Waite Park School’s ongoing concealment of sexual abuse creates a danger to the public

 (St. Paul, MN) – On Wednesday Stearns County District Court Judge Nathaniel Welte refused Holy Innocents’ School’s request to dismiss a public nuisance lawsuit brought against it by a former student who alleges she suffered sexual, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse by staff members and teachers when she was a student there in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The survivor, identified as Doe 596 in her lawsuit, filed the case in December, 2018.

“The Judge’s decision is acknowledgement and affirmation of Doe 596’s incredible courage and resolve to fight not only for herself, but to protect other children from the horrors she endured as a child at Holy Innocents’,” said Attorney Josh Peck of Jeff Anderson & Associates, who represents Doe 596 together with Waite Park Attorney Mike Bryant.

In his written order Judge Welte ruled that the case should go forward because there is sufficient evidence that Holy Innocents’ poses a public hazard and has “engaged in continuing acts of concealment” of sexual abuse. A trial date will now be set for sometime in 2021.

“For decades Holy Innocents’ has been able to operate in secret with no checks, and without anyone looking out for the kids there who have no voice to speak for them,” said Bryant. “It would have continued that way if not for Doe 596 coming forward and sharing the horrors that go on behind its walls.”