Looking the Other Way: "Cheverus High School is the Penn State of Maine"

A Protest Against Sexual Abuse and Moral Irresponsibility

There will be a protest in front of Cheverus High School on Tuesday, November 22, 2011, at 1:30pm by former students who claim they were molested as children by Cheverus High School teacher and track coach Charles Malia. Cheverus High School is located at 267 Ocean Avenue in Portland, Maine.

Organizers claim Cheverus did the same thing as officials at Penn State are accused of doing in regards to ignoring reports of Coach Malia’s ongoing molestation of children in order to protect the reputation of the school. Organizers claim that what happened at Cheverus is no different than the current situation at Penn State, with the inaction of school officials and their complicity in knowingly allowing a reported child molester to continue having contact with the school and students. Victims state they have documented eyewitnesses to the fact that even after the admitted sexual abuser of minors, Charles Malia, was released from the school ("resigned" it was said publicly) by the school President, Rev. John Keegan who had been informed of Malia's actions, he was still granted access to the school property and to young boys through being an "unofficial" assistant freshman boy's basketball coach.  This was revealed directly at the time by the head coach, Hank St. Pierre, in 1998-99, who spoke with one of the victims. Malia was also seen many times after his "resignation" on the school's new outdoor track with students. Malia was a revered track coach for many years at Cheverus High School, so much so that the outdoor track at the school had been named after him. School officials quietly removed his name from the track in 2000 after the molestation allegations surfaced against Malia. At the time, Malia admitted to the Portland Press Herald that he had engaged in improper sex acts with boys, but statute of limitations in place at the time prevented Malia from being charged with a crime. Victims planning the protest at Cheverus claim to know of an instance where a priest who taught at the school, Father Herbert Cleary, was informed of Malia's behavior by a student/victim and did nothing to report the abuse or stop it.

“Coach Malia’s admitted actions of sex abuse against young boys hurt a lot of people and destroyed a lot of lives,” said John Clark, one of Malia’s victims. “The fact that Cheverus High School intentionally sought to cover up Coach Malia’s abuse, and allowed him to remain in contact with students at Cheverus High School after reports of his abuse surfaced, is a black mark on Cheverus High School that cannot simply be ignored,” added Clark.

A recent ESPN article on the Penn State situation contained quotes from two of the victims of Malia’s abuse and referenced the victims of the Cheverus High School era abuse by Malia.  The recent reports of a Syracuse University basketball coach being suspended after allegations of longstanding sexual abuse against children has further motivated the victims of the Malia abuse to raise awareness of what happened at Cheverus High School, and to take steps to make sure it never happens again.

This protest will also bring to light the fact that the school, through its lawyers, recently attempted to arrange a mediation session for a group of Malia victims with the Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian to settle this longstanding wrongdoing and set the school on the correct course for the future. After months of delays on their part, the Cheverus lawyers just recently announced that school officials had "changed their minds" and decided not to mediate, leaving the victims involved feeling totally betrayed once again and re-victimized by this heartless decision to rescind their invitation to negotiate with them, basically pulling away the hand they had extended in reconciliation.

*For further information please call John Clark at 207-772-7831 or email him at alphonse.john@gmail.com.  John Clark graduated from Cheverus High School in 1981, and is one of the victims of Coach Malia’s abuse.