At a press conference on Tuesday, former students of prestigious prep school, St. George's, in Rhode Island, have come forward revealing details of sexual abuse during their time in the school in the late 1970s. According to Fox News, the former students are calling for an independent probe into the dozens of allegations of rampant sexual abuse that occurred in the school and spanned three decades. They also called on the school to organize an assistance fund for mental health counselling of the victims.
The Associated Press reports that Anne Scott was repeatedly raped by a then 67 year-old athletic trainer who worked in the school. The abuse started when she was 15 and went on for two years. That same school staff sexually abused Katie Wales Lovkay, took naked pictures of her, and showed them to male students in the school. Lovkay described how she was endlessly ridiculed in school, saying "I became known as the slut in the school." When she reported the abuse to the headmaster, he did nothing, and she was made to believe that she "was nuts." Both Lovkay and Scott described how they were lured through the boys' locker room and into the training room of their abuser. They were manipulated and threatened not to report the abuse to anyone or they will get into trouble.
Following the abuse, the women also suffered years dealing with mental health issues like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcoholism. Harry Groome, the third ex-student who spoke at the press conference, described that he was raped with a broomstick by his classmate in 1978. There were witnesses to the assault and it was so well-known on campus that it was even referenced as a joke in the school's yearbook. He never told anyone about it for years and finally revealed the abuse in graphic detail in a letter he sent to the school's headmaster in 2002. No action was taken. Groome who has friends whose children are enrolled in St. George's, tells the press he wants the school to thrive in the future, but that it cannot go on "until we flush out the bad."
Aside from the three who have come forward in public, dozens of former St. George's students have claimed they were also sexually abused in the school.
According to the Boston Globe, Carmen Durso and Erin MacLeish, the two lawyers defending the victims, reveals that more than 40 people have contacted them with their own stories of sexual abuse ranging from rape to repeated abuse in St. George's School. The school has conducted its own investigation into the claims, citing 26 students were abused by 6 school employees.
However, the victims question its validity since Will Hannum, who handled the investigation, is the law partner of St. George's legal counsel.
St. George's School is located in Middletown, Rhode Island, just north of the city of Newport. The Episcopalian prep school was founded in 1896 and enrolls around 400 students per year.
