Report documents decades of abuse at elite boarding school

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- 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 abused by the same athletic trainer, and many others were subjected to abuse by nine other staff members from 1970 to 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 by the Middletown 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 stated. Gibbs was fired in 1980 after being caught taking photographs of a naked girl in his office, but the report found he was paid a $1,200 annual grant for "distinguished service" that continued until he died in 1996.

The school acknowledged in December he abused 17 students.

"For a long time, everybody said I was a liar," said Katie Wales Lovkay, who said Gibbs abused her in 1979. "It feels really good to have this investigative report back me up."

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 stated. Fourteen students told investigators of abuse by Coleman, the report stated. A working telephone number for Coleman couldn't be found.

A man who reported being abused by Coleman said the investigation accurately captured the campus environment, where students often were unsupervised, and administrators covered up anything that could taint the school's reputation.

"It was a lawless place," said the man, now in his 40s, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is a victim of sexual abuse. "There definitely were faculty who cared, but none of them protected me."

The report also suggested the current headmaster at the $58,000-per-year Episcopal school didn't adequately handle reports of misconduct by teacher Charles Thompson in 2004 and should have fired him.

The headmaster previously announced he will step down next year.