What you need to know about North Kingstown High School Coach Aaron Thomas and the ‘fat test’ issue

The woman came forward a few days after the Globe’s exclusive story about the teenage boys who’d tracked the teacher at Davisville who they thought was a creep with their female classmates. She had had the same teacher, years earlier.

In a five-page statement released Oct. 3 by her lawyer, Timothy J. Conlon, along with a letter to Assistant US Attorney Kevin L. Hubbard, the young woman described how the teacher harassed and humiliated students.

The young woman also noted the school administrator, guidance counselor, and teachers who were told or were aware of the teacher’s behavior.

Earlier stories, in chronological order, are below.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — When she first read about the teenage boys who’d kept a “pedo database” on a teacher who they thought was a creep with their female classmates, it took a moment for the young woman to realize they were at her old middle school. And, although the teacher wasn’t publicly identified, the description of his actions sounded just like her former teacher and coach.

The boys had kept notes in a Discord subchannel. As a middle schooler, she had kept a diary. Over a distance of years, they’d come to the same conclusions.

Within days of the Boston Globe’s exclusive story about the teenage boys’ database, the young woman came forward with allegations of harassment and bullying by the same teacher at Davisville Middle School. Read more

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — When the boys began documenting how a teacher at Davisville Middle School was treating the girls in their class, they hoped to prove to adults that he was a “creep.”

The boys were in sixth grade when they became uncomfortable with the way their teacher, who was also a coach, treated girls in their class. They tried telling adults about it, but were ignored or not taken seriously, one boy told the Globe.

They boys invited incoming students to continue documenting the teacher’s behavior; about eight boys added to the database over the course of a year. And when their teacher was finally escorted from the school and placed on leave in April, one of the boys told his mother about the database.

The “pedo database” is now part of a sprawling investigation under the federal anti-discrimination law Title IX, into how sexual harassment and misconduct allegations have been handled by the North Kingstown School District. The investigation began with former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas, who has since been criminally charged with second-degree child molestation and second degree sexual assault for conducting private, naked “fat tests” of teenage boys since the mid-1990s. It has expanded with the allegations against the Davisville Middle School and another coach at the high school, who was also placed on leave this spring over allegations he was inappropriate with underage girls.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Aaron Thomas, accused of conducting “naked fat tests” on teen athletes for decades, was arraigned on Aug. 26 in Washington County Superior Court on felony charges of second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault.

Thomas pleaded not guilty before Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg, who set his bail at $10,000 personal recognizance and ordered Thomas have no contact with the two alleged victims. Thunberg also said that Thomas is not allowed to be involved with teaching or coaching.

Outside the courthouse, Thomas walked away quickly with criminal lawyer John L. Calcagni, as his criminal lawyer, John MacDonald, spoke on his behalf.

“He’s dedicated his professional life to the students of North Kingstown. He adamantly denies any criminal conduct whatsoever,” MacDonald said to reporters.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Aaron Thomas, the former celebrated high school basketball coach accused of conducting “naked fat tests” on teen athletes for decades, was charged Thursday morning with second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault.

The North Kingstown Police Department and the attorney general’s office brought the charges against Thomas, who will be arraigned on Aug. 19 in Washington County Superior Court. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

Former student-athletes at North Kingstown High School say that the body fat tests conducted by longtime basketball coach Aaron Thomas were an uncomfortable open secret that goes back more than 20 years.

Even now, they remember his question: “Are you shy, or not shy?”

That meant Thomas, 54, wanted the teenage boys to go to a small janitor’s closet or the little AV room attached to his office. There, alone with Thomas, they would have to remove their clothes and underwear so Thomas could do a “body fat test,” using skinfold calipers to pinch and explore the skin near their scrotum, their groin, and their buttocks, some of Thomas’ former players told The Boston Globe in multiple interviews over the past several months. Some said he would also ask them to do stretches or “duck walks” while naked. One alleged that Thomas did a “hernia check.” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

The Diocese of Providence said it had no idea that its new middle school social studies teacher at Monsignor Clarke School in South Kingstown, who was hired just this fall, had been forced to resign from North Kingstown High School in June over allegations of performing “body fat tests” on the groins of naked teenage boys.

