Decades later, abuse survivor pushes for legal reform
When Alex Yannopoulos was eleven years old and a student at Radnor Middle School, he was molested by a teacher, an event that has greatly affected many aspects of his life.
Alex studied Latin as part of the foreign language curriculum. And the Radnor Township School District had hired Father Raymond Leneweaver to teach Latin.
During the 2003-04 school year, when Alex was a sixth-grade student in Leneweaver’s Latin class at Radnor Middle School, Leneweaver followed him into a bathroom and molested him, according to a lawsuit that Alex filed in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.
“I didn’t tell anybody for a really long time,” said Alex, who is now 33. He started getting treatment from a “really good” therapist about ten years ago and finally began to make progress.
“There was a long time that I didn’t talk about it or think about it,” Alex said.
Often, victims don’t come forward until they’re in their 50s. The average age is 52, according to CHILD USA, a nonprofit think tank that studies the subject.
“That’s why predators go after children. They’re unlikely to say anything until long after, and the consequences won’t catch up with them,” said Alex.
Alex sued Leneweaver’s estate, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and the Radnor Township School District. He filed his lawsuit in 2022, a few weeks shy of the cutoff date for child victims of sexual assault.
Alex settled the case last summer for $500,000, refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Also, the Radnor Township School District will notify students, as well as parents, if a situation like this occurs again, Alex said.
The lawsuit cited a grand jury report where Leneweaver admitted that he sexually abused young boys, that he had taught at Radnor Middle School, and that after it was revealed that he had sexually assaulted boys, the late Cardinal John Krol “merely transferred him to another assignment, where the priest remained in active ministry.” The report also faults Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua for failing to take action to prevent Leneweaver from having access to boys.
While an exact number of Leneweaver’s victims was not listed, he evidently preyed upon scores of boys over the years.
The same report stated that Leneweaver taught in the North Penn and Central Bucks school districts. Archdiocese records showed he also taught at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield and Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia, and worked in several area parishes.
As a result of his encounter with Leneweaver, Alex “developed enormous depression, anxiety, and anger issues,” the lawsuit said. He suffered from “post-traumatic stress disorder, humiliation, suicidal ideations, suicide attempts, embarrassment, shame, emotional dissociation, and loss of self-worth.”
The school district and archdiocese “knew or should have known that Fr. Raymond Lenewaver had been and/or was abusing (Alex) and/or other children,” the suit said. These institutions also had a duty to protect children, the suit said.
Jim Yannopolous, Alex’s dad, said there was a time during sixth grade when Alex seemed to be anxious and depressed. They took him to a psychologist, and he seemed to improve. Alex did well in high school until his senior year, when he began to struggle again. He went to college for a year, then dropped out. Over the next few years, he was hospitalized four times and had “a couple of suicide attempts,” said Jim Yannopolous.
“I found him a new therapist, and that seemed to turn things around,” said Jim Yannopoulos. Alex told his parents about being abused four years ago, Jim Yannopoulos said.
“Everything started spilling out, and I talked to my parents,” Alex said about the breakthrough he had in therapy.
Alex went back to college and earned a degree in hospitality management from Widener. Hired by Aramark, Alex was an outstanding worker and recognized as one of their “30 under 30.”
After he filed the lawsuit in 2022, Alex decided to get an MBA and was accepted to New York University and offered a full scholarship. But just as he began at NYU, he was called back to Delaware County for depositions and decided to put studying for that degree on hold.
Alex is working in sales now, but since his case is settled, he hopes to return to NYU.
The Pennsylvania House passed two bills (HB 462, HB 464) in 2025 that would extend the time to sue for child sexual assault victims. One would ask the voters to approve a constitutional amendment. But the bills have not passed in the Senate.
Jim and Alex Yannopolous are hoping that the Senate will pass the bills to allow sexual assault victims a two-year revival window that would briefly suspend the current age 55 limits to sue or make it within twelve years of the discovery of child sexual abuse.
“The bottom line is those limits protect predators, and they hurt victims, and expanding it would give victims more access to getting a sense of justice from the court system and financial compensation,” said Alex Yannopoulos.
Asked why the Senate has not taken up these bills, Majority Leader Sen. Joe Pittman (R-41) said, “The Senate took swift action last session to address the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and voter identification through the Constitutional Amendment process. There continues to be no valid justification for Democrats to prevent Pennsylvanians from having the opportunity to weigh in on both issues at the ballot box.”
State Rep. Nate Davidson (D-103), who sponsored the bills, said, “Both bills were passed by the House with strong bipartisan support in June of 2025. They await consideration in the Senate, where I remain optimistic that survivors will see one of these bills voted on before the send of this legislative session.”
Jim Yannopoulos recommended that RTSD and other school districts receive training to prevent child sexual abuse from CHILD USA and become certified. However, RTSD has not. He would also like to see scorecards for districts showing the number of incidents reported, cases in litigation, cases settled, and settlement amounts.
“The statutory window legislation vindicates survivors and empowers them,” said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania political science professor and founder of CHILD USA. “It also removes the barriers to accountability for schools and other youth-serving organizations. The public also needs this legislation because it identifies hidden child predators. Parents need that information.”
“UNRECONCILED,” a one-actor play about child sexual abuse, will be performed this April 22, including at the Gamut Theater in Harrisburg, where it will be free. Jim Yannopoulos called it “powerful” and “moving” and said state legislators have been invited. Hamilton will lead a discussion afterward.
It will also be presented at JD McGillicuddy’s in Havertown, April 15-19, but performances have already sold out except for April 17.
Neither officials from the Radnor Township School District nor the Philadelphia Archdiocese responded to requests for comment.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Linda Stein is an award-winning journalist who’s written for newspapers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Arizona. Before joining Fideri News Network, she was the news editor for Delaware Valley Journal. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Temple University and earned her undergraduate degree from Arcadia University. Contact her at lstein@fiderinews.com.
