DELPHOS (OH)
Delphos Herald
September 5, 2018
By Nancy Spencer
At the tender age of 12, Johnny Nettles Jr. found himself in the St. Michael School for Boys in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Nettles said falling in with the wrong crowd and the poor decision-making that followed led to the courts assigning him to the school.
“My dad died when I was young,” Nettles said. “My mother had to work very hard to support me and my two siblings and it was easy for me to fall in with the wrong people. I had a lot of time on my hands.”
Life at St. Michael’s was hard. Nettles’ classmates were ordered to the school for similar reasons. The worst, however, was the sexual abuse Nettles dealt with at the hands of a teacher.
“There was one teacher, Mark Maroni, who was always trying to get you off by yourself and he would come in the showers,” he said. “He acted really nice and would promise you things and give you special treatment. Once he abused you, he would try to keep control over you by letting you bring contraband into the school after home visits and other stuff.”
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