PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The elite boarding school St. George’s became a kind of “private hell” for dozens of students in the 1970s and ’80s who were manipulated and sexually abused by faculty and staff, according to a report issued Thursday by an independent investigator.
One in five girls who attended the school in the 1970s was sexually abused by the same athletic trainer, and many others were subjected to abuse by nine other staff members between 1970 and 1989, the report found. More recently, a faculty member engaged in inappropriate conduct with several students in the 2000s, the report found.
The report, by Boston lawyer Martin Murphy, found the school betrayed the trust of students and their parents and provided few, if any, places to turn for help. Murphy was hired in January by the school and the survivors’ group SGS for Healing.
The most prolific offender was athletic trainer Al Gibbs, who abused at least 31 girls, the report said. Gibbs was fired in 1980 after being caught taking photographs of a naked girl in his office, but the report found that he was paid a $1,200 annual grant for “distinguished service” that continued until he died in 1996. The school acknowledged in December that he abused 17 students.
Another teacher, Franklin Coleman, received a recommendation from the dean of the faculty despite being fired in 1988 for inappropriate sexual contact with a student, the report said. Fourteen students told investigators of abuse by Coleman, the report said. A working telephone number for Coleman couldn’t be found.