Private School Says Teacher Abused 7 Boys 5 Decades Ago
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- An all-boys private school in a Maryland suburb of Washington says seven alumni have reported sexual abuse by a now-deceased fifth-grade teacher.
News outlets report leaders of the Landon School said in a letter Thursday that Ward Bates was accused of repeated abuse by men who are now in their 60s and 70s. Bates taught at the Bethesda school from 1946 to 1962, and died in 2011.
Bates was a summer counselor at New Hampshire's Camp Wachusett and taught at Minnesota's Blake School after Landon. The school has shared the investigation's findings with both organizations.
The letter also said another deceased faculty member was accused of sexual contact with a student in the 1970s. That instructor's name was not released.
Landon officials offered the victims their "sincerest remorse and apologies."
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