Sex abuse scandal rocks exclusive school

For more than a century, St. George's School in Rhode Island has been part of the pedigree of some of the richest and most influential families in the United States. Astors, Vanderbilts and Bushes have attended the exclusive boarding school, where students can go sailing, play on squash courts or simply enjoy a sweeping view of the sea from the hilltop campus.

But since at least the 1970s, leaders at St. George's kept a secret.

Dozens of former students have come forward to say they were raped or molested by employees and schoolmates over the past four decades. St. George's acknowledged in a report in December that it repeatedly failed to notify police and child welfare authorities as required by law.

The school's current leadership has characterized the abuse as a problem of the past and said it discovered the extent of the misconduct only recently. But many accusers have disputed that, and much of their anger has fallen on Eric Peterson, headmaster since 2004.

Peterson was told in 2004, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2015 about numerous allegations of abuse, according to interviews with alumni and documents.

Many alumni are calling on Peterson to step down. Some even want the entire board swept clean.

"It's like a charade of arrogant exceptionalism that is endemic in the school, in the leadership of the school," said Hawk Cramer, an alumnus who said he was molested by the choir director in the 1980s and told Peterson about it in 2004.

Some alumni said the school's leaders hushed up the abuse to protect the reputation of St. George's, which was founded in 1896. The $56,000-a-year Episcopal institution just outside Newport has about 400 high school-age students and a rich endowment of more than $140 million.

A spokeswoman for both the school and Peterson declined to comment on specific allegations, citing an independent investigation under way.