NORTH KINGSTOWN – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island this month concluded its investigation into the North Kingstown School Department, citing that the schools have now implemented “sufficient corrective actions” to address matters stemming from complaints that the schools failed to respond appropriately to sex discrimination reports related to the alleged conduct of former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas.
Thomas, the longtime former boys’ basketball coach, was arrested in July 2022 on charges of felony second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault. He has been accused of conducting body fat tests on students for many years while serving as a coach and teacher within the schools.
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Along with the current investigation by the R.I. Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office opened an investigation into the school department after student-athletes filed a complaint that the high school violated students’ civil rights by allowing Thomas to disrobe athletes for “fat tests” for two decades. In his six-page letter to local attorneys involved in the case, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha says the investigation revealed that the school department’s “deficient responses” to Thomas’ alleged conduct were “endemic of a broader failure” to ensure that its schools implement its harassment and reporting policies and procedures “with fidelity.”
“The [school department] failed to implement sufficient policies, procedures, training, and oversight to protect students, particularly student-athletes, from sex-based harassment by faculty and coaches,” Cunha wrote. He also said the school department “had no uniform approach” to investigate sex-based harassment allegations, saying such practices for documenting and investigating such claims “varied, often on an ad hoc basis” depending on who received the claim and looked into it.
Cunha wrote that the school department has designated personnel, one being a human resources and Title IX director and the other being the assistant superintendent, to coordinate and oversee all investigations and complaints. The school’s athletic department, Cunha wrote, also has been restructured so that the athletic director meets biweekly with the superintendent.
Plus, all coaches working within the school department, including volunteer coaches, must complete background checks and training, including “training on appropriate boundaries,” Cunha wrote. The school department’s consultants have also provided training, which started in August, on the school’s new antidiscrimination policy to everyone, including all students, faculty and staff, Cunha said.
The new policy’s trainings, he said, provided “clear instructions on how and when to report concerns and to whom, and real-life scenarios to help participants understand appropriate boundaries and how to identify and report harassment and discrimination.”
Thomas, according to a report from WPRI-TV CBS 12, has filed a motion to have his criminal case dismissed, citing that the state has a lack of evidence he had underage students undress privately for “sexual arousal or gratification.”
The R.I. Attorney General’s Office, however, alleges that Thomas did become sexually aroused in at least two instances while conducting fat tests on students, per WPRI-TV’s report.
A hearing for the case dismissal has been scheduled for March 1.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
