Sex abuse scandal rocks elite US boarding school

St. George’s School in Middletown, whose alumni, including Astors, Vanderbilts and Bushes, has been rocked by a sex abuse scandal. (Photo: AP)

For more than a century, St. George’s School has been part of the pedigree of some of America’s richest and most influential families. Astors, Vanderbilts and Bushes have attended the exclusive boarding school, where students can go sailing, play on squash courts or simply enjoy a sweeping view of the sea from the hilltop campus.

But since at least the 1970s, leaders at St. George’s kept a secret.

Dozens of former students have come forward to say they were raped or molested by employees and schoolmates over the past four decades. St. George’s acknowledged in a report in December that it repeatedly failed to notify police and child welfare authorities as required by law. The school’s current leadership has characterised the abuse as a problem of the past and said it discovered the extent of the misconduct only recently. But many accusers have disputed that, and much of their anger has fallen on Eric Peterson, headmaster since 2004.

Mr Peterson was told in 2004, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2015 about numerous allegations of abuse, according to interviews with alumni and documents obtained by the Associated Press. Many alumni are calling on Mr Peterson to step down. Some want the entire board swept clean.

“It’s like a charade of arrogant exceptionalism that is endemic in the school, in the leadership of the school,” said Hawk Cramer, an alumnus who says he was molested by the choir director in the 1980s and told Mr Peterson about it in 2004.

Some alumni say the school’s leaders hushed up the abuse to protect the reputation of St. George’s, which was founded in 1896. The $56,000-a-year Episcopal institution just outside Newport has about 400 high school-age students and a rich endowment of more than $140 million.

A spokeswoman for both the school and Peterson declined to comment on specific allegations, citing an independent investigation underway.

St. George’s previously issued a statement apologising “for the harm done to alumni by former employees and former students.” “We also apologise that the way in which the school addressed these incidents has served to compound this harm,” the statement said.

Separately, Rhode Island state police are looking into possible sex-crime charges and other offenses, including failure to report abuse. There is no statute of limitations on rape in Rhode Island.

The problems at St. George’s burst into view in mid-December when The Boston Globe reported the story of Anne Scott, who said she was repeatedly raped by athletic trainer Al Gibbs as a 15-year-old in the 1970s.

She sued the school as “Jane Doe” in 1988. St. George’s tried and failed to reveal her identity publicly and aggressively fought the case, even though her lawyer, Eric MacLeish, says evidence emerged during the lawsuit that Gibbs had assaulted four other girls. Scott dropped the case the following year, receiving nothing, and agreed to a gag order preventing her from speaking about it.

More such allegations quietly piled up in the years that followed.

It was not until last spring that St. George’s sent a letter informing the entire school community about possible sexual misconduct “many years ago” and asking graduates to report anything they knew. In November, the school reported allegations of abuse to the Rhode Island state police for the first time.

Mr MacLeish, a St. George’s alumnus and a lead lawyer in the Boston Catholic Church sex abuse lawsuits, said he is aware of at least 40 people who say they were abused at the school and 12 alleged abusers, either employees or students. The most recent misconduct alleged dates to 2004.

The school did take some action over the years, firing or forcing out three teachers in the 1970s and ‘80s, according to its December report. They were: Gibbs, who was fired in 1980 and died in 1996. The school acknowledged he raped or otherwise abused at least 17 students. It did not report any misconduct to child welfare authorities until 1989, in the course of Scott’s lawsuit. The agency said it had no authority to act because the alleged victims were over 18.

Another was Reverand Howard “Howdy” White, who abruptly left in 1974 after a parent accused him of inappropriate sexual conduct with a student. The school said White abused at least three students. White refused to comment when reached by the AP.

Franklin Coleman, the choir director, who was fired in 1988 after student complaints of molestation and other inappropriate behaviour.

The school said it did not notify child welfare authorities on the advice of its legal counsel. MacLeish said he has now spoken to six of Coleman’s alleged victims. Coleman did not return messages seeking comment. Neither White nor Coleman have ever been charged. Both went on to other schools around the US before retiring several years ago.