A spokesman for the Diocese told the Globe on Saturday that the principal at North Kingstown High School had given longtime teacher and basketball coach Aaron Thomas a “positive, professional” reference —and he wouldn’t have been hired if they’d known he was under investigation. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

Monsignor Clarke school principal Arthur Lisi announced in a email to the school’s community that they have fired Aaron Thomas, the former North Kingstown High School basketball coach accused of conducting inappropriate “fat tests” on naked male student athletes for more than two decades.

“I want to let you know that Mr. Thomas was terminated today,” Lisi wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Globe. “We currently have a full-time substitute teacher in the classroom and are working to find a certified social studies teacher.” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

School officials told high school boys’ basketball coach Aaron Thomas to stop conducting “body fat tests” on students alone in his office back in 2018, the school committee acknowledged Saturday after a six-hour meeting behind closed doors.

As protesters rallied outside, school committee members met to discuss “investigative proceedings,” “job performance,” and “potential litigation” over allegations that Thomas, had for more than 20 years urged male student athletes to strip naked for “body fat tests” he conducted on them in a small room off of his office. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

Jennifer Lima, a new member of the School Committee, had voted in February to fire veteran basketball coach and teacher Aaron Thomas for conducting private “body fat tests” on naked teenage male athletes.

Then, the allegations hit home.

In late October, when the accusations against Thomas became public — along with the phrase he used to coax boys into taking off their underwear, “Are you shy or not shy?”— Lima told the Globe that her oldest son revealed to her for the first time that it had happened to him, too.

“People are screaming at me, [holding] the signs ‘What if it was your kid?’ " Lima said in an interview. “Well, it was my kid. It shouldn’t matter if it was my kid or someone else’s kid.… We need to make sure it’s no one else’s kid.” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

The lawyer for former North Kingston high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas told the Globe late Thursday that he has “300 signed consent forms spanning 10+ years,” from teen male athletes and their parents allowing Thomas to perform body-composition tests.

However, the “weight testing agreement” he shared with the Globe on Thursday does not detail how the testing would be performed, and does not disclose that the student-athletes would be asked to be fully nude. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

The lawyer for several former student-athletes at North Kingstown High School disputed the School Committee’s statement that school officials didn’t know until last February that basketball coach Aaron Thomas had been conducting naked “fat tests” on teenage boys for more than 20 years.

Providence lawyer Timothy Conlon said Friday that he released redacted emails from a former student-athlete, another student-athlete’s fat-test data, and a statement in response to the School Committee’s request for information. He pointed out that the statement shows that former students reported incidents to North Kingstown officials in 2018.

Then, on Feb. 12, 2021, another former student emailed deputy superintendent Denise Mancieri, saying the fat testing had started when he was about 13. Conley shared those emails publicly on Friday. The former student had previously shared them with the Globe.

“I’m writing to you because I can no longer stay silent about the trauma I was subjected to by Aaron Thomas,” the former student wrote. “Every month for my entire time at NKHS Thomas brought me into his office (protected by CCTV) and asked me to get naked, then touched me all over my body. He did this to dozens if not hundreds of boys over a ~10 year period to my knowledge.”

“The first time I fat tested was 13 years old,” he wrote in another email. Read more.

By Brian Amaral

Addressing the public directly for the first time since revelations that high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas conducted naked “fat tests” on athletes, the embattled superintendent of schools on Tuesday defended his actions as questions continued to swirl about who knew what, when.

Phil Auger said at a North Kingstown school committee meeting that he was informed twice about Thomas’ body fat tests, once in 2018 and again in 2021. In the case in 2018, the former student said he was not naked at the time, but felt the tests were unusual, Auger said.

“In both of these instances, I recognized the seriousness of the matter, and I acted appropriately and immediately in the best interest of students, past and present, with the information I had at the time,” Auger said at the meeting, held at the North Kingstown High School auditorium. Read more.

