3 who say they were abused to present rebuttal to school's investigation

BOSTON — Past and present St. George's School administrators have attempted "to silence victims" to "prevent a scandal" over accusations of systemic sexual abuse dating to the 1970s and 1980s, says an attorney for three St. George's alumni who are pressing the issue.

Attorney Eric MacLeish spoke in advance of a news conference Tuesday at which he and three women who say they were sexually victimized in the 1970s by the school's former athletic trainer Al Gibbs, are scheduled to release a rebuttal to a Dec. 23, 2015, report by St. George's School.

That report by St. George's headmaster Eric Peterson and Board of Trustees Chair Leslie Heaney, based on a 10-month investigation, identified 26 victims of abuse by several staff in the 1970s and 1980s. It included an apology that underscored the school's "regret, sorrow and shame that students in our care were hurt." It stated that the school has forwarded information about other alleged perpetrators, including three students, to state police.

MacLeish and alumna Anne Scott, who says she was raped by Gibbs, have called the school's report "a sanitized version of the truth," and are calling for an independent investigation. They have challenged the school's use of an investigator who works for the same law firm that represents the school.

A few rebuttal highlights were included in a news release that announced the news conference. Allegations include:

— Past St. George's administrators "repeatedly broke Rhode Island's law that requires schools to report credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors"; and that current administrators in 2012 and 2015 "tried to 'gag' victims from talking about'' abuse by Gibbs. Gibbs is now deceased.

— Two former St. George's staff members — an assistant chaplain and the choir director — "left the school after they admitted to sexual misconduct with male students. No mandatory abuse report was made by the school. They both went on to work in schools and churches and are still in settings where they are at risk to re-offend."

Sexual abuse allegations at the prestigious Middletown private preparatory school were first reported by The Boston Globe in mid-December.

The Journal on Monday contacted O'Neill and Associates, a Boston and Washington, D.C.- based public relations firm that has been representing the school, and Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, also a Boston and Washington, D.C.-based firm, that is representing the Board of Trustees, according to president Joseph T. Baerlein. Neither firm had seen the victims' rebuttal before its release, and were unable to offer comments.

MacLeish said the case "is unique" from other private school sex-abuse cases "in many tragic ways. The first is there is no statute of limitations on rape in Rhode Island at the time these events occurred. That makes criminal prosecution at least [in the case of] four individuals we know of now, possible."

He said "the scope and magnitude" of is also unique, with more than 40 people stepping forward in the past two weeks who allege they were sexually assaulted at the school. He and co-counsel Carmen Durso have identified "seven [former] staff members and four [former] students who are alleged perpetrators."

Unlike other cases, he said, "there is no focus on what the current administration of the school did when it received reports of abuse starting in 2004. There were reports in 2004 to Mr. Peterson and in 2006, 2011, 2012 and possibly others we don’t know of," MacLeish said.

"The response of the school in two of those cases was to impose silence on the victims as recently as August 2015," he said. "A conscious effort was made to maintain secrecy in an attempt to prevent scandal. But the scandal, unfortunately, was the efforts of the school to silence victims."

kziner@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @karenleez

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