Paper: Pa. Hershey School pays $3M in compensation to former alleged abuse victims
By APWednesday, May 19, 2010
Paper: Pa. school pays alleged abuse victims $3M
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania newspaper says the Milton Hershey School for disadvantaged children has paid $3 million to compensate five former students who claimed they were sexually abused.
The Philadelphia Inquirer cited sources, including a high-ranking official at the century-old school.
School spokeswoman Connie McNamara on Wednesday confirmed the payments but would not give the amounts or number of former students involved. She told the paper that officials believed the allegations and called them “devastating.”
The paper said the payment was finalized about the time 40-year-old Charles Koons II of Middletown pleaded guilty in March to molesting 17 boys in the area over the past decade, including a Hershey School student. He was sentenced to 35 to 100 years in prison.