By Brian Amaral

A lawyer for former North Kingstown High School athletes has filed a court action over former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas’ removal of records from the school.

John MacDonald, Thomas’ lawyer, confirmed that a lawyer for the former student athletes, Timothy Conlon, had filed a writ of replevin — a type of legal action that seeks to have someone return something that belongs to someone else.

But, MacDonald said, the records in question have already been returned to the North Kingstown School Department, at the request of a laywer for the North Kingstown schools, who said they were the department’s property. MacDonald said he returned them himself, but declined to say when. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

The director of the Center for Nutrition at Boston Children’s Hospital said that the naked body-fat tests that former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas performed on teenage boys were “overly invasive and inappropriate.” But even so, it can be difficult for students — especially boys — to confront a powerful coach.

Dr. Christopher Duggan, a pediatric gastroenterologist and nutrition physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School, told the Globe that there’s no reason for people to be unclothed during these types of tests.

“Is there any validity with having people take all their clothes off so you can measure skinfold and thigh circumference? No. I think that’s the key issue here,” Duggan said. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

During the Nov. 29 meeting, a parent alleged that her sons had been subjected to the coach’s naked “fat testing” of student-athletes — and that it continued even after he was told to stop in 2018.

Kim Lanowy said her sons, who graduated in 2019 and 2021, wanted to play basketball. They told her that other student-athletes considered the body-fat testing something they had to do. “They said, ‘This is the guy who does the body fat tests, when he tells you that you have to be naked, you have to,’” she told the Globe on Monday.

Lanowy was one of several residents urging the town council Monday night to hire outside counsel to either conduct a separate investigation into Thomas or analyze the renewed external investigation by the school committee. Read More.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The lawyer for former student-athletes accusing high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas of conducting naked body-fat tests served subpoenas on Tuesday against the school department and Thomas for a wide range of documents and computer records.

Lawyer Timothy J. Conlon is asking the school department to turn over all of the records tendered by Thomas or his lawyer that involve students at the high school, fat testing, and the Canton, Mass. company Athletic IQ, as well as any communication he had with students, and records in his computer at his home or office related to his employment in North Kingstown.

The subpoenas, which were filed in court Wednesday, precede a hearing on Friday on a civil complaint and writ of replevin against Thomas before Judge Sarah Taft-Carter in Washington County Superior Court.

Thomas, who was served a subpoena at his family’s home in North Kingstown, denied having any records, according to court documents filed Wednesday morning. Through his new lawyer, Timothy Dodd of Providence, Thomas is asking for the complaint to be dismissed. Read More.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The School Committee member who told the Globe last month that high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas had performed naked fat tests on her then-teenage son, has decided to recuse herself from any further involvement in the matter.

Jennifer Lima, who voted to terminate Thomas in February, said she made her decision to recuse after receiving input from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.

“I do not think that I have a conflict of interest,” she said in a statement posted on her campaign’s Facebook page Thursday evening. “But in order to avoid even the slightest appearance of impropriety I have come to believe this is the right course of action.” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The North Kingstown School Department has agreed to give a lawyer for several former student-athletes all records, videos, computer files, and documents related to former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas within 45 days.

Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter signed a consent order, after the school’s lawyer, Mary Ann Carroll, and lawyer Timothy J. Conlon reached an agreement, according to documents filed in court Friday. The school department is agreeing to preserve the records, while redacting information that identifies students.

Conlon is asking the school department to turn over all of the records tendered by Thomas or his lawyers, civil attorney Timothy Dodd and criminal attorney John E. MacDonald, that involve students at the high school, fat testing, and the Canton, Mass. company Athletic IQ, as well as any communication he had with students, and records in his computer at his home or office related to his employment in North Kingstown.

“Thomas moved communications about school business off the school system and through private servers, and created his own net work for communicating with students about body fat testing,” Conlon told the Globe outside the courthouse Friday. He said that he has been in communication with more people regarding Thomas’s actions, including students who said they had been fat tested as recently as 2020. Read more.

