Lawyers, Parents Question Pinewood Prep's Handling of ReVille

Parents of students who attended on Wednesday wrote to administrators at the Summerville private school, requesting that the school preserve all documents relating to accused molester Louis "Skip" ReVille's employment with the school, according to WCIV-TV.

"It is critical to these families that all records in your possession that in any manner reference Mr. ReVille are preserved. You are hereby on notice that the following documents under no circumstances be destroyed for any reason without a Court Order allowing their destruction. If you do not agree to comply with this request please let me know immediately so that legal action may be taken to preserve the documents and data," the letter states, according to WCIV.

One parent whose sons were ReVille's students at Pinewood, but were not victimized or included in the letter written today, says she observed questionable conduct on the part of the now-accused molester, but her reports to school administrators fell on deaf ears.

The mother, who removed her children from the Summerville private school in 2006 after making the reports, said ReVille sought on several occasions to erode the relationship with parents and students through “secret” assignments.

“ReVille gave me the creeps back then,” the mother said, who spoke with Patch on the condition of anonymity. “But when I made reports, the school wanted me to address it with ReVille directly.”

On Monday, The Citadel, where ReVille worked at a summer camp as a college student, said it had reports of improper contact, but it did not report it to police.

ReVille in late October was arrested on six counts of criminal child sex-abuse. He is accused of performing various sex acts on teenage boys. Since his arrest, police have added two additional charges, and Hanahan police are expected to bring six more counts from that jurisdiction.

Read ongoing coverage of the ReVille case.

This woman’s sons were never victims of sexual contact, the mother said, but she didn’t want to disclose her name because she didn’t want her children associated with the case. The mother, who had three children taught by ReVille, said she wasn’t surprised to hear of his arrest.

“One of their daily tasks was to make a journal entry in their notebook,” the mother said. “This was communication between Skip and his students, to the exclusion of parents. The students were told they could write anything in there, and their parents would not be told about it.”

The mother thought that was improper, and she protested the assignment. Later, ReVille asked kids to make a compilation of music, and again he said the students could pick any music by any artist and he wouldn’t tell parents.

“My son liked Skip, and thought this was great,” the mother said. “As a parent, I was alarmed, and approached the administration with my concern. … It is already difficult enough to maintain family cohesiveness in today's world, and to have a teacher who purposely tries to put a wedge in parent-child communication is really not acceptable to me.”

The school on Wednesday said ReVille’s contract with the school was not renewed after four years on the job because of “instructional reasons.” School administrators insist no sexual contact was reported while ReVille worked there.

“While Mr. ReVille was employed at Pinewood, the school administration received no notice of any incidents of sexual impropriety on the part of Mr. ReVille,” said Chairman of the Board James Mann in a written statement. “If requested, Pinewood will work in full cooperation with law enforcement officials.”

Pinewood’s handling of her first two complaints resulted in the mother not coming forward when ReVille asked to have one of her sons over to his house for the weekend.

“They diminished what I had to say, so I didn’t even report it,” the mother said.

She said ReVille wanted her son to work at his home over the weekend, and when her son said it was going to be a one-on-one visit outside of school, she told her son he “absolutely” could not go.

The handling of her ReVille complaints raised even more concern for the mother because just two years earlier a teacher was charged with possessing child pornography.

“I thought after that, they would have been more proactive,” the mother said.