St. George’s School, an elite boarding school in Rhode Island, announced Wednesday that it would compensate the 30 of the former students who allege that they were sexually abused as students. In a statement, the school announced that it would provide an “undisclosed sum” to a group representing the victims. The settlement will be allocated to the victims based on the impact of the abuse on the individual.
Since late 2015, more than 40 former students have come forward with sex abuse claims dating as far back as the 1970s. In November, police launched an investigation of the claims and St. George’s School began their own internal investigation. The school released a report confirming that three former employees, “engaged in sexual misconduct with regard to multiple students, and that there were twenty-three victims of sexual misconduct by these three employees.”
St. George’s has admitted that it did not report any of these incidents to authorities. The Associated Press reports:
In some cases, administrators did not believe the reports of abuse. In others, staffers accused of abuse were forced out but went on to teaching positions in other schools.
Though the school apologized to victims for “harm done,” their silence has had lingering effects. A January 2016 investigation from the New York Times found that at least two of the former staff members accused of sexual abuse were still working with children.
A lawyer for the victims said that today’s announcement, “does not represent justice, but validation.”