The cases involved abuse at the two schools from the early 1950s to 1984, Pfau said. More than a third of the plaintiffs say they were sexually abused by former O’Dea teacher Edward Courtney, who had been removed from four schools across the country for molesting boys before coming to O’Dea in 1974, according to court documents. The lawsuit alleged that by 1973, the Christian Brothers knew Courtney was “a serial sexual predator who could not be ‘cured’ or ‘treated,’ ” but the order allowed him to teach at O’Dea from 1974 to 1978 anyway.
Courtney went on to work at other schools, including Seattle’s Our Lady of the Lake School in Wedgwood and St. Alphonsus Parish School in Ballard, and he continued to sexually abuse children. He pleaded guilty in 1988 to indecent liberties with a minor.
Other former O’Dea students said they were abused by teacher G.A. Kealy, who also had a long history of sexually abusing boys, the lawsuit said, including many at Briscoe and O’Dea. He was openly referred to by both students and faculty as “Feely Kealy,” according to court documents.
One student’s father went to archdiocese officials to complain about the abuse but was told there was nothing they could do because Kealy was a Christian Brother, according to court papers. Another O’Dea student said he was abused by a theater and dance instructor in the mid-1980s, but nothing was done to protect the boy from the teacher after he reported the abuse to a school counselor.
