By Martin Finucane
Associated Press
May 12, 2004

http://www.telegram.com/static/crisisinthechurch/051204.html

Boston - A Gardner man and eight other former students of a now-defunct school for the deaf claim in a lawsuit filed yesterday that they were beaten, sexually molested and emotionally tormented by the nuns who ran the school.

Paul LaRocque, 67, of Gardner, who attended The Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph from 1942 to 1954, said he was only 5 years old when nuns fondled him. He also said he had witnessed similar incidents involving nuns and boys.

"It's just horrible to explain," he said. "It's just awful."

The plaintiffs are suing at least 14 nuns, along with two priests, an athletic instructor and a former top official in the Boston Archdiocese, according to their lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.

The case is the first to allege widespread abuse by nuns since the clergy sex abuse scandal began in Boston in early 2002.

The plaintiffs, three women and six men, ranged in age from 7 to 16 when they were allegedly abused between 1944 and 1977. They are now 41 to 67 years old.

"They are all speech impaired and hearing impaired," said Garabedian, who represents a total of 31 former students at the school and expects to file more lawsuits alleging abuse.

The nuns are all members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston. Their order served as the faculty and administration of the school, which was operated by an independent, nonprofit corporation. The school was open from 1899 until it closed in 1994.

Garabedian said the abuse included fondling, rape and rape with foreign objects. He said at least one student's head was submerged, face-first, in a toilet until she passed out. He said others were locked in closets for hours as punishment.

"The physical abuse is extremely disturbing," said Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of people who filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. "It's disturbing, ugly and pitiful."

The Sisters of St. Joseph, in a statement released yesterday afternoon, emphasized that the school had positively influenced "thousands of lives," but also promised an immediate, fair and sensitive investigation.

"With regard to the accusations of abuse against our sisters and others at The Boston School for the Deaf, we will proceed with sensitivity and dignity for the alleged abused and with a sincere reverence for the truth and respect for civil and canon law," the statement said.

More than two-dozen plaintiffs and supporters crowded quietly into a hotel conference room yesterday. Several made emotional statements through sign language interpreters.

James Sullivan, 55, of Boston, who attended the school from 1953 to 1967, told of a day in third grade in which he had his head slammed into a wall and a door, was slapped around and was hit with a yardstick until he was bloody.

When he went home and told his parents, Sullivan said, they didn't listen to him.

"They felt the nuns were right, you know, they had to discipline me," he said.

Sullivan also alleges in the complaint that he suffered sexual abuse at the school.

"I'm still not a happy person because of all that happened," he said.

The defendants now range in age from 75 to 95, said Garabedian, who filed the 100-page complaint in Suffolk Superior Court.

It names sisters Mary McAvoy, M. John Berchmans, Helen Thomas, M. Joanita O'Connor, Catherine Corrigan, Mary Mark, Bernadette Duggan, Elizabeth Benersani, Mary Carl Boland, Mary Kieran McCormack, Alice Kirby, Helen Callahan and Miriam Theresa Ringer, as well as an unknown nun and priest.

Also listed were Gary Gedney, the school's athletic instructor, the Rev. Charles J. Murphy, a priest of the Boston Archdiocese, and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, who held several top posts in the archdiocese before becoming bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. There were several other defendants whose identities were unknown.

Sister Boland, a former principal of the school who also allegedly physically abused children, reached at a Framingham retirement home for nuns, had nothing to say when asked about the lawsuit.

"I don't know what he's talking about," she said as she passed the phone to another woman. The other woman said, "We are not responding to reporters here" and referred calls to the president of the congregation.

Some defendants were accused of participating in the abuse, while others, such as Daily, were named for negligent supervision of the abusers. Daily, now bishop emeritus of the Brooklyn diocese, didn't immediately return a call to his New York office.

Boston Archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Christopher Coyne did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, headquartered in the city's Brighton section, include more than 500 nuns, a spokeswoman said.