Catholic teacher accused of sexually abusing boy was allowed to return to classroom: report

A Baltimore Catholic monk accused of sexually abusing children was named only as "No. 153" in a Maryland attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore and had been allowed to keep teaching after the allegations were made, a local newspaper discovered.

According to The Baltimore Banner, the brother's name is Ronald Nicholls, 74, of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He taught social studies at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Southwest Baltimore in the 1970s.

Nicholls, who has not been charged with a crime, taught at Cardinal Gibbons in the 1970s. But the report didn't name him, instead it assigned him the number, the Bulletin reported.

In 2003, a woman reported that Nicholls sexually abused her brother years earlier when he was 10 to 12 years old. The year of the alleged offense was not specified. She spoke out after Nicholls contacted her on social media in an attempt to reach her brother.

“She felt he did so because of the large volume of sexual assault allegations coming to light at the time and was worried about liability for his own abuse,” investigators wrote in the report.

Her brother was an adult by the time she reported the allegation, and she was told by the state’s attorney’s office that prosecutors would not do anything “because of the age of the victim.

In 2021, Nicholls' name turned up in a local news report about student from Eastern Europe who pursued the American dream and became a published author. But the report didn't mention any of the allegations against Nicholls. Instead, he was named as "the student's teacher and mentor."

When the Banner reached out to Nicholls for comment, he refused to answer questions and called the allegations a personal matter. Days later, his lawyer contacted the Banner and said that Nicholls “reserves his right to pursue any and all defamation lawsuits if you or your company publish any article identifying his name.”

"Nicholls is the sixth man accused of abuse whose name was redacted from the report that The Banner has unmasked," the Banner's report stated. "The other church figures include the Revs. Joseph G. Fiorentino, No. 148; John Peter Krzyzanski, No. 151; Samuel Lupico, No. 152; and Joseph O’Meara, No. 155. The Banner also identified No. 156 as Michael V. Scriber, who attended a seminary and intended to join the clergy, according to the report, but who dropped out for academic reasons."

The names of five church officials who handled allegations of abuse were also redacted from the report.

"Nicholls is not the only former Cardinal Gibbons teacher accused of abuse," reported the Banner. "By 1969, three people who were later accused of child sexual abuse were teaching there, and a fourth lived in the school’s faculty residence, according to the report and a database maintained by BishopAccountability.org."

Read the full report over at The Baltimore Banner.