By Edward Fitzpatrick

In the latest Rhode Island Report podcast, Globe reporter Amanda Milkovits talks about how a North Kingstown High School basketball coach was able to conduct “body fat” tests on naked students for nearly 25 years. Listen in the player below:

Hear more by downloading the latest episode of Rhode Island Report, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and other podcasting platforms, or find out more about this episode here: Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — An explosive investigative report to be discussed during a North Kingstown School Committee meeting Wednesday evening shows that multiple school officials — administrators, athletic directors, and coaches — were aware for years that former North Kingstown High School Basketball Coach Aaron Thomas was conducting “fat tests” alone on male student-athletes, but didn’t stop him.

In June 2017, according to the report, former athletic director Howie Hague described coming across Thomas alone in his classroom with a male student, who was standing in front of Thomas with only his shorts on. He spoke with both Thomas and the athlete, then described what he had learned to then-principal Denise Mancieri and said, “I’ve got it under control.”

Hague said he told Thomas that testing should be done in the locker room. Several weeks later, Hague said, then-athletic director Dick Fossa told him that the issue had been addressed.

But multiple students and adults acknowledged that it continued for years afterward. While the adults deny knowing anyone was naked, the students say it was an open secret. If Thomas asked if a student was “Shy or not shy?” the student was expected to remove his underwear for the fat testing — though, according to the report, some were permitted to place their hands over their genitals as Thomas pinched the skin of their inner thighs with skin fold calipers.

The 87-page report by lawyer Matthew Oliverio, completed at the request of the school committee, makes plain the authority and esteem that Thomas had among other coaches and administrators — who appeared reluctant to question him. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Five former high school students who say they were subjected to naked “fat tests” by former North Kingstown High School boys basketball coach Aaron Thomas filed a complaint Monday 1/10 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, saying school officials ignored his conduct for years.

The complaint from lawyer Timothy J. Conlon alleges that North Kingstown school officials ignored Thomas’ misconduct, failed to report him to the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families, stalled in reporting him to the state Department of Education, and allowed Thomas to use his position inappropriately.

“For over twenty years, the Department allowed Mr. Thomas to remain in his coaching and teaching positions while he used those positions to groom students into the widespread acceptance of his practices, portraying the ‘fat tests,’ and various other practices that involved naked inspection and touching of children as necessary and useful to the athletic evaluation and performance of the young students and student athletes under his supervision, when in fact they were neither,” according to the complaint. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — There’s no debate about what happened for more than 25 years at North Kingstown High School.

Whether it happened in a narrow equipment closet off the locker room in the old high school, or a small windowless office with CCTV video screens in the new high school, the celebrated boys basketball coach, Aaron Thomas, was asking male student athletes to strip naked, alone in a room with him, so he could conduct “fat tests” on their teenage bodies.

He’d give them an out, one that few of the students felt they could actually take: He’d ask them, “Are you shy or not shy?” victims told the Globe. If they answered “shy,” they were allowed to keep their underwear on. Most, however, felt pressured to say they were not shy. And most, former student-athletes say now, still wonder why no one stopped him.

“I don’t buy for a second the coaches didn’t know,” said one former student-athlete, who said he was fat tested at 14 years old during the early 2000s. “There were coaches in the locker room, on buses, at tryouts. I don’t believe none of them heard of fat tests. It was open — it was around the school my four years.”

The Globe Rhode Island contacted multiple former administrators, teachers, and sports officials who supervised or worked alongside Thomas at North Kingstown High School over the last 30 years. Some are still working at the high school or Davis Middle School, others have moved on to other school districts or retired. Here’s what they had to say. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — When he left North Kingstown High School in February 2021 while under investigation for performing naked “fat tests” on teenage boys, basketball coach Aaron Thomas took with him reams of documents with information about students he’d coached during his more than 30 years at the school, according to court filings late Wednesday.

Not just the 300 or so “weight testing agreements” that one of his lawyers told the Globe about last November. Those consent forms, signed by parents and the teens, gave Thomas permission to perform body-composition tests, but didn’t disclose that the student-athletes would be asked to be fully nude.

