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  Two Teachers Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Matthew Hay Brown
Baltimore Sun
March 2, 2006

Two Catholic school teachers, one of them a deacon, have been accused of sexually abusing a male student at Our Lady of Pompei High School during the early- to mid-1990s, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said yesterday.

Thom Kuhl and Eric Price have denied the allegations made last month by the former student, archdiocesan spokesman Sean T. Caine said.

Kuhl, now a deacon at Our Lady of Pompeii Church in Highlandtown and a religion teacher at Towson Catholic High School, and Price, a teacher at Archbishop Borders School in Highlandtown, have been suspended from their duties while the archdiocese investigates, Caine said.

Neither man had been accused of sexual abuse before, Caine said.

The former student said he was abused over a two-year period while he attended Our Lady of Pompeii High School during the early to mid-1990s, Caine said. He made the allegations during a meeting Feb. 9 with the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection.

The archdiocese alerted the city state's attorney's office and Baltimore police within 24 hours, Caine said.

A spokesman for the state's attorney's office said yesterday that prosecutors were notified of the allegations Feb. 17. They cannot comment further because of the continuing investigation, they said.

Church officials have offered counseling to the former student and the two teachers, sent letters to parishioners at Our Lady of Pompeii Church and parents of students at Archbishop Borders and Towson Catholic, and held meetings in Highlandtown and Towson to answer questions, seek additional information and describe resources available, said spokesman Joseph Sviatko.

Kuhl has been a deacon at Our Lady of Pompeii Church since his ordination in 1988, according to the archdiocese. He taught at Our Lady of Pompeii High School from 1985 to 2000 and at Our Lady of the Rosary High School from 2000 to 2004. He has been teaching at Towson Catholic since 2004.

Price held nonteaching jobs at Our Lady of Pompeii High School from 1995 to 1999, at Our Lady of Pompeii Elementary School from 1995 to 2001 and at Our Lady of Pompeii Church from 1999 to 2002. He began his teaching career at the elementary school in 2001 and moved to Archbishop Borders in 2002.

CORRECTION:

An article in yesterday's Maryland section about sexual abuse allegations against two Catholic school teachers incorrectly suggested that the Archdiocese of Baltimore did not immediately contact city prosecutors upon learning of the allegations. A spokesman for the archdiocese says representatives of the state's attorney's office were called within 24 hours. Also, statements about counseling services and school meetings were incorrectly attributed to state's attorney's spokesman Joseph Sviatko. The statements should have been attributed to archdiocesan spokesman Sean T. Caine.

The Sun regrets the errors.

 
 

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