A child sexual abuse scandal unfolding around St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, has led to the opening of an investigation by the Waynesville, North Carolina police department into the conduct of Rev. Howard H. White, Jr., an Episcopal priest who served in that Haywood County community for more then 20 years after he left St. George’s.
More than 40 former students have reported that they were abused by at least six staff members at the Rhode Island school. An investigation has revealed that White was let go by the headmaster of St. George’s back in 1974 after he learned that White had molested a student. White was told he “should not be In a boarding school,” and “should seek psychiatric help,” yet St. George’s never reported the matter to law enforcement.
Ten years later White began to serve as rector at Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville, where he again had access to minor children. Attorneys Carmen Durso, Eric MacLeish and Leto Copeley represent a woman who has reported to the police that she was molested by White in the mid-1980s while he was rector. White served at the North Carolina church for more than twenty years.
The investigation into White has been reported recently in the Providence Journal and the Boston Globe.
White left St. George’s and went on to serve as chaplain and dean of academics at Chatham Hall, a girls’ school in Virginia, and later as assistant headmaster and teacher of history and English at Asheville Country Day School in Asheville, North Carolina. He has most recently been working at St. James Church in Bedford, Pennsylvania. Upon learning of the sexual abuse allegations, he was removed from his position there.
As we at this law firm continue to investigate this matter we ask that anyone with knowledge about improper conduct by Rev. Howard H. White Jr. call us at (919) 627-1356, or email us. Anyone with direct knowledge of criminal activity should report that activity to the Waynesville NC police department.