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  School Principal Resigns in Wake of Allegations

By Sally Kestin
Tampa Tribune Tampa Tribune (Florida)
June 3, 1995

The principal of Jesuit High School, on leave since December over allegations of sexual misconduct with three boys 30 years ago, will not return, the school's president said Friday.

Thomas Mulryan, 63, is taking early retirement, said the Rev. James Bradley, president of the private school of 650 students. A new principal starts July 1.

Neither Mulryan nor his attorney could be reached for comment Friday.

The school placed Mulryan on paid leave in December after three men came forward accusing him of sexual improprieties when he was a brother at an Italian boarding school in the early 1960s.

Mulryan denied the allegations.

Bradley said no one came forward with any reports of sexual impropriety by Mulryan while he was at Jesuit. Mulryan came to the school in 1988 as an English teacher and was named principal in 1992.

If anything, Bradley said, the feedback from teachers, parents and students was supportive of Mulryan.

He would not elaborate on the decision for Mulryan to retire other than to say it was "mutual."

Larry Roeder, one of the three men who accused Mulryan, said Friday he was satisfied with the decision and does not plan any further action.

"I'm certainly satisfied with the way the school handled it," said Roeder, a crisis management specialist with the State Department. "I think they were very professional and compassionate to both sides."

Roeder has said he met Mulryan in 1961 when he was in the seventh grade at the Notre Dame International School in Rome.

Mulryan gave him free milk shakes and offered him a job at the book store but told him he must first take a physical examination, Roeder said. In a dressing room, Mulryan tried to get Roeder to perform a sex act but he ran away, he said.

Roeder said he told the headmaster and his father, both of whom were skeptical and took no action.

Roeder said he didn't attempt to report it again because he didn't think people would believe him. But through a friend last year, he met a former classmate who also said he had been abused by Mulryan.

The two men contacted the Congregation of Holy Cross in New York, which operated Notre Dame until it closed five years ago. The order sent out a letter to alumni, saying that two men had accused a brother at the school of unwanted sexual contact. The letter did not name Mulryan.

After reading the letter, the third man, who lives in Florida, contacted the order and made similar accusations against Mulryan.

 
 

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