Thomas had taken much more.

Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — School Superintendent Phil Auger announced Wednesday that he was resigning immediately, referencing the ongoing investigation into former longtime high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas and the “naked fat tests” performed on teen boys for decades.

“Our school community is working through its investigation around allegations involving Mr. Thomas at NKHS, and I respect the importance to move forward with a new district leader who is in no way connected to these matters,” Auger wrote in a letter addressed to the North Kingstown school community. “For my response to Mr. Thomas, I remain steadfast in the knowledge that I acted appropriately and immediately in the best interest of students past and present, with the information I had at the time.” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — An investigator’s report released by the North Kingstown School Committee late Monday night shows that former high school coach Aaron Thomas’ naked “fat tests” of teenage student-athletes was far more intense and invasive than previously acknowledged — and had a sexual component.

“Among other things, those tests included getting into various positions naked and during the course of some of them, Thomas was pressing on the inside of my groin with his thumbs,” a former student-athlete, identified only as “John Doe #22″ said in a statement included in the report. “The nature of the examinations and contact was such that on multiple occasions, I became erect. On at least one of these occasions, I noted Thomas to become visibly aroused.”

That revelation, along with interviews and testimony from other student athletes, was revealed in the report by lawyer Matthew Oliverio, who was hired by the School Committee to find out how much school administrators officials knew about what Thomas was doing — and what they did to stop him and protect students. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — High school basketball coach Aaron Thomas had been invincible for so long. A championship coach, a top fundraiser for school athletics, the face of the North Kingstown basketball program -- no one questioned what he was doing with student-athletes or why he was conducting his “fat tests” on them.

Instead, it took more than 20 years and several of those former students, now adults, to stop Thomas from making the teenage boys at North Kingstown High School pose and stretch in a small room off of his office, naked and alone with him as he measured their body fat, pinching and exploring the skin near their genitals with calipers and, sometimes, his bare hands.

In February 2021, when a former student athlete’s plea to school officials finally prompted them to put Thomas on leave and investigate, the longtime coach was indignant.

“‘This isn’t true,’” high school principal Barbara Morse recalled Thomas saying at the time, according to an independent investigative report by lawyer Matthew Oliverio. And then, he homed in on one of his former players: “‘There is a kid, and I know who it is, who is out to get me. In fact, his father wrote me a letter.’” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Within days of a damning investigative report that faulted school administrators for turning a blind eye to former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas’ “naked fat tests” of boys, three top school district administrators have left or are retiring earlier than planned.

School District Chief Operating Officer Mary King told the Town Council during Friday’s budget meeting that she moved up her retirement to June, instead of December. “I am a hundred percent sure,” she said, when one council member questioned her decision.

Assistant Superintendent Denise Mancieri announced in a letter that she was retiring Thursday, instead of at the end of the school year, saying she was doing it to support the district in “healing.” Read More.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A week after a damning investigative report found school officials had turned a blind eye to high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas and his “naked fat tests” of teen boys, the School Committee pleaded for patience on March 22 as they decided how to move forward.

Some residents at the meeting accused them of failing to take action against the school officials who failed to take action against Thomas. Why wasn’t the public told about the allegations against Thomas and that he was terminated? Why did it take so long for school officials to report him to the state Department of Education? What will the committee do about the current or retired officials who should be held accountable?

The School Committee responded with a statement about the “uniquely challenging time” that didn’t directly answer the questions from attendees. Instead, the statement detailed the process to discipline or fire any administrator or teacher, and how that requires a full evidentiary hearing. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A former North Kingstown High School student-athlete and his father are accusing former school administrators and athletic directors of fostering a culture that allowed coaches to behave inappropriately with students and brushed off or buried complaints.

The former student, identified as John Doe 42 in a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Providence County Superior Court, is seeking damages for negligence for being subjected to the naked “fat tests” that former boys basketball coach Aaron Thomas had performed for years on teen male athletes.

And, the lawsuit also alleges that Thomas is not the only coach at North Kingstown who has been allowed to abuse a position of power. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Another coach in the North Kingstown School District is being accused of inappropriate behavior with underage students.

