St. George’s School in Rhode Island has agreed to settle approximately 30 sexual abuse claims by alumni. The agreement was reached during a mediation led by Paul Finn, a mediator who also worked on the Catholic sex abuse settlements in Boston.
According to the Boston Globe, the amount of the settlements is confidential under the terms of the mediation agreement.
“This was never about the money. This was about being heard, and St. George’s realized that what they have done to us in the past is completely wrong,” abuse victim Katie Wales Lovkay said in an interview. “It’s nice to know it’s done, it’s over.”
Lovkay was one of at least 17 students abused in the 1970s and 1980s by a now-dead athletic trainer at St. George’s. She told the headmaster about the abuse at the time, but he sent her to the school therapist and did not report the crime to the police. A week before Lovkay’s 1980 high school graduation, she was expelled.
The mediation agreement follows months of bad press coverage for private and public schools across the country about sexual abuse on campus and school officials’ efforts to cover up allegations rather than report them to law enforcement.
Meanwhile, another private school in New England, Deerfield Academy, recently settled a sexual abuse lawsuit for $200,000. That lawsuit concerned the 1979 rape of a male student by John Hindle, a former instructor at the school. According to MassLive:
The academy in 2013 disclosed to students, parents, and alumni the allegations of sexual misconduct by faculty and launched an internal investigation. Officials later unveiled the results of that investigation, acknowledging some incidents of faculty engaging in improper sexual activity with students and admitting the school could have done more to prevent abuse.