UNITED STATES
Christian Brothers Sex Abuse – Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC
Over the past eight years we have helped more than 20 men who survived abuse by Edward Courtney. This page describes a small amount of the evidence we have uncovered during those eight years.
Brother Manning: “I Recommend Him Highly”
Ed Courtney was removed from St. Laurence High School in 1974 because he was molesting students. Brother John Manning was the principal of St. Laurence at the time, and when we deposed Brother Courtney, he described how Brother Manning “called me in to talk, and he said there had been complaints and basically told me I was going to have to leave at that time.”
A year later, after the Christian Brothers transferred Courtney to O’Dea High School in Seattle (see below), the same Brother Manning wrote a formal letter of recommendation for Courtney so he could get his teaching certificate in Washington: “I recommend him highly.”
Edward Courtney: Assignments and Transfers
The Christian Brothers transferred Edward Courtney between at least six separate schools in New York, Illinois, Michigan, and Washington because he was abusing children and they knew he wouldn’t stop. Between the early 1960s and 1978, they transferred him between Sacred Heart in New York, then Brother Rice High School in Chicago, then Brother Rice High School in Michigan, then Leo High School in Chicago, then St. Laurence High School in Chicago, and then O’Dea High School in Seattle.
They then helped make him the principal of St. Alphonsus school in Seattle, where he was removed after one year because he kept abusing children. After they finally removed him from their private school system, the Christian Brothers wrote him letters of recommendation so he could continue teaching in public schools, where he kept abusing children for nearly another decade.
While we have many documents that reflect this egregious disregard for children, you can read one of the key documents that summarizes Edward Courtney’s transfers.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.