VT- Professor accused of child abuse; SNAP responds

By David Clohessy
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
September 24, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/vt_professor_accused_of_child_abuse_snap_responds

A faculty member at Norwich University in Vermont is accused of molesting a boy at a New York Catholic school. We urge college officials to suspend the professor immediately.

The accused is Norman E. Rioux, a former Spanish teacher at La Salle Institute in Troy in the Albany Catholic Diocese. According to the Albany Times Union, Rioux allegedly molested Michael Cioppa and “was hired at the school despite being convicted of federal charges in U.S. District Court for a check-cashing scheme that La Salle officials now say they did not know about.”

We applaud Cioppa for reporting the abuse he suffered. We applaud the La Salle Institute for disclosing Rioux' name. But that's not enough. School officials and Albany's bishop must aggressively seek out anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered Rioux' crimes, so that he might be prosecuted, convicted and kept away from children. They must punish any employee who knew about or suspected Rioux' crimes and stayed silent or concealed it.

Norwich University officials should do the same.