Nonnen misbruik op het doven instituut

May 12, 2004
9 Students at School for Deaf Say They Were Abused by Nuns
By KATIE ZEZIMA

Nine former students of a now-closed Massachusetts school for the deaf filed a lawsuit on Tuesday saying they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused by the Roman Catholic nuns who operated the institution.

The plaintiffs, all of whom are deaf and mute, said they were raped, fondled, beaten, stuffed into lockers and had their heads submerged in toilets by nuns. The plaintiffs were ages 4 to 18 at the time, specified in the lawsuit as 1944 to 1977, while they were students at the Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph, a suburb of Boston. The school, which was operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, closed in 1994.

The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court here, names 14 nuns, one priest, a staff member and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, the retired bishop of Brooklyn who had served in the Archdiocese of Boston, as defendants. It seeks unspecified monetary compensation.

''They were supposed to receive an education,'' said the former students' lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, who added that he represented 22 more students willing to sue the defendants. ''Instead, they were sexually molested, physically abused and mentally tormented. They cannot hear. They cannot speak.''

Mr. Garabedian said many of the students had their hands tied behind their backs for trying to use sign language, which was discouraged at the school in favor of oral communication.

In a statement, the Sisters of St. Joseph said they would investigate the accusations, which they said they first heard on Tuesday.

''We will proceed with sensitivity and dignity for the alleged abused and with a sincere reverence for the truth and respect for civil and canon law,'' the statement said. A lawyer for the order, William Shaevel, did not return calls for comment. A lawyer for Bishop Daily said the bishop had no comment.

The suit is the first claiming extensive abuse by nuns since the scandal of sexual abuse by members of the clergy erupted here in early 2002.
Mr. Garabedian represented hundreds of people who said they had been abused by John J. Geoghan, a defrocked priest who was killed in prison last year.

The archdiocese reached an $85 million settlement last year with more than 500 people who said they had been abused by priests.