TAMPA (FL)
St. Petersburg Times
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2005
TAMPA - Two more lawsuits have been filed against Tampa's Mary Help of Christians School, accusing a priest and a music teacher of sexually abusing boys in their care.
Eight suits have been filed since 2002 accusing priests or teachers of child molestation. The latest two were filed Tuesday in Hillsborough Circuit Court.
One says the plaintiff, now a man, enrolled in the school in 1980 for the sixth grade. On 20 or more occasions starting in September 1982, a music teacher sexually abused him by fondling, kissing and having sex with him, the suit says.
At least once, another teacher caught the music teacher abusing the plaintiff and began to argue with him, the suit says. But the school never disciplined the music teacher.