New Choate Allegations Not The Only Sex Abuse Cases Haunting Private Schools In Connecticut. Here's an Update.

Oct. 15--Charges of sexual abuse against former faculty members, leveled by alumni still traumatized 30 years later, have prompted a string of elite private schools in Connecticut to commission reports on what one lawsuit describes as, "a circle of silence."

At Choate, at Loomis Chaffee, at the Hotchkiss School, new allegations of past abuse have surfaced. At several schools, lawsuits, containing detailed narratives of the sexual assault of former students who are now middle-aged adults still reeling under the weight of the memories, are working their way through court.

It is a reparation movement of sorts, a quest "to bring wrongdoers to justice," said lawyer Annika K. Martin, who represents two former Hotchkiss students who are suing the school.

Here's a look at the way things stand at Connecticut schools implicated in sex abuse cases:

After lawyer Nancy Kestenbaum, a former prosecutor, finished a report in April linking a dozen former teachers to sexual abuse of students spanning decades, a new probe confirmed additional instances of abuse.

Lawyers from Day Pitney, led by former U.S, Attorney Stanley J, Twardy Jr., documented new complaints of sexual malfeasance by three additional former teachers, and confirmed new cases of misconduct by on the part of three former faculty who had already been named in the Kestenbaum report.

In an open letter, the school's trustees said they "apologize deeply to all survivors who suffered abuse at our school and to their families ... We also recognize that [the latest probe] details troubling instances where the school failed to address reports of misconduct appropriately. We know that our constant vigilance is required, and we have taken many steps and committed resources to protecting our community."

Loomis Chaffee, having commissioned an investigation in 2016 into past sexual abuse of students by faculty reaching from the 1940s to the 2000s, is now reporting that it has discovered more cases.

School officials, in a letter posted to the school community, said that after the law firm of Cowdery & Murphy finished its inquiry and submitted a report in January 2017 "additional alumni came forward with allegations of sexual abuse."

The school said it has reported these additional allegations to the state Department of Children and Families, something the school admitted not doing in the past cases.

An investigation completed in August found that seven former faculty members sexually abused students for decades while administrators failed to take action.

The report found that 16 students had been subjected to unwanted contact from male faculty, including intercourse and unnecessary gynecological exams. It also documented instances of administrators failing to intervene when made aware of the sexual misconduct, which happened between 1969 and 1992.

"To the survivors of abuse, we apologize from the bottom of our hearts," wrote Jean Weinberg Rose, president of the school's board of trustees, and Craig Bradley, the school's current head. "The School did not live up to its commitment to protect you. We apologize with humility -- understanding that words cannot measure our sadness and regret or erase the harm that you endured."

Two separate lawsuits by former students, one filed in 2016, the other on Friday, allege that English teacher and erstwhile athletic trainer Roy G. "Uncle Roy" Smth Jr. sexually assaulted them.

Despite numerous complaints of sexual misconduct and pedophilia, Smith was able to remain on campus as teacher, non-credentialed trainer and dorm leader for 30 years before departing in 2000. He died in 2014.

A lawsuit filed in the spring was the latest from a former student to accuse former teacher Chris Simonds of sexual assault at "photo club" meetings run by Simonds out of a padlocked basement and in the teacher's on-campus apartment at the exclusive K-Grade 9 school in Salisbury.

Starting when he was 12, Ramsay Gourd and other boys were unwillingly plied by Simonds with cigarettes, alcohol, speed and microdot LSD, molested dozens of times in Simonds' apartment, and blackmailed with nude photos that Simonds took of a circle of boys that he molested, known as "Simonds' pets," the lawsuit states.

The case is pending in federal court. It is at least the ninth child sexual abuse complaint lodged against the school since the 1990s. The school has settled at least eight of them, including three last year.

In 1996, The Courant exposed a string of sexual abuse allegations against Simonds. The allegations surfaced after the criminal statute of limitations had expired, and Simonds was never charged.

A former student alleged in a lawsuit in May 2017 that she was sexually abused by a teacher almost 30 years ago and treated cruelly by Kent staff and students after they learned of the abuse.

Nicola Briggs, now 44 and a New York resident, said former teacher Clyde Douglas Fenner used his "power, authority and influence" to initiate and engage in sexual relations, including sexual intercourse, many times during Briggs' first year at the school in 1987-88, when Briggs was 15.

At the time, Fenner, who was a married teacher in the French department, was 49 or 50, the suit says. Fenner was discharged from the school in 1988 after the alleged abuse was discovered.

The case is scheduled for trial in Superior Court in Litchfield in June 2019.

An investigation in 2016 found "credible evidence" that Kingswood Oxford School faculty members engaged in sexual relationships with students during the 1970s and 1980s, the West Hartford school told alumni in a letter Monday.

The school was forced to look inward after an unsigned letter was distributed among Kingswood Oxford alumni containing detailed allegations of misconduct, including the names of faculty members and in some cases the students with whom teachers and coaches engaged in sexual relationships.

Among those named in the letter was an instructor who was still on the staff when the investigation was announced in June. That teacher, who could not be reached for comment Monday, is no longer listed in the school's faculty directory.

Others teachers and coaches named in the letter have gone on to positions at other private schools, including schools in Connecticut.

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A private investigation commissioned by the school concluded in 2016 that a headmaster engaged in "inappropriate sexual conduct" with students when he led the school more than 60 years ago.

In a letter this week to alumni and parents, the current headmaster and board chairman reported that the investigation found credible evidence against Arthur Milliken, who served as headmaster from 1936 to 1956. Milliken died in 1973.

The school in 2016 revealed that several of its teachers engaged in improper conduct with students between the 1970s and 2000s, adding its name to a list of elite boarding schools now reckoning with past sexual misconduct by educators.

Head of School J. Timothy Richards and board of trustees Chairman Justin P. Klein sent a letter to the school community detailing the results of an independent investigation into the misconduct.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said the investigation found four teachers "more likely than not" engaged in sexual misconduct. One case happened in the early 1970s, one in the 1980s, one spanned the 1980s to early 1990s and the fourth happened after 2000, the report said.

The letter said investigators also received nine other reports involving allegations ranging from boundary violations to sexual misconduct.

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