Suit Claims Abuse by Nuns at Mass. School

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Suit Claims Abuse by Nuns at Mass. School


By MARTIN FINUCANE
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 11, 2004; 11:12 AM

BOSTON - Nine former students of the Boston School for the Deaf filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging they were raped and beaten by nuns at the now-defunct school.

The plaintiffs accused at least 13 nuns in the lawsuit, along with a priest and a male athletic instructor at the school and a former top official in the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese, according to their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

The alleged victims, three women and six men, were between the ages of 7 and 16 when, they claim, they were sexually and physically abused between 1944 and 1977. The Boston School for the Deaf, in Randolph, was run by an independent, nonprofit corporation until it closed more than a decade ago.

"They are all speech-impaired and hearing-impaired," said Garabedian, who represents a total of 31 former students at the school and expects to file more lawsuits. "Instead of receiving an education they received beatings and sexually abusive actions."