Rosarian Community ‘in a State of Shock’

By Aleese Kopf
Daily News
April 5, 2013

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/rosariancommunityin-a-stateof-shock/nXDtL/

Daily News Staff Writer

Parents of Rosarian Academy students expressed shock and disbelief Friday over allegations that a former fourth-grade teacher had sexually abused two girls.

The teacher, Stephen J. Budd, 51, of West Palm Beach, remains in the Palm Beach County Jail. He was arrested after the girls told West Palm Beach police that during the 2006-07 school year, starting when they were 9 years old, that Budd had rewarded them in exchange for sex acts.

“I’m shocked because that’s not the person that I knew,” said Steve Suglia, parent of a former Rosarian student. “It makes me sick to my stomach. My daughter came home from school and was almost in tears because it was all over social media.”

Suglia said his daughter attended Rosarian from kindergarten through fifth grade, and was in Budd’s homeroom class. He said he knew Budd to be an “excellent” teacher who helped his daughter improve her grades in English.

“When my daughter finished third grade, we asked the principal to have him as her homeroom teacher because he came with such high standards,” Suglia said. “I know people gave him letters of recommendation for his new job. I had no idea he was capable of something like this.”

Suglia said his daughter said she had not been a victim, but was also shocked to hear the news. “It was somebody she looked up to,” he said. “Now she thinks, ‘who can I trust in school?’ It only takes one person to make a bad name for everybody else.”

“I think everyone in the Rosarian community is in a state of shock,” said Mary Freitas, an alum and parent of Rosarian students. “It’s probably the most nurturing environment you can think of to send your child to school in. I’m really deeply saddened to learn of it and my heart goes out to the families involved.”

Freitas said one of her sons is a recent graduate of Rosarian and her other son is currently in pre-school. She said she has no plans of switching schools.

“I still have complete confidence in the school and will continue to send my children there,” she said. “It’s unfortunate, but it could happen anywhere.”

Several other Rosarian parents and alums contacted declined to comment.

School officials held two meetings with parents on Friday to address the issue. At the school’s request, counselors and psychologists from the Diocese of Palm Beach were available Friday to assist students, parents and staff.

Budd was a volunteer at St. Luke Catholic Church in Palm Springs in the late 1990s and was employed from 1996-2002 as a teacher at the diocese’s St. Francis of Assisi school in Riviera Beach; St. Francis closed in 2005. In 2002, Budd left St. Francis for Rosarian, which is a private school that is not sponsored by the diocese or under the jurisdiction of its Office of Catholic Schools.

The diocese will cooperate fully with authorities investigating the complaints, and will notify the parish communities of St. Luke and St. Francis of Assisi of the reported allegations, it said in a news release Friday.

“The Diocese of Palm Beach is greatly concerned and takes very seriously the recently reported allegations of sexual abuse made by two students against Stephen Budd,” it says. “The diocese encourages any victims of abuse to contact the local police department. Our prayers are with the students and the families involved.”

The diocese offers counseling to victims of abuse from any diocesan school or parish. Victims are asked to call 801-0999.

Rosaria’s current principal, Virginia Devine, couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. Sister Corinne Sanders, principal of Rosarian from 2003-2010, said in an email that she was “stunned and saddened” and extends her prayers to the entire Rosarian family. Sanders is now in Michigan; she left Rosarian to join the General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

Budd is charged with three counts of sexual battery on a child, two counts of sexual performance by a child, two counts of lewd or lascivious exhibition, and two counts of battery of a child.

The victims allege Budd touched them underneath their clothes, asked them to perform sex acts on him, and had them watch as he performed sex acts on himself, the police report says. Budd also directed the victims to perform sex acts on each other, including taking naked photographs via the classroom Polaroid camera, police said.

West Palm Beach Police Chief Vincent Demasi said Thursday that he feared there may be additional victims Capt. David Bernhardt said Friday that no new information was available. The investigation is ongoing.