island's Episcopal bishop, the Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, in a public letter called for "appropriate disciplinary proceedings" against three unnamed people cited "in the recent reports of sexual abuse at St. George’s School in the '70s and '80s."

White, whom Scanlan named in a letter to her diocese, cannot conduct services or wear his clerical garb. He is to notify her of his whereabouts, should he leave town.

As a result of Knisely's letter, the Rev. George E. Andrews II, a former St. George's headmaster, is also under ecclesiastical review for not reporting sexual abuse at the school. Andrews, thought to be living in Florida, did not report former choirmaster Franklin Coleman to authorities when he fired Coleman for alleged sexual misconduct in 1988.

Coleman is the third person referenced in Knisely's letter; because Coleman is not a clergyman, he is not subject to church review, says Jim Naughton, spokesman for Knisely.

The St. George's scandal broke after The Boston Globe published Anne Scott's (Class of 1980), account of rape and sexual abuse by athletic trainer Al Gibbs, now deceased. The school fired Gibbs in 1980 after investigating a report of "inappropriate activity" — photographing a nude female student in a whirlpool in the training facility. Scott and two other of Gibbs' victims formed SGS for Healing.

They have accused current headmaster Eric F. Peterson and past administrators of covering up systemic sexual abuse and using "intimidating tactics aimed at silencing victims and protecting the school from scandal." Their public pressure led to the hiring of Martin F. Murphy, the new independent investigator.

Last month, a special panel opened a "Title IV" ecclesiastical process in Bedford that could lead to disciplinary action against White.

"We have elected to proceed with a limited investigation on our end, using reference materials and employment history that Father White has freely given us," said Scanlan.

The panel will reconvene when its review is complete, the bishop said, and will probably wait until the Rhode Island State Police and Murphy's investigation wrap up.

The extreme outcome would involve White's being removed from the ordained ministry — an action only the church can take. Should investigations clear him of all allegations, he could return to his role at the church.

"He is still a priest in our diocese," Scanlan said. But because of the investigation and the allegations, "I found it necessary to restrict his active ministry to give him some space to handle what’s happening" and to allow the congregation time to reflect.

"As their bishop, it’s my job to care for the congregation ... and they're good about understanding that this is when we need to live in a little bit of tension, without answers."

Having invited parishioners to speak with her privately, Scanlan said, "I haven't heard one complaint" involving abuse by White.

After the St. George's story made national news — and the front page of the 10,000-circulation daily Bedford Gazette — one parishioner wrote a letter to support White.

"Throughout this issue and all of the discussion, a question has bothered me. Is there no longer forgiveness of sins? If anyone knows the answer, I wish he or she would write a letter to the paper. It appears that we do not deal with such matters in the Episcopal Church," wrote Lucy D. Quinn, a retired Foreign Service worker, in a letter published on Jan. 13.

A man who identified himself as "the answering service" for "Doctor White" told The Journal recently that White "is in Aruba with family" and will return in mid-February. "The directions he left me, and his lawyer directed me from Annapolis, Maryland, is that he will give out no information," the man said. He declined to give his name.

News that White may have flown off to the Dutch Caribbean island surprised Scanlan. She said she had spoken with White on the phone days earlier. "He's been asked to keep me apprised of his whereabouts and he has not told me he has left the country," she said. "I don't expect that he has."

As Pennsylvania parishioners hold White in their prayers, a former St. George's student stepped forward to share his allegations against White with lawyers Eric MacLeish and Carmen L. Durso, who represent SGS for Healing. He did so after reading published reports about the scandal.

St. George's first investigator, whose report was released in December, did not interview this man. But two 1974 letters written by former headmaster Zane and made public by SGS for Healing, reference his situation.

He spoke with The Journal last week, requesting anonymity because of the nature of the alleged crimes. (The Journal does not name victims of alleged sexual abuse unless they wish to identify themselves.) He said he has been interviewed by Rhode Island State Police.

"I want to be an instrument in making this stop. I want to be an instrument in helping my fellow survivors heal," he said. "I thank God this is being brought to light. My purpose in coming forward was to help increase exposure of this."

Now 58, he came to St. George's School in 1972 "as a small kid from a small town in Pennsylvania. I got there and realized pretty quickly I was in over my head. I was lonely .... Kids would have private cars picking them up to take them on vacations, to fly them away. I felt completely lost."

