Former Wv Priest Named in School’s Report of Sexual Abuse

Charleston Gazette-Mail
September 3, 2016

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-education/20160902/former-wv-priest-named-in-schools-report-of-sexual-abuse

This photo from January 2016 shows buildings at St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island.

A former Episcopal priest from West Virginia was among those named in a report this week that described how an elite New England boarding school became a kind of “private hell” for dozens of students who were sexually abused in the 1970s and 1980s.

The students at St. George’s in Middletown, Rhode Island, were manipulated and abused by faculty and staff, according to a report issued Thursday by an independent investigator, Boston lawyer Martin Murphy. He was hired by the school and the survivors’ group SGS for Healing.

The most prolific offender was athletic trainer Al Gibbs, who abused at least 31 girls, the report said. Gibbs was fired in 1980 after being caught taking photographs of a naked girl in his office, but the report found that he was paid a $1,200 annual grant for “distinguished service” that continued until he died in 1996. The school acknowledged in December that he abused 17 students.

“For a long time, everybody said I was a liar,” Katie Wales Lovkay, who said Gibbs abused her in 1979, told The Associated Press. “It feels really good to have this investigative report back me up.”

Among other St. George’s employees named in the report was the Rev. Howard White Jr., who worked at the school from 1971 until he was fired in 1974. The report said three former students came forward with credible accounts of sexual abuse against him.

White, known as “Howdy,” is an Episcopal priest. In a story earlier this year, the Providence Journal cited a Charleston Daily Mail article that noted White’s ordination in 1966. His first assignment was at Trinity Episcopal Church in Martinsburg, according to the Journal, where he stayed less than a year.

A former St. George’s student told the Journal that White raped him at his parents’ home in West Virginia, as well as in a camper in Canada and in hotel rooms in Boston. The school’s headmaster at the time fired White in a letter that said he “should not be in a boarding school and should seek psychiatric help.” Despite a law that required the school to report White’s sexual misconduct to authorities, school officials never did so.

Twenty years ago, a man sued White and the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, alleging that White raped him in 1969 and the diocese covered it up, the Journal reported. The man, Timothy Albright, claimed that he repressed the memory of White’s assault for 25 years. A Harrison County judge threw out the lawsuit because the statute of limitations for the alleged rape had expired, and the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld that decision in 1998.

In a statement to the Journal earlier this year, the Rev. Michie Klusmeyer, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, noted that White had been ordained a half-century earlier, and said the diocese now has procedures in place to prevent abuse by priests.

White now lives in Bedford, Pennsylvania, according to the Journal. Investigators said he declined to be interviewed for the report released Thursday.

Another St. George’s teacher, Franklin Coleman, received a recommendation from the dean of the faculty despite being fired in 1988 for inappropriate sexual contact with a student, the report said. Fourteen students told investigators of abuse by Coleman, the report said.

A man who reported being sexually abused by Coleman said the investigation accurately captured the campus environment, where students were often unsupervised and administrators covered up anything that could taint the school’s reputation.

“It was a lawless place,” said the man, now in his 40s, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is a victim of sexual abuse. “There definitely were faculty who cared, but none of them protected me.”

Attorney Eric MacLeish, a St. George’s alumnus who represented dozens of victims at the school, called the report the most comprehensive recounting to date of sexual abuse at an American boarding school.

MacLeish said it was important to note that the school is a very different place today, and he applauded the board of trustees for their response.

In a letter to the school community, Leslie Heaney, chairwoman of the board of trustees, acknowledged the school’s failure to respond appropriately to reports of misconduct, and apologized.

The school announced last month it had agreed to a settlement with up to 30 former students for an undisclosed amount.

State police previously investigated and said they wouldn’t bring charges for a variety of reasons, including the statute of limitations.

The $58,000-a-year school, founded in 1896, counts among its graduates poet Ogden Nash, former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and members of the Bush political family.