The lawyer representing former student-athletes who underwent naked “fat tests” by longtime high school boys basketball coach Aaron Thomas says that school officials took years to act on a family’s complaints about another coach’s fixation and stalking of their preteen daughter.

Although the school department ultimately removed that teacher from his coaching job in North Kingstown — after the mother threatened to obtain a restraining order — he went on to coach in two other school districts in Rhode Island, and still works as a teacher, said lawyer Timothy J. Conlon. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The interim school superintendent announced late Friday night that he has placed a teacher accused of stalking a middle school girl on leave and ordered an internal investigation.

Superintendent Michael Waterman said in a letter to the school community that he was responding to the allegations that lawyer Timothy J. Conlon, who is representing the family, sent to the school department on Thursday.

Conlon also sent the letter to Assistant US Attorney Kevin L. Hubbard, who is working on the ongoing civil rights investigation into complaints about former boys high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas conducting “naked fat tests” of teen boys.

The middle school teacher, who is not named, was coaching the pre-teen girl when her family said he became fixated on her and made arrangements to be alone with her, according to Conlon’s letter. When she attempted to avoid him, the teacher began stalking her, Conlon said. The family told Conlon that the teacher had a history of similar behavior with other young female students he coached. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Two more school employees have been placed on administrative leave, just days after a Davisville Middle School teacher was placed on leave over allegations that he’d stalked a preteen girl he had been coaching.

Interim Superintendent Michael Waterman announced the actions on Wednesday and said that investigations have begun into allegations that have been received. He did not identify the two other school employees or the nature of the allegations involving them. In a statement to the media, Waterman said that he would report the findings of the investigations to the school committee and the school community. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — With the former high school basketball coach under investigation for naked “fat tests” of teen boys, and three school employees recently put on administrative leave for other allegations, interim Superintendent Michael Waterman said he is reorganizing the athletic department.

Waterman and Athletic Director Chris Cobain told the School Committee Tuesday they will require additional training for coaches that will include protecting students from abuse, engaging effectively with parents, preventing bullying, hazing, and inappropriate behavior, and preventing sexual harassment.

Waterman also proposed strategies to have the athletic director and an assistant athletic director more directly involved on the field and observing how coaches interact with players.

Coaches will be required to use the school district’s email system to communicate with students and parents, Waterman said. The athletic department will also use an app for communications by fall. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The former high school athletic director accused last month in a lawsuit of fostering a culture that allowed basketball coach Aaron Thomas to conduct naked “fat tests” of boys has resigned as principal of a middle school on Cape Cod.

The Cape Cod Chronicle first reported the resignation of Keith Kenyon from Nauset Regional Middle School on Friday, two days after the paper published an article about Kenyon’s ties to his former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas.

Nauset Superintendent Brooke Clenchy said Kenyon resigned on Wednesday for “personal reasons.” Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A second former student athlete who said he was subjected to high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas’ naked “fat tests” has filed a lawsuit against the school committee and former school officials — and more are expected to follow.

Lawyer Timothy J. Conlon said Wednesday that he plans to contact the school department about multiple forthcoming complaints, all alleging that former school administrators and athletic directors created a culture that allowed coaches to behave inappropriately with students, and brushed off complaints. Some are against other school staff.

“You have 20 years of history of people being uncomfortable with and seeing behaviors that anyone should be uncomfortable with, in the open, in the school, and the behaviors were not addressed, because the students were not comfortable in the environment they were in,” Conlon said Wednesday. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The Town Council will publicly release on Monday a retired judge’s review of the investigations into former high school boys basketball coach Aaron Thomas and his naked “fat tests.”

Retired Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirl was hired by the Town Council in November to analyze the findings of investigations into Thomas and accusations that he had performed “body fat tests” on nude teenage boys since at least the mid-1990s. Her role was to give legal opinions on whether or not school policies were followed, and why, and recommend actions the town council could take.

