RHODE ISLAND
WBUR
By FRED THYS
BOSTON Attorneys say 40 credible victims have come forward alleging they were sexually assaulted during their time at St. George’s, a private Episcopalian boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island. The allegations involve seven former staff members at the school and four former students.
Three former students traveled to Boston Tuesday afternoon to talk about their abuse.
Katie Wales would have graduated in 1980. She used to go see athletic trainer Al Gibbs, now dead, because she injured her back riding a horse. She said Gibbs would lead her through the boys locker room and lock her inside the training room.
“And there was the, ‘Oh, I have to work on your back but you can’t have your T-shirt or your bra on, because I can’t work on your muscles that way,’ ” Wales recounted during a press conference Tuesday. “And then that turned around into, ‘Well, I have to work the front muscles also.’ And then, ‘Oh, let me show you how to dry yourself on your private areas.’ ”
Anne Scott did graduate in 1980. She said Gibbs raped her repeatedly over a two-year period.
“I was threatened not to tell. If I told anyone, he would come after me and I would be in trouble,” Scott said. “I said nothing to anyone. I developed an eating disorder. I developed post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, major anxiety and depression.”
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