An elite boys school in New Orleans is currently fielding a PR nightmare and it doesn’t look like it’ll be ending any time soon.
On Wednesday, news broke that Jesuit High School in New Orleans quietly paid a former student $450,000 after he was repeatedly raped by priests and staff members.
Ricky Windmann was sexually assaulted over the course of several years while he was a student at the Catholic boys school in the 1970s. He detailed the horrific abuse in an article published by the New Orleans Advocate.
Related: Elite boys school rocked with major sex abuse scandal involving priests, staff, and students
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After that story broke, the school went into crisis mode.
Rev. Christopher Fronk, the president of Jesuit High School, immediately sent out a letter to the Jesuit community saying he was “horrified” by the sexual abuse that took place at the school and calling it a “disgusting time in our history”.
“What happened then is very different from what happens now,” Fronk said. “Jesuit High School of the ’70s and ’80s is not the Jesuit High School of today.”
Except for that time in 2015 when esteemed Jesuit High School alum/volunteer speaker Mike Yenni groomed a 17-year-old boy at a graduation luncheon then proceeded to engage in an ongoing relationship with the teen that involved sexts, a meet up in a mall bathroom, and a $75 pair of underwear.
But maybe that was just an isolated incident?
Related: Republican Lawmaker Finally Talks About Sexting With Catholic School Boy, Insists He’s Not Gay
“I assure you, we are all committed to the safety of everyone on campus,” Fronk said yesterday.
Then last night, local station FOX 8 broke another story involving another lawsuit against another priest at the school.
The priest was Donald Dickerson. The victim? An eighth-grade boy.
“The allegations involved the victim being sexually assaulted in a classroom at Jesuit High School,” attorney Feleshia Peavy tells FOX 8. “He fit right in and found an unsuspecting victim.”
In 2009, Jesuit settled a lawsuit with that victim. Then three years later, in 2012, Peavy found herself representing another victim who also claimed to have been abused by Dickerson.
Only this abuse didn’t happen at Jesuit High School in New Orleans.
You see, officials knew better than to keep him around the school, so they quietly shipped him down to Shreveport, Louisiana, hoping that would solve the problem.
It didn’t.
Related: Did Catholic School Where Mike Yenni Met Teen Boyfriend Know About His Lust For Underagers?
“The allegations in Shreveport surfaced several years later and involved multiple victims, not in a classroom, but in a church he was assigned to,” says Peavy.
While working at St. John Berchmans church, Dickerson found a new boy to molest.
“He made his way into the family, approached the family, gained their confidence,” says Peavy.
Another settlement was reached, though Peavy wouldn’t divulge the exact amount other than to say it was large.
“When you understand that someone has proclivities and conducts themselves as a predator, you don’t shuttle them from assignment to assignment,” she says.
She adds the only way to remedy the problem is for the church to stop protecting abusive priests and instead send the cases to the criminal courts.
“Prosecutions are going to be the catalysts to help the church recognize this is serious,” she asserts.
In the meantime, in his message to the Jesuit community yesterday, Fronk assured people that “Jesuit continues to make a difference in the lives of our students, in the New Orleans community, and in our world.”
jcoberkrom
Until CYA quits being the modus operandi abuse will continue!
GayEGO
And I heard the Catholic Church priests molested boys, having them swim in the nude at the Mens YMCA back in the 1950s.
Juanjo
Nude swimming at the YMCA was once a common thing. It had nothing to do with Catholic priests.
Greg
It’s fun to stay at the Y M C A!
kevininbuffalo
I went to a public high school in the early 70’s. Most of the boys on the swim team would swim nude at practices. That had gone on for years until girls were allowed on the team around about 1972.
justgeo
This is tough for me I was a very horny 13-18 year old in a Benedictine High School and there are a lot of priest teachers I would have loved to have had sex with. Instead I had to tramp the streets and get off once in a while. but that was 1964+++. Hard to tell who wants whome. In my era most guys my age were too damn frightened to even know that they were gay –fags — homos– what ever. I had to lie to have car sex or what ever. Yes I am pissed at all of their fear. Young guys can be horny hot and very manipulative to get the dick they need.
Mick406
Exact same situation for me. I was an altar boy from 1958 through 1965. Never ONCE did a priest even come close to any sexual activities with me. And I wasn’t an ugly kid. I’ve since talked with old classmates and even though we were all around dozens of priests of all ages, not one of us could say a priest had attempted sexual advances on us. It’s strange how these sex stories about priests seem to be in various ‘pockets’ of the USA.
kevininbuffalo
I was an altar boy in the mid 1960’s and never saw or heard about any of this. The only sex scandal we had was when Fr. Art left the priesthood to marry the clerk at Cogan’s drug store.
Harley
I was an alter boy in 6th grade Holy Angels Church in San Angelo, Tx circa 1976 and was molested multiple times, not by a priest, but by a counselor. At the time I considered it exciting that a grown man would want to mess around with me. The man is dead now. I saw the obit a few years back.
QueerTruth
End all support for the Catholic Church. Don’t attend their churches, schools, etc.
Period.
OzJosh
Precisely. Anyone who attends a Catholic Church and/or contributes to their coffers is funding child abuse. It’s that simple.
Greg
It seems like the Catholic Church has a lot of priests who like to fool around with young boys. Almost like, that’s just the way it is. How many years has this been happening? How is it that parents never think of it? They never think that it could happen to their kid. They trust wholeheartedly the priest who has taken a special interest in their son. I mean, they don’t have to automatically be suspicious of their priest, but at least be aware that it could happen. Tell their kid that if the priest or anybody, like the janitor tries anything sexual that they didn’t want to happen, to let them know.
OzJosh
How many years has this been happening? About 2000!
MacAdvisor
After Catholic boys school writes off sex abuse as “history”, new and more shocking details emerge
Comma within the quote, please. That is THE most shocking thing in this article. That there is a Catholic boys school were boys were sexually and physically abused in the 70s is not shocking, but almost expected.
Edude
Apostrophous! Back to school!
After Catholic boys’ school writes off sex abuse as “history,” new and more shocking details emerge.
Comma within the quote, please. That is THE most shocking thing in this article. That there is a Catholic boys’ school where boys were sexually and physically abused in the ’70s is not shocking, but almost expected. ♛
Billy Budd
I guess even Christ himself could have been a pedo, considering how wide spread the practice has always been.
o.codone
I was around priests during my childhood and adolescence and nobody tried to molest me. What was wrong with me? I was a good looking boy, with muscles and a really good package. Somehow I was overlooked and all my boy deliciousness went to waste. I coulda been taken advantage of for years, but wasn’t. So, I hired Gloria Allred to sue the church for being a perfectly sexy young guy whose talent and sexuality was wasted and squandered by the church. That ruined my self esteem. Ruined it for life. I want at least a mil.
Invader7
Well : Jesus Christo DID hang out with TWELVE other men ; he was “born” of a supposed Immaculate Conception /Birth , he had long hair, wore robes & sandals – J.C. was the first known Hippie… Makes one think…..Things that make you go …hummmmmm..
Invader7
Figures The whole RCC institution is totally CORRUPT and ROTTEN to the core. Time to abolish it… Benedict covered up all sorts of abuses. Yet the old queen lives in the Vatican.Know why: he has active warrants – posted through Interpol – waiting for his criminal ,creepy, fang toothed ass !! That old,evil buzzard will do well in the pokey !!!