RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe
By Bella English GLOBE STAFF JUNE 08, 2016
The headmaster of St. George’s School, which has been embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal, has informed trustees that he won’t seek to renew his contract, which expires June 30, 2017.
Eric F. Peterson, whose resignation had been sought by many alumni, did not mention the scandal in his letter to trustees but referred to recent months as challenging. The controversy at the school became public in December, after Anne Scott and two other alumnae told of being molested or raped by athletic trainer Al Gibbs in the late 1970s.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the St. George’s community announcing Peterson’s departure, board of trustees chair Leslie Heaney referred briefly to the scandal: “Throughout this transition, the school’s commitment to addressing past instances of sexual abuse and to supporting our survivor community will remain steadfast.”
Peterson, 50, was appointed headmaster of the Episcopal prep school in 2004. His letter included a quote from the poem “Ulysses,” in which Tennyson writes of Greek hero Odysseus “and his desire to return to the sea in search of adventure.” Peterson wrote that he loves the poem “because it describes so well the tension between staying home in a familiar, comfortable setting or chasing the horizon towards an unknown, exciting future.”
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