He turned 15 in October of his freshman year, when he said the sexual abuse began.

White, his faculty adviser, filled an emotional gap: "Here's this guy who's paying attention to me. It felt like a paternal relationship in the beginning. Here's someone I could talk to, be friends with. That's how it started," he said.

"Part of the trappings of his game was that he had a Porsche 914, which was a pretty flashy car. That held some appeal," he said. Typically, they would go to Boston to Anthony's Pier Four restaurant.

"Alcohol was always involved," he said. "We would go back to the hotel room and he would begin making advances on me. I remember distinctly twice sleeping on the bathroom floor with the door locked with him on the other side of the door."

He said that White raped and/or sexually assaulted him "in Massachusetts, West Virginia, and Canada." He does not recall any incidents in Rhode Island.

He felt trapped and threatened, physically and emotionally, but was afraid to tell anyone.

He said he finally confronted White — he believes it was during a trip they took to White's parents' house in West Virginia. "He made it abundantly clear that if I didn't continue the relationship, my life at the school would be miserable."

He admits to being "desperate for attention" and hoping that the abuse would stop. "You think constantly, 'This won't happen; he really does like me for who I am.' So you try it again. All these trips were a series of that same hope."

That included a camping trip to Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island. He tried to run away when White fell asleep.

"I ended up at a home not too far from this campground. I don't remember what was said. I don't remember if I told them I was being abused. Next thing I knew, he was at the door, and I wound up with him again. I was scared to death not to go back with him."

The abuse went on for a year and a half before he said anything. When he finally told then-headmaster Zane and his parents, they were all skeptical. Then he gave Zane the name of another student — a friend who had confided that White had also molested him. Zane interviewed the other boy to corroborate.

His parents allowed him to leave St. George's after his sophomore year — to get away from White.

White was fired in 1974 after admitting sexual misconduct. It is unclear exactly which student, or students, White admitted to molesting because the school's report does not name them and no criminal investigation was undertaken at the time.

Meanwhile, the man alleging a year and a half of abuse remembers nightmares. "I was constantly hiding from him — most often on the school grounds."

To this day, he says, he has trouble concentrating and standing still. "Loud noises startle me more than when this whole thing started. I look over my shoulder."

Years of therapy and the love of family and friends, and an unexpected resilience carried him through. He is married, has children and leads a professional life.

He does not consider himself a victim. "I am very much a survivor," he says. "I lead a rich and full life. I’ll never be OK, but this is my life today, which is rich and full."

He spoke out because he wants to help dismantle "a culture like this that allows this to happen. I just don't see how this sort of thing can happen without other people having a glimmer, or even a scintilla, of suspicion."

He doesn't understand why nobody at St. George's questioned his absences during his trips with White — or the school's actions after he complained. "Nobody came forward, nobody raised an eyebrow, to my knowledge," he said. "It just seems like the school and others like to go to extraordinary lengths to protect the name of the school, protect the future of the school, and protect the people who are behind the curtain, operating the machine."

It remains unclear whether Zane could face consequences for not reporting White's sexual misconduct or that of any other suspected perpetrators.

Yet in two letters, Zane referenced White's misconduct and acknowledged an apparent misrepresentation about White's departure.

Zane wrote to White in September 1974 — in response to White's telephone request for money after he was fired. "Dear Howdy," read the salutation, "I am sorry to hear that you need money, and here is the best we can do."

Zane said the school had provided two months' pay, moving expenses and $200 from a discretionary fund.

"Under the circumstances, I think the school is being generous, and if you find yourself hard pressed in the future, I suggest that you consider selling your Porsche."

Zane added, "Quite obviously, as I have said before, I feel strongly that you should not be in a boarding school and that you should seek psychiatric help. Please do not return to St. George's until one generation has gone through, that is, not for another five years ... Also, I have a request from the family ... that you do not attempt to communicate with them or their son."

Zane's second letter was written in October 1974 to the mother of the student who left St. George's after his encounters with White. Zane wrote that he was "absolutely confident" that her son "remains anonymous" in the wake of White's abrupt departure. "We have had very few questions about Howdy," the letter said. "The students have just accepted the official explanation and have not bothered us ..."

On Jan. 27, Zane opened the door to his New Bedford home when a reporter rang the bell.

"No, I can't say anything. I can't do it," he said, raising his palms in the air. "Sorry. I can't."