SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Aaron Thomas, the former longtime North Kingstown High School head boys’ basketball coach, on Monday was acquitted of second-degree charges of child molestation and sexual abuse after a month-long trial over allegations stemming from naked fat tests he conducted on students, according to a report from WPRI-TV CBS 12.
However, a Washington County Superior Court jury found Thomas guilty of two counts of misdemeanor battery. Such verdicts can carry up to one year in prison for each and a fine. But Thomas being found not guilty on the second-degree charges helps him avoid major jail time.
Thomas
was arrested back in July 2022, accused of conducting body fat tests on students in the nude for many years while serving as a coach and teacher within the schools. The investigation involved interviews with more than 30 NKHS students who attended the school from the 1990s through 2020.
The state alleged Thomas engaged in sexual contact with one victim “by force or coercion or while engaging in the medical treatment of the victim for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification or stimulation” between Sept. 1, 2019, and Feb. 22, 2020. During the trial, which included testimony from former NKHS students and Thomas himself, defense attorneys argued, according to WPRI-TV, that Thomas’ practice of pinching students’ upper inner thighs with calipers, and pressing into their groin area for so-called “trigger point tests” didn’t violate any laws.
Fallout from the controversy included then-North Kingstown School Superintendent Philip Auger
resigning in March 2022, four months before Thomas’ arrest. In early 2022, then-U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha said
an investigation by his office found 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.”
But, that same investigation found that North Kingstown’s schools have now implemented “sufficient corrective actions” to address matters stemming from those complaints.
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 X at @James_Bessette.