Council Chairman Greg Mancini said Thursday the report will be posted on the town website on Monday at 5 p.m. The Town Council will discuss the report’s findings and recommendations at its 7 p.m. meeting. McGuirl is not expected to attend. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — There were warning signs all along about what the high school’s popular basketball coach was doing alone with nude teenage boys, but the adults around them weren’t paying attention and the teen athletes felt helpless to speak out against the school’s “golden boy.”

In an 80-page investigative report released Monday, retired Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirlcq took a broad look at the systemic failures that allowed former coach Aaron Thomas to conduct “naked fat tests” of teen boys for decades.

The scandal that has shamed one of the top-ranked high schools in Rhode Island involves a small number of people, McGuirl wrote. Her review found how the school district, School Committee, and even the police failed to protect students from harm.

There was a lack of training and oversight for coaches about boundaries and warning signs, a lack of communication between school officials and police when former athletes at last spoke up, and an impulse to contain the scandal and protect the school’s reputation when the complaints were finally taken seriously last year, the report found. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — There was so much about the retired judge’s findings about the once-celebrated high school basketball coach that made them sick.

How Aaron Thomas “normalized” taking teen boys into a closet or his office alone, and getting them to undress for purported “body fat tests” that involved him touching close to their groin and having them do stretches naked.

How this went on for more than 20 years, because Thomas was respected, powerful, and left unchecked. All the missed red flags about his behavior.

And most of all, how no students ever reported Thomas to any teachers, administrators, coaches, or parents — because his behavior was considered a rite of passage to play ball, the school culture discouraged reporting, and, for boys, it’s difficult to come forward about sexual misconduct. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The teachers are not OK.

One after another told the School Committee Tuesday night they were feeling defeated, depressed, stressed, and begged for mental health support.

They’d been through the disruptions of the pandemic, adapted to distance learning, and then the return to classrooms that had changed. They saw how their students struggled with their mental health. They’ve struggled with their own. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

PROVIDENCE — The Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would make it a crime for authority figures to have sexual contact with teenagers under their supervision.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Jessica de la Cruz, would eliminate a loophole in Rhode Island that allows those with supervisory or disciplinary power — like coaches, teachers, and priests — to have sexual relations with minors between 14 and 18 years old.

“Children as young as 14 cannot consent to sexual activity with those in authority,” de la Cruz said.

The House Judiciary Committee is considering a vote Friday on a companion bill sponsored by Democratic Representative Julie Casimiro, whose district includes North Kingstown. Read more.

By Amanda Milkovits

NORTH KINGSTOWN — It wasn’t just the celebrated high school basketball coach performing “naked fat tests” of teenage boys.

An ongoing investigation of former coach Aaron Thomas has lifted the lid off allegations against two other coaches in the North Kingstown School District, which parents and students say fostered a poisonous sports culture that they were helpless to stop.

Current and former students, as well as parents, signed witness statements for an investigation by the US attorney’s office about two coaches who they said were inappropriate with female students in middle school and high school. Interim Superintendent Michael Waterman placed both men, as well as an administrator, on leave in May after receiving allegations.

The allegations are laid out in a letter and signed statements that lawyer Timothy Conlon sent Thursday to Assistant US Attorney Kevin L. Hubbard, who is working with Assistant US Attorney Amy R. Romero in the ongoing investigation into the Thomas complaints. Read more.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Three months after a retired judge reported how Aaron Thomas was allowed to conduct “naked fat tests” of teen boys for decades, the Town Council still had questions Sep. 26 about whether school officials were making recommended changes.

The Town Council had hired retired Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirl to review the internal and criminal investigations into Thomas, who has since been criminally charged. Her 80-page investigative report, released in June, looked at the systemic failures of the North Kingstown School Department that allowed Thomas to have the teens undress for purported “body fat tests” that involved him touching close to their groin and having them do stretches naked.

The Town Council said they were unsatisfied with the School Committee’s response so far. After hearing concerns from the lawyer representing former and current student athletes, the Town Council voted unanimously to ask the committee about counseling for former students and to demonstrate the school district had put new policies in place. Read more

Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMilkovits.