St. Francis accuser: 'I was tired of carrying this'

By Kasey Cunningham | December 8, 2017 at 9:46 PM EST - Updated August 15 at 8:05 PM

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - An alumna of St. Francis School is speaking out about an inappropriate relationship with a staff member while she was a student.

Norwood Creech graduated from St. Francis School in 1981. The relationship with her soccer coach, Tom Miron, began when she was 15, according to Creech.

She said it started simply with rides to practice.

"For me it was difficult to get a ride. He kinda became a hero, maybe a rescuer to me," Norwood said. "You know at 15 I was getting warm fuzzies over the soccer coach, and he wasn't saying 'no honey, there are boundaries.'"

Creech, an artist, now lives in Arkansas with her husband. She said the guilt of her relationship with the faculty member has followed her for years.

"My brokenness was ready for something like this," Creech explained. "I was tired of carrying this. I didn't think it was fair. And I wanted the school to do something."

In 2015, Creech said she and another former student reported the relationship to police and St. Francis School officials. Nothing happened, according to Creech.

"It made me feel sad. It made me feel powerless," Creech explained. "Number one, it happened, and it should not have happened and I didn't know well enough at the time. I trusted the people around me who were there to guide me and teach me."

On Tuesday, St. Francis school leaders announced in a statement they had hired a new investigator to look into the allegations.

"Since mid-November, the St. Francis administration has been formulating a plan to reevaluate allegations made by two alumnae regarding inappropriate sexual conduct between each of them and a then and current faculty member in the 1980s. These allegations were first brought to our attention in 2015 and were investigated.

On Thursday, attorneys for Tom Miron, a longtime teacher at St. Francis sent the following statement:

"It is extremely unfortunate that allegations from events that allegedly occurred thirty years ago have been made against my client, Tom Miron. Tom takes pride in his 35 year career at St. Francis School and looks forward to all of the facts being disclosed."