RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10
[with video]
BY PARKER GAVIGAN, NBC 10 NEWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH 2016
During a taping of 10 News Conference Friday, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said he was “outraged” over recent comments made by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families related to reporting sexual abuse of children.
The comments were made on the heels of the scandal that has plagued the elite St. George’s School in Middletown. Alumni and former students have alleged rape and sexual misconduct by teachers from the 1970s and 80s and said the school did nothing to help them or report the alleged abuse.
On Thursday, the NBC 10 I-Team uncovered a more recent police report from Middletown, where in 2005, a former student told police he was sexually molested by his dorm master in the fall of 2004. He told a detective he was touched inappropriately about 15 times.
Police investigated the teacher, identified by the report as Charles Thompson, but closed the case with no corroborating evidence of an assault. The school told police he took a leave of absence and that families in his dorm were notified. However, lawyers for some alumni and the student involved in the 2005 report said St. George’s did not report to police or child protective services, other student complaints they allegedly received about Thompson.
“There was an absolute legal obligation in 2004 to make reports to social services,” said Carmen Durso, a Boston attorney who is representing the former student and alumni. “Why did the school not take action? Why were teachers allowed to continue there? Why were students put in a situation like this, continually, even after they made complaints?”
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