BishopAccountability.org

Governor Signs Bill Closing 'St. George's Loophole'

By Elisabeth Harrison
Rhode Island Public Radio
July 7, 2016

http://ripr.org/post/governor-signs-bill-closing-st-georges-loophole

St. George's, an Episcopal boarding school in Middletown, where former students have alleged abuse by school staff.

Governor Gina Raimondo has signed a bill requiring schools to contact child welfare authorities when they suspect sexual abuse of their employees. The bill also requires the state's child welfare office to investigate allegations of abuse in schools.

The bill was inspired by the investigation of St. George's School, an elite boarding school on Aquidneck Island, where dozens of former students have alleged abuse by staff and fellow students.

The school has apologized and offered to pay for counseling, but an internal report found the school never reported the abuse to child welfare authorities. 

State police closed their investigation of St. George's in June without filing a single criminal charge. Authorities said laws in place in the 1970s and 80s, when much of the abuse allegedly took place, made charges impossible. And State Police cited statutes of limitation as the reason they could not pursue charges against the school, for failing to report the abuse.

While Rhode Island does have a mandatory reporting law for child abuse, including sexual abuse, an investigation by Rhode Island Public Radio revealed significant questions about whether it applies to abuse by school employees. As RIPR reported, the state Department of Children, Youth and Families interprets the law relatively narrowly.

"The mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting statute (which was enacted in 1983) applies to parents, guardians or employees of DCYF licensed child care programs," the agency told RIPR in an email. "Historically DCYF has never assumed the responsibility of investigating incidents of sexual abuse or misconduct between a school employee and a student." 

DCYF went on to say that the agency would refer calls involving sexual abuse by teachers or other school employees to police.

"A school would report incidents of sexual misconduct involving a school employee directly to law enforcement." wrote Mike Raia, then the communications director for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. 

The Rhode Island Attorney General's Office strongly disagreed with DCYF's interpretation of the mandatory abuse reporting statute. Attorney General Peter Kilmartin has said the statute applies broadly to abuse, whether it is perpetrated by a parent, school employee or anyone else.

But the discrepancy between the two agencies' interpretations of the mandate, and concerns that child welfare officials were not getting involved in investigations of abuse in schools, led sexual assault service provider Day One to call for changes to the statute.

Day One convened a group of lawmakers and state officials, who worked on a proposal to amend the child abuse and neglect reporting law to explicitly include schools.

Child welfare officials said the new language, now signed into law by Gov. Raimondo, provides them legal authority to initiate investigations in schools and continue to work cooperatively with law enforcement.

The agency continues to view abuse outside of a school, a child's home or a DCYF-licensed facility as beyond its legal mandate. DCYF said reports of sexual abuse involving churches, civic organizations and other settings will continue to be referred to police.




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