CHICAGO (IL)
WLS
[with video]
By Chuck Goudie and Ann Pistone
Tuesday, June 02, 2015
CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team looked into claims by nearly 100 alleged victims of sexual abuse in metro Chicago that the archdiocese and some of its schools are keeping dangerous secrets.
The case involves claims of sexual and physical abuse by priests and teachers at three local Catholic high schools. The three high schools have been a part of a Roman Catholic order called the Irish Christian Brothers. Hundreds of men and women accused members of the North American order of sexual abuse.
The order has agreed to pay settlements totaling $16.5 million, but the 100 claimants from the Chicago area are angry because they say the schools they attended as children are keeping important information from the public.
“I can see his face. I can see what happened to me, I can picture the events as clear was if it were yesterday,” said John Ruzic, an alleged victim who attended Brother Rice High School.
At least a dozen brothers and priests who taught at Brother Rice and Leo High Schools in Chicago and St. Laurence High School in Burbank have multiple sexual abuse claims against them, according to this bankruptcy filing by the North American branch of the Irish Christian Brothers.
“When you are a kid, you run frightened, scared and confused. Everything in your world crushes because you don’t know who you are,” Ruzic said.
Ruzic said the pain of his experience at Brother Rice High School forced him to move from Chicago to Las Vegas, never to return.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.