St. Ignatius College Prep accused of retaliation for abuse report: SNAP responds
For immediate release: June 10, 2025
SF Gate reported today that a former longtime teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School filed a lawsuit last week accusing the school of firing him for reporting another teacher’s "alleged sexual misconduct." SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is very disturbed by the claims in the complaint.
Ted Curry worked in the drama department at St. Ignatius from 2000 until his termination on February 11th. The lawsuit claims that the school retaliated against Mr. Curry because his 2006 report on another drama teacher, Peter Devine, revealed that the school had “covered up” the accusation.
Mr. Curry’s 2006 report resurfaced when a former St. Ignatius student accused Mr. Devine of sexually abusing him in 1996. During the school’s internal investigation into that accusation, Mr. Curry informed the investigator about his report.
Following this disclosure, the suit claims St. Ignatius began to retaliate against Mr. Curry “almost immediately.” The student accusing Mr. Devine of sexual abuse in 1996 subsequently filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in 2023. Mr. Curry is expected to testify in the trial on Sept. 9th.
While SNAP has no first-hand knowledge about the underlying facts, the accusations in this lawsuit sound very similar to what happened to Fr. John Conley years ago. Fr. Conley also filed a civil action, in that case against the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The lawsuit resulted in a settlement in 2002, not long after the Globe's ground-breaking reports of abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subsequent promises of openness on abuse cases in the Dallas Charter. The resolution of Fr. Conley's lawsuit included an acknowledgement that he was correct to make a report of suspected child abuse by a fellow priest.
If Mr. Curry is facing retaliation for making a report, it is sad to us that after more than 20 years, Catholic officials' first reaction still seems to be to protect the institution, rather than being grateful to those who speak up to protect children from harm.
We also note that the timeline in this case spans several San Francisco archbishops and at least one other Jesuit president of St. Ignatius. Fr Edward Reece ("Fr. Eddie" in the SFGate article) only came to St. Ignatius in 2016. The allegedly suppressed report by Mr. Curry in 2006 was given to a different Jesuit-led administration. We hope that highly placed Jesuits will speak out on this issue and demand transparency, as they did in the case of Fr. Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik.
It seems to us that Mr. Curry did the right thing in the past, and is now doing his civic duty by testifying about what he knows in support of the 1996 survivor. If St. Ignatius truly retaliated against him, Mr. Curry is paying a high price for acting with integrity.
CONTACT: Dan McNevin, SNAP Board of Directors Treasurer ([email protected], 415-341-6417), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Director ([email protected], 925-708-6175), Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Interim Executive Director ([email protected], 814-341-8386)
