Former Tampa Prep music teacher linked to sex abuse scandal at Rhode Island prep school

FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

By Sara DiNatale, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 5, 2016

TAMPA — Hawkins Cramer said he found the courage to confront his abuser in 2004.

It was two decades after he said he was molested at a prestigious Rhode Island prep school. So he said he picked up the phone and called Franklin Coleman, the choral teacher who promised him a future in music but who Cramer said fondled him.

But Cramer said he was stunned to learn back then that Coleman was still teaching: at Tampa Preparatory School.

Cramer said he told Coleman to resign from teaching. He told his former teacher what happened was wrong.

“I was nervous and sweaty about it,” Cramer, 48, told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday, “and more just, like, angry, and I was kind of speaking through gritted teeth.”

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