Catholic school planned for Mary Help of Christians site, by Elaine Silvestrini, TBO (March 29, 2015)

TAMPA — With plans moving forward to open a new Catholic high school in the place where he says he was abused decades ago by a priest, Barry Roche is ambivalent.

“I wish them the best,” the 71-year-old retired police officer says. “But in the back of my mind, it still says, ‘Be careful.’ ”

Roche is angry he received a fundraising solicitation for the new school, to be opened in the former Mary Help of Christians School in East Tampa as part of the national Cristo Rey network of college prep schools for “underrepresented urban youth.”

The fundraising letter, he said, “just hit me in the wrong place.” Church officials know about his abuse, he said, and should have removed his name from any fundraising lists.

Jim Madden, feasibility coordinator for the school, didn’t write or sign the letter to Roche. But he said planners are “trying to do something good.”

Asked whether he had anything he would like to say to Roche or any other abuse victims who may have been solicited, Madden said, “I don’t know all of them, and I don’t know all of the specifics. As we’ve gone through this process and continue to go through the process, if there’s anything we have done ... that offends anyone along the way, that was never our intent. And we apologize if that happened. But please allow us to move forward and do the right thing here for the next group of students at the school.”

Mary Help of Christians School, run by Salesian brothers, closed in 2006 amid declining enrollment and financial problems, including lawsuits from victims of clergy sexual abuse. The school was founded in 1928 by the widow of the city’s first dentist. Initially a boarding school for troubled boys, it had become a coed day school for grades five through eight by the time it closed with a total enrollment of only 70 students.

In the past few years, the school building has been occupied by a charter school, the Florida Autism Center for Excellence, for children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders.

Madden said planners hope to open the new high school there in August 2016. The charter school has been notified it will be moved.

The goal is to enroll 135 students in the first freshman class, building to a total enrollment of 500, Madden said. Costs would be paid partially through requiring students to work at jobs five days a month, with their pay going toward tuition.

Madden said the school would also hope to get scholarship funding through Step Up for Students, a program funded through state tax credits given to businesses that contribute. Families will be charged a modest tuition, he said, probably about $500 a year, to ensure they have an investment in the outcome.

Cristo Rey, he said, is “trying to bridge the economic gap” for underserved youngsters from economically deprived backgrounds. Across the country, the Chicago-based Cristo Rey network of 28 schools claims a 95 percent graduation rate, with 100 percent college placements for graduates, Madden said.

Madden said he is preparing a feasibility study, which should be completed in early May. “We are cautiously optimistic that it’s going to happen,” he said of the school.

Plans are for students to be screened to ensure their family income is low enough to qualify and that academically they are no more than two years behind in their grade level, Madden said. The school would also look to enroll students who are motivated to succeed, he said.

According to school materials, 42 percent of students are not Catholic. Planners hope to have a student-teacher ratio of 15-to-1 by the time the school is fully operational.

Roche, who consented to his name being used in this story, although the Tribune normally does not identify victims of sex offenses, says his family was poor growing up. His mother struggled to send him to a good school. He said he was abused when he attended Mary Help of Christians on scholarships in the fourth and the sixth grades.

He said the abuse devastated him for life, affecting his ability to hold a job and his marriage. It also damaged his ability to trust, he says.

Many years ago, he says, he donated to Mary Help of Christians, partly because sexual molestation victims sometimes feel guilty and also because he thought his money could help some boys.

When he got the request for help to open a new school, Roche was stunned. “Are you kidding?” he wrote back. “Don’t you know that I am one of the many boys that was sexually abused by (the Rev. Innocente) Clemente. How dare the Salesians keep sending donation requests to me.”

A year and a half ago, Roche says, he met with a Salesian official, the Rev. Steve Dumais, and discussed his abuse.

“I was very explicit about things,” Roche said. “He said, ‘We’d like to help you. Can we get you some counseling?’ I said, ‘It’s way beyond counseling with you guys. This is something for attorneys to work on.’ That’s the last thing I said to him, and I walked out.”

Roche said his attorney has sent a demand for settlement, an effort to work out a financial agreement short of a lawsuit.

Roche said he hopes the new school will help impoverished students have a better chance at life.

“It’s a great idea, and I hope it works,” Roche said, “because there’s a lot of kids that just need that little push. … If it works, God love them. However, I will never, ever trust the Salesians about anything.”

Roche said child predators can be found in all walks of life. “This is not a Catholic Church thing,” he said. “It’s an individual thing. But it’s what the organization does to the person who’s been molested or guilty” of molesting.

Roche said when a police officer he knew was caught molesting a child, “they fired the guy on the spot.” That didn’t happen with predator priests.

“You would think someone would have done something to lessen the heartache I have,” Roche said, “because it’s not going to go away. It’s forever.”

Madden said plans are to move ahead with the school and help children.

“You can’t undo the past,” Madden said. “What we can do is we can look toward building the future on this campus and what kind of program we’re trying to put in place. … We’ll fully vet any of the adults that have anything to do with any of the students on this campus.”

The Salesians are sponsoring the school but are not running it, Madden said. They will be represented on the board, which will have other members of the community, including business leaders and members of the faith-based and educational communities. The director will be a Salesian priest.

“It will be a whole different governing structure,” Madden said.

Madden said the Mary Help of Christians foundation has offered a $2.5 million matching grant for any money raised for the school. So far, Madden said, planners have raised close to $450,000.

The goal, over two or three years, is to raise $3 million to $4 million, including the match.

“Obviously, we would love to have more raised at this time,” Madden said. “We feel like there is a whole lot of momentum out in the community.”