As if we needed another child rape scandal involving a famous institution of higher learning . . .
Reuters (“In wake of Penn State, another college reveals abuse probe“):
In the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, another university, The Citadel military college in South Carolina, revealed on Saturday that it had investigated accusations against a camp counselor but took no action.
The man has since been jailed on separate charges of molesting five boys in Mount Pleasant, near Charleston, South Carolina.
“We regret that we did not pursue this matter further,” Citadel President Lt. General John Rosa and Board of Visitors Chair Doug Snyder said in a statement.
The Citadel said it investigated four years ago accusations of inappropriate conduct with children by Louis Neal “Skip” ReVille, who was a counselor at the military school’s camp.ReVille is a graduate of The Citadel, the college said, and worked as a counselor at the school’s camp for three summers between 2001 and 2003.
In 2007, a former camper at The Citadel Summer Camp informed the school that five years earlier, when he was 14, ReVille invited him and another boy into his room where the three watched pornography on ReVille’s computer and masturbated, college officials said.
“Because of the seriousness of the accusation, The Citadel’s general counsel conducted an investigation immediately, including traveling to the individual and his family and conducting an interview,” the statement said. “A thorough review of Mr. ReVille’s records revealed no other complaints, and interviews indicated that he was highly regarded by those at camp. His file included a clean background check conducted by an outside organization. Unlike his admissions to current charges, Mr. ReVille strongly denied the accusation.”
After graduation from The Citadel, ReVille was a principal at Coastal Christian Preparatory School and had coached sports for years at several area schools and recreation centers, police said. He was arrested in October on the child molestation charges.
This is a thin report but it sounds like, unlike Penn State, the Citadel took the matter seriously and that their regret is based on subsequent evidence of ReVille’s crimes, not covering up the ones they knew about. That the incident involved one of their graduates and took place at a camp they sponsored is significant. But, unlike the Penn State situation–where a credible adult witness personally witnessed someone raping a child and all parties from the university president on down thought the right action was to cover the matter up and facilitate the rape of additional children–the Citadel case involves an allegation from a child after the fact and an investigation that couldn’t corroborate said allegation.
