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More than 2 dozen former students of an elite prep school have reached a financial settlement over claims of sexual abuse

Abby Jackson
he campus at St. George's School in Middletown, R.I. More than 40 former students at the school alleged they were molested, mostly in the 1970s and '80s. Some of the distinguished New England boarding schools that have long been training grounds for America's elite are facing a reckoning with alumni and students coming forward with complaints of sexual abuse at the hands of schoolmates and teachers.
he campus at St. George's School in Middletown, R.I. More than 40 former students at the school alleged they were molested, mostly in the 1970s and '80s. Some of the distinguished New England boarding schools that have long been training grounds for America's elite are facing a reckoning with alumni and students coming forward with complaints of sexual abuse at the hands of schoolmates and teachers.

(St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island.AP Photo/Steven Senne)

At least 28 former students of St. George's School, an elite prep school in Rhode Island, have reached a financial settlement with the school over allegations of sexual abuse and rape, The New York Times reported.

The exact terms and amount of money involved in the settlement have not been disclosed.

The alleged sexual abuse took place from 1974 through 2004, according to a report released by St. George's in December.

Four of the seven accused former teachers are currently alive and two seem to still be working in a setting with children, The Times reported in January.

"St. George’s has done something meaningful and important for survivors," Anne Scott, a 1980 graduate of St. George's said in a statement, according to The Times.

“It’s hard to put into words what it feels like to receive this kind of validation and support, after all these years,” she continued.

Anne Scott, of Charlottesville, Va., center, and Katie Wales Lovkay, of Granby, Conn., right, who both attended St. George's School from 1977-1980, face reporters during a news conference as attorney Eric MacLeish, left, looks on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, in Boston. Former students of the prestigious boarding school in Middletown, R.I., are calling for an independent investigation into sexual abuse that they say spanned three decades and involved at least seven former staff members. Scott and Lovkay claim they were sexually assaulted by the school's now deceased athletic trainer. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Anne Scott, of Charlottesville, Va., center, and Katie Wales Lovkay, of Granby, Conn., right, who both attended St. George's School from 1977-1980, face reporters during a news conference as attorney Eric MacLeish, left, looks on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, in Boston. Former students of the prestigious boarding school in Middletown, R.I., are calling for an independent investigation into sexual abuse that they say spanned three decades and involved at least seven former staff members. Scott and Lovkay claim they were sexually assaulted by the school's now deceased athletic trainer. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

(Anne Scott, center, and Katie Wales Lovkay, right, who both attended St. George's School from 1977 to 1980, speak to reporters during a news conference.AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Scott is a 1980 graduate of St. George's who claims she was raped repeatedly over a two-year period by the school's former athletic trainer, Al Gibbs, who is now deceased.

She said that the alleged sexual abuse had a deeply negative effect on her well-being.

"I stopped talking or communicating with people, interacting with people, for long periods of time after that," she said during a press conference in January.

"My parents did get me into therapy when I was in college, and through that, I was hospitalized four times — one time for a prolonged period during my early 20s."

The Rhode Island State Police had been conducting a separate investigation, but it ended in June without any criminal charges.

St. George's again expressed its "profound" apologies for the pain caused at the school.

“While the news I am reporting is a significant step forward, our Board — comprised of alumni, parents and other caring community members — can never express adequately our regret and sorrow that some in our St. George’s family were harmed in the past by the very people who were supposed to nurture and protect them,” board of trustees Chairwoman Leslie B. Heaney wrote in a letter to the school's community.



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