In a year marked by a series of disclosures and accusations of sexual assaults of private school students by former and current faculty and staff at schools across the country, East Greenwich's Rocky Hill School chose to turn the public spotlight on themselves.
Rather than wait to see if his school would be next, Head of School James Tracy chose to be proactive. In a July letter, he asked any alumni with knowledge of previous sexual assaults by current or former faculty and staff to come forward and speak with the school, as well as attorneys from Providence-based Nixon Peabody LLC.
A September letter from Tracy informed the school's community that an ongoing internal investigation had opened into allegations brought by three alumnae against a former faculty member for rape and sexual misconduct in the 1970s. The girls were between the ages of 16 and 18 at the time and had not previously reported the incidents. As stipulated by law, the Rocky Hill administration immediately reported the allegations to the Warwick Police Department.
Tracy, who took over as head of school on July 1, said the decision to be proactive was driven by the findings of a Boston Globe Spotlight report that detailed decades-long sexual misconduct at St. George's School in Middletown.
The school wanted "to do the right thing," he said, applauding the women for having the courage to report the misconduct.
A third letter, dated Nov. 15, reported the conclusion of the internal investigation after hearing allegations of rape and sexual misconduct against a former faculty member during the 1970s, as well as sexual misconduct against a separate former faculty member during the 1960s. Both former faculty members have been barred from campus and from attending off-campus, school-sponsored events.
According to Tracy, none of the former students who came forward with allegations of rape or sexual misconduct brought charges against the school. "There wasn't the slightest hint of legal action on their part," said Tracy. The school offered each of them counseling. Tracy said the former students were "uniformly appreciative" of the support the school has given them, especially "inviting them to come forward when we didn't have to."
Myra McGovern, spokesperson at the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Independent Schools, a nonprofit supporting independent and private schools and their students, said Rocky Hill's pre-emptive actions weren't "unheard of, but it's very rare."
Tracy said the primary benefit to the school was "to redress past events and move forward, involving increased training for teachers."
And there was another potential benefit Tracy could not have anticipated: The school's open house for prospective families this fall attracted the most families since 2007. •