boarding school

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Ex-Boarding School Principal Charged With Sex Crimes

Lighthouse Christian Academy closed in March amid abuse allegations

(Newser) - A former principal at a Christian boarding school in Missouri that closed in March amid abuse allegations has been charged with sex crimes involving a former student. Craig Wesley Smith Jr. has been charged with forcible sodomy and attempted forcible rape, court records show. He is accused of forcing a...

At Least 17 Dead in Boarding School Fire

13 other children seriously burned in Kenya fire

(Newser) - A fire in a school dormitory in Kenya killed 17 students and seriously burned 13 others, police said Friday. There are fears that the death toll may rise, police said. The cause of the fire Thursday night at Hillside Endarasha Primary in Nyeri county is being investigated, police spokesperson Resila...

Paris Hilton Tells Congress About Boarding School Abuse

Celebrity urges passage of protections for children

(Newser) - Paris Hilton urged Congress on Wednesday to make changes in the nation's child welfare system, describing her own mistreatment as a teenager in residential schools as illustrative of the urgency. "These programs promised growth, healing and support but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely or...

Disturbing Netflix Series Leads to Probe of New York Boarding School

Rampant abuse alleged at now-shuttered institution

(Newser) - A Netflix docuseries spotlighting abuse allegations at a long-shuttered boarding academy for teens in rural northern New York has prompted dozens of new complaints to the local prosecutor and a fresh investigation, the AP reports. The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping started streaming last month. The three-part series by filmmaker...

Elite Eton Delays Opening Due to Overflowing Toilets
Elite Boys School
Has a Potty Problem

Elite Boys School Has a Potty Problem

UK's Eton College delays semester start after Thames sewers overflow, flooding toilets

(Newser) - Students at Eton College started their next semester remotely on Wednesday—not because of COVID or any other contagion, but due to a lavatory issue. Thanks to recent heavy rains in the UK, the Thames has overflowed, which in turn has flooded sewers in Berkshire, where the elite boys boarding...

Dig Begins to Find Buried Native American Children

Archaeologists are seeking lost cemetery on grounds of ex-boarding school in Nebraska

(Newser) - Bodies of dozens of children who died at a Native American boarding school have been lost for decades, a mystery that archaeologists aim to unravel as they begin digging in a central Nebraska field that a century ago was part of the sprawling campus. Crews toting shovels, trowels, and even...

Inside the Push to Regulate 'Gooning'

It's the practice of taking kids against their will to a boarding school or treatment center

(Newser) - Within what's known as the secure transport industry, it's called "gooning," and the AP takes a long look at the practice and burgeoning efforts to finally regulate it. What gooning consists of: Brawny men show up under the cover of darkness and force a teenager into...

Tribal Elders Testify to Boarding School Horrors

Haaland hears Native Americans' accounts of mistreatment in government-backed program

(Newser) - Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday in Oklahoma about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts, and painful nicknames. They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the...

In a First, US Assesses Grim Toll at Native American Schools

At least 500, and probably thousands, of children taken from their families died, report says

(Newser) - For the first time, the federal government has assessed and acknowledged the harm done to Native American children at boarding schools it backed or ran throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries. A report released Wednesday by the Interior Department said the children were subjected to sexual abuse, whippings,...

Police Arrest 7 Boys Linked to School Fire That Killed 23

Malaysian police say suspects were teased by students

(Newser) - Malaysian police say they have arrested seven boys suspected of intentionally starting a fire at an Islamic boarding school that killed 23 people because students there had teased them. Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh said Saturday the boys, aged 11 to 18, were rounded up after they were identified...

Fire Kills 24 at Religious Boarding School

At least 22 teens, 2 teachers dead in Malaysia blaze

(Newser) - A fire killed 24 people, mostly teenagers, trapped behind barred windows and a blocked exit in an Islamic school dormitory on the outskirts of Malaysia's capital early Thursday, officials said. Firefighters rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 5:41am and took an hour to put...

After Abuse Claims, 22 Boys Removed From Boarding School

But no charges are pending

(Newser) - Authorities say 22 boys have been removed from a Christian boys' boarding school in Alabama after claims of abuse, the AP reports. Anthony Lowry of the Sheriff's Department tells AL.com some kids at the school ran away to a neighbor's house and "made allegations of abuse....

Massive Sex Abuse Scandal Swirls Around Prep School

40 alumni say they were abused

(Newser) - A sex abuse scandal is swirling around a Rhode Island prep school. At least 40 former students of St. George's School in Middletown have said they were abused—raped, in some cases—by seven former staffers and four students between 1974 and 2004, lawyers say. The scandal came to...

GOP Sheriff Ran School Plagued by Sex Abuse: Documents

Paul Babeu ran DeSisto School in Massachusetts, later shut down

(Newser) - The Arizona sheriff and Congressional candidate recently caught in a scandal over his gay lover once ran a boarding school that was shut down over abuse allegations, KNXV-TV reports. Paul Babeu was headmaster of the DeSisto School in Stockbridge, Mass., from 1999 to 2001—a time when physical and sexual...

Horrific Abuse Alleged at Monastery in Pope's Old Turf

Abuse transpired in Ratzinger's archdiocese

(Newser) - More bad news for the Catholic Church from Pope Benedict's native Germany, where monks and lay teachers stand accused of abusing students for decades at an elite Catholic boarding school near Munich. Allegations from more than 100 students that monks "brutally mistreated, sadistically tormented and, not least, sexually abused"...

Single-Sex Schools 'Bad for Boys'

Men educated in all-male schools likelier to divorce

(Newser) - Boys taught in all-male schools grow up befuddled by the opposite sex and are likelier to end up divorced and depressed by their 40s, according to new research. The British study, which tracked 17,000 adults who had attended a wide range of single-sex institutions, found no corresponding increase in...

Conn. Boarding School Sued Over Molester Dean

Kids at man's apartment at 'all hours': lawyer

(Newser) - A Connecticut boarding school has been hit with two lawsuits over a former dean’s alleged sexual abuse of students he is charged with having as "overnight guests" in his apartment, the Danbury News-Times reports. The now-fired dean at The Gunnery School was charged Aug. 5 with sexual assault,...

17 Stories