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Who We Are »
Betsy Combier

Help Us to Continue to Help Others »
Email: betsy.combier@gmail.com

 
The E-Accountability Foundation announces the

'A for Accountability' Award

to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.

Winners of the "A":

Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
 
‘Profoundly Disturbing’ Abuse Documented At Elite R.I. School
After a months-long investigation of sexual abuse at St. George’s School, a report released Thursday described the elite Rhode Island prep school in the 1970s and 80s as a cauldron of sexual exploitation of students. Sixty-one alumni gave investigators first-hand accounts of the abuse they say they suffered, with 51 saying the abusers were faculty or staff and an additional 10 reporting abuse by classmates. “The picture that emerges from this investigation is profoundly disturbing,” wrote attorney Martin F. Murphy in a preface to the 390-page report. Murphy, a partner at the Boston firm Foley Hoag, was appointed in January by St. George’s and the victims’ group SGS for Healing to investigate sex abuse at the elite prep school in Middletown, R.I.
          
   St. George's School   
‘Profoundly disturbing’ abuse documented at elite R.I. school
By Bella English GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 01, 2016
LINK


After a months-long investigation of sexual abuse at St. George’s School, a report released Thursday described the elite Rhode Island prep school in the 1970s and 80s as a cauldron of sexual exploitation of students. Sixty-one alumni gave investigators first-hand accounts of the abuse they say they suffered, with 51 saying the abusers were faculty or staff and an additional 10 reporting abuse by classmates.

“The picture that emerges from this investigation is profoundly disturbing,” wrote attorney Martin F. Murphy in a preface to the 390-page report. Murphy, a partner at the Boston firm Foley Hoag, was appointed in January by St. George’s and the victims’ group SGS for Healing to investigate sex abuse at the elite prep school in Middletown, R.I.

For many of the alumni interviewed by Murphy’s team, the school was a place “where their abusers created a kind of private hell for them, a place where they suffered emotional wounds and trauma that for many remain unhealed,” according to the report.

In August, the school agreed to a financial settlement for 29 alumni. In June, under fire from alumni who felt he had not been responsive to the burgeoning sex scandal, headmaster Eric Peterson announced that he would not seek to renew his contract when it expires at the end of this school year.

But the Murphy report praised the school’s current policies and cleared one administrator, Robert Weston, who was put on administrative leave in January pending an investigation of “boundary issues” with students.

Anne Scott, one of 31 women who were allegedly abused by former athletic trainer Al Gibbs and the head of SGS for Healing, said she hopes the report will lead to more protections for children. “When one considers the ripple effects of sexual abuse --the damage to parents, siblings, friends and other family members close to the victim -- the amount of trauma inflicted on human beings is measured in the hundreds of years,” she said Thursday.

Nearly one in five girls who attended the school from 1972 to 1979 said they suffered sexual assault or misconduct by Gibbs, the report noted.


Her attorneys, Eric MacLeish and Carmen Durso, said they were satisfied with the investigation. “The report is the most comprehensive accounting to date of sexual abuse at an American boarding school,” said MacLeish, who has represented hundreds of victims of such abuse.

Former head of school Tony Zane, under whose watch much of the abuse occurred, released a statement saying that he and his wife have asked that the school remove his name from a girls’ dormitory on campus, as victims had earlier requested. “We have always had the health and happiness of our students in our minds and in our hearts, but we feel that the school should take this action now in the hope that it will in some small way assist in the healing process for the entire St. George’s community,” Zane said.

Bella English can be reached at english@globe.com.

Read the full St. George’s report
Private schools, painful secrets
Elite R.I. private school and abuse accusers settle
Former student forces R.I. prep school to confront its past

 
© 2003 The E-Accountability Foundation