RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe
By Bella English GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 08, 2016
After weeks of public pressure, the board of trustees at embattled St. George’s School agreed on Thursday to appoint a new “third party independent investigator” to oversee a comprehensive investigation of sexual abuse at the school. The decision was announced in a joint statement by board chair Leslie Heaney and by rape victim Anne Scott, speaking on behalf of SGS for Healing, a group of victims and other alumni.
The decision came after a two-hour meeting between attorneys for the victims and trustees of the prestigious Episcopal preparatory school in Middletown, R.I, and was the first accord between the two sides.
Since December, when Scott went public with her story, accounts have grown of sexual abuse at St. George’s. More than 40 former students have told lawyers they were raped or molested at St. George’s, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, by what both the school and victims’ attorneys acknowledge were at least nine staff or student perpetrators.
The new investigator will be agreed upon by both the board and the victims, and they hope to appoint someone next week.
“Today’s decision is a very important first step in what we hope will be a process of reconciliation and healing,” Scott said.
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