Two former students accepted their high school diplomas from Jesuit College Preparatory School on May 13 after settling a sexual abuse lawsuit with the school.
The two men, 57-year-old Jacques DeLira and 54-year-old Brendan Higgins, said they dropped out of the Dallas-based school in the 1980s after priests allegedly molested them.
Seven other men joined DeLira and Higgins in a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Dallas and the Society of Jesuits’ USA Central and Southern Province. The nine men claimed that priests sexually assaulted them in the 1980s when they were just boys.
The parties settled in March, with the monetary compensation remaining confidential.
DeLira and Higgins — belonging to the classes of 1983 and 1986, respectively — have now been awarded their high school diplomas around 40 years after they began attending the school.
“Isn’t that funny? I’m 57 years old and getting high school graduation cards,” DeLira said.
According to The Dallas Morning News, DeLira’s family has a long legacy in school, where his grandmother did laundry while his grandfather did maintenance and custodial work.
“This school has produced so much good in my life. There’s more good than bad,” DeLira said. “I cherish it, and I always have.”
Higgins was moved to tears as school president Mike Earsing placed a medal depicting St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order, around his neck. The 54-year-old said he did not think the ceremonial action would make him so emotional.
Higgins revealed that he had always been bothered that he did not graduate from school. He added that even though he remained friends with some of his old schoolmates, he had sometimes felt like an outsider.
Higgins also spoke of a recurring dream of being stuck in a meeting with his parents and the priest who molested him. In the dream, his parents are disappointed in him because he is failing his classes.
“My hope is that this painful recurring dream will be replaced with something more positive and regenerative,” he said.
President Earsing also commented during the ceremony that he believes the graduation was a cathartic event following the trauma and stress.
“To be able to bring joy [to] these two men’s lives and sort of close the loop on the reconciliation and healing was my goal,” Earsing said. “I want them to be happy.”