RHODE ISLAND
Naples Herald
BY MICHELLE R. SMITH
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Between cocktails, campus tours and squash games, alumni visiting St. George’s School for their annual reunion weekend will find something different this year: discussions about what has unfolded at the elite boarding school since December, when leaders acknowledged dozens of students were sexually abused in the past.
St. George’s is the most extreme example of abuse scandals that have bubbled up recently at New England boarding schools, which are handling reunion weekends this month with different approaches.
Many St. George’s alumni have struggled with whether to attend the reunion, which runs Friday through Sunday. They are upset by what happened to them or fellow alums, and by how the school handled it when told of abuse. Some say they will not attend. Others say they want to be among friends as they work to understand what has happened.
One said she was relieved that the school has finally acknowledged the abuse, is investigating what happened and is paying for therapy. She was one of at least 17 people the school acknowledges was abused by athletic trainer Al Gibbs.
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