Student’s Alleged Rape in Costa Rica by Choate Boarding School Instructor Detailed in Report

Share this article

The Boston Globe detailed a report released yesterday on alleged cases of sexual abuse and assault on Choate Rosemary Hall students by former educators at the New England private boarding school over the past more than four decades.

One of the cases detailed includes jaw-dropping allegations by a former female student whose story was confirmed by eyewitnesses about how her former Choate Spanish teacher forced her into anal sex in a resort swimming pool while on a class trip in Costa Rica.

The prestigious Choate school, located in Wallingford, Connecticut, counts among its alumni former President John F. Kennedy, two-time presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, and playwright Edward Albee.

Michael J. Carr, head of the Choate board, and Alex Curtis, headmaster, related the report findings in a letter to the school community yesterday, said The Globe, after an investigator they hired uncovered graphic experiences of 24 survivors of sexual misconduct from 1963-2010.

“The detailed content of this report is devastating to read,” wrote Carr and Curtis in a letter accompanying the 50-page report to the school community. “One can only have the greatest sympathy and deepest concern for the survivors. The conduct of these adults violated the foundation of our community: the sacred trust between students and the adults charged with their care.”

While the greatest number of reports concerned abuse in the 1980s, the most serious allegation, which the school failed to report to authorities, is the alleged 1999 assault by Jaime Rivera-Murillo, Choate Spanish teacher, on a 17-year-old female student while they were on a school trip in Costa Rica.

The report details how a male classmate of the girl allegedly tried to separate the teacher from the teen, an account corroborated by three former classmates who said they also witnessed the episode. “One of her classmates tried to yank Rivera-Murillo off the girl, and the teacher ‘tried to take a swing at’ him,” said the disturbing report.

The report found that in almost all of the sexual abuse and assault cases, school officials quietly fired teachers or allowed them to resign, and did nothing to follow up on the cases in a formal manner.

For example, Rivera-Murillo has since gone on to work at other schools after being fired for “just cause’’ shortly after the allegations surfaced. When Choate recently contacted the Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield, Conn., where Rivera-Murillo had been principal for the past year, he resigned, according to Christine Chinni, lawyer for the public school, as cited in The Globe.

Investigator Nancy Kestenbaum, the lawyer hired by Choate to look into the allegations, interviewed over 100 individuals, including alumni, staff and trustees, and her team reviewed more than 23,000 pages of documents over the past seven months.

When Choate learned of the Costa Rica allegation, the dean of students was in Costa Rica within 24 hours. In March, Kestenbaum interviewed Rivera-Mirillo who acknowledged to drinking with the students that night, but denied engaging in sexual misconduct, according to the report.

Chinni explained that Rivera-Murillo “didn’t list Choate as a former employer when he applied,’’ according to The Globe.

The Globe also said that Choate has set up an independent therapy fund to help alumni who suffered abuses.

The full report, which has graphic details, is available at this link.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments

Popular Content