Elite prep school agrees to settle up to 30 sex abuse claims

Elite prep school agrees to settle up to 30 sex abuse claims

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — St. George's School has agreed to a settlement that would provide compensation for up to 30 former students who say they were sexually abused, the elite Rhode Island boarding school announced Wednesday.

The Middletown school announced the pact in a joint statement with a group representing sex abuse victims, saying the institution will provide an undisclosed sum to settle the claims.

Katie Wales Lovkay told the headmaster in 1979 that an athletic trainer abused her, but he sent her to the school therapist and did not report it to authorities.

A state police investigation concluded earlier this year with no criminal charges.

St. George's was founded in 1896 and counts among its graduates poet Ogden Nash, former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean and former Republican Connecticut U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush, the father and grandfather of the Bush presidents.