MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune
By Jill Harmacinski jharmacinski@eagletribune.com
LAWRENCE — Two men who were students at Central Catholic High School in the 1960s both told The Eagle-Tribune they were physically and sexually abused by the late Brother Michael Edward and that a culture of “regimentation and intimidation” was prevalent there.
“There was extreme physical abuse and it was just accepted,” said Michael Bresnahan, a 1967 Central Catholic graduate who now works as a teacher at the Guilmette School in Lawrence.
Bresnahan said students at that time wore collared shirts, ties and jackets and Brother Michael Edward would tell them to unbutton their shirts. The brother, he said, reached into his shirt and others, feeling their pectoral muscles and nipples. Bresnahan said he was not personally abused beyond the chest touching but witnessed the physical abuse of others.
He said Brother Michael Edward also repeatedly slapped the face of a fellow student who was forced to stand in front of the class.
“When you are in a culture of regimentation and intimidation you don’t know what’s normal,” said Bresnahan, age 67.
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