RI--Child porn teacher was with 7 year olds in RI

For immediate release: Thursday, Feb. 5

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected], [email protected])

A man now in prison for child sex crimes was quietly ousted by a Minnesota Episcopal school before he moved to Rhode Island where he taught seven year olds.  We’re both sad and worried that Rhode Island kids were put in harm’s way by callous, selfish Episcopal school staffers.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/02/05/shattuck-st-marys   

Depositions and court records paint a disturbing picture of how Episcopal officials shielded Lynn Seibel.

Minnesota Public Radio reports “The head of Shattuck-St. Mary's School agreed to pay a teacher who had child pornography on his work computer $12,500 as part of a confidential separation agreement in 2003. The agreement came two years after an internal investigation was unable to substantiate claims that the teacher had sexually abused students.

The school official, who didn't report the illegal images to police, also agreed to pay for temporary health insurance for the teacher, provide free tuition for his son and keep the reason for the resignation secret.”

Seibel’s resume says he worked at the Community College of Rhode Island (starting in 2010), founded the Lancaster Actors Studio in Providence (2009), directed acting at the International Talent Showcase in Providence (from 2005-2009), was an acting instructor at the Rhode Island Modeling Agency in East Providence (from 2005-2009) and was in marketing and sales at Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence (2005-2008).

This is another example of how church officials often make secret payments to proven, admitted or credibly accused sex offenders to make or help them quietly “go away” without warning parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors or the public about these dangerous men and women.

Seibel’s secret ouster happened just one year after the Catholic church abuse scandal made international headlines (and almost two decades after the first Minnesota predator priest made national headlines). So one would have hoped that Minnesota Episcopal school officials might have learned from that crisis and acted more responsibly and less selfishly.

Shattuck-St. Mary's president Nick Stoneman should be fired immediately.

We beg anyone in Rhode Island who may have seen, suspected or suffered Seibel’s crimes to call law enforcement. We beg the institutions in Rhode Island where Seibel worked to aggressively reach out to others he may have hurt. And we urge Rhode Island Episcopal officials to use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to seek out others with information or suspicions about his crimes, so that he might be prosecuted again and kept away from kids even longer.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy 314-566-9790, [email protected], Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003, [email protected], Barbara Blaine 312-399-4747, [email protected]