Poly Prep Settles Sex Abuse Lawsuit

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Poly Prep Country Day School (known familiarly as “Poly Prep”) is an elite K-12 private school located in Brooklyn, New York. In 1966, Poly Prep hired Phil Foglietta as a phy-ed teacher and coach of its woeful football team. The complaint, filed with the U. S. District Court Eastern District of New York, alleges that Foglietta sexual abused of dozens if not hundreds of boys.

The complaint also alleges that certain administrators, faculty, and members of the Board of Trustees engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse. Some boys, who reported the abuse to school officials, were threatened with expulsion.

The complaint notes that when the parents of one of the victims, called “Foggy’s Boys,” reported the abuse to administrators, Poly Prep conducted a sham investigation. The protection of the substantial increase in revenue, received from alumni donations because of the now highly successful football program, is claimed to have been a motivating factor. This is a perfect example of why abuse must be reported to the police.

After decades of sexually abusing boys, Coach Foglietta was finally fired in 1991 for sexual misconduct and died in 1998.

Although the details of the settlement are unknown, the lawsuit sought $20 million for each of the twelve plaintiffs. The plaintiffs claim that severe depression, drug and alcohol addiction, and crippling emotional difficulties are the direct and proximate result of the sexual abuse.

One of the victims said he used drugs and alcohol to “get as out of my head as I could get. I was a zombie.”

The school’s current headmaster, David Harman, released a statement:

We hope that the settlement brings a measure of closure to those members of the Poly community who were abused by Philip Foglietta.

Poly Prep officials reject comparisons to other sex-abuse scandals like Penn State.

H/T: NY Times, NY Daily News, The Village Voice.