Kirkwood High School Alumni Allege Years of Sexual Abuse

Trigger Warning: The following story includes accounts of sexual abuse, which may be upsetting to some readers.

Sexual assault allegations against multiple former Kirkwood High School teachers have exploded during the past several days in alumni social media groups.

It began with a Facebook post on Tuesday, prompting several former Kirkwood High School students to come forward to share their stories of abuse, some describing events that date back to the early 1980s.

Katie Pappageorge's post on July 7 set off the chain of events that has led multiple survivors to speak out about stories of grooming, manipulation, abuse and assault they say they suffered at the hands of at least three different faculty members. The Riverfront Times is withholding the names of the former educators because no charges have been filed. We would normally withhold the names of sexual abuse victims as well, but Pappageorge and two women interviewed for this story have given the RFT permission to publish their names and share details of their allegations.

In her account, Pappageorge describes long-running abuse by a drama teacher, beginning during her freshman year when she was just twelve years old (she skipped two grades of elementary school). The abuse continued into her junior year, until the teacher quietly resigned at the beginning of the second semester, she says in an interview. Pappageorge posted the allegations to the Kirkwood High School Alumni Facebook page. An administrator of the page deleted the post shortly after it went live, but it has since been restored.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/07/10/kirkwood-high-school-alumni-allege-years-of-sexual-abuse