Boarding school teacher and 'family leader' sentenced for torturing, raping students

ALBANY, N.Y. (TCN) -- A 58-year-old boarding school teacher will spend almost three decades behind bars for raping and sexually abusing two students.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York announced Sept. 4 that a judge sentenced Paul Geer to 327 months, or 27 years and three months, in federal prison. He'll also have to serve three years of supervised release and register as a sex offender.

A jury previously convicted Geer in March of two counts of coercing and enticing two separate children to travel across state lines to engage in unlawful sexual activity and two counts of transporting the children across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with those children. 

According to prosecutors, Geer, a teacher who worked at the Family Foundation School from 1994 through 2001, "imposed disciplinary sanctions on students that were tantamount to torture." He reportedly deprived kids of proper nutrition and made them eat regurgitated food. Prosecutors said the defendant also bound students in rugs and left them in "isolated rooms" for long periods of time and forced them to do physical labor.

Authorities said Geer "used his position of authority and his ability to impose these brutal sanctions to coerce two students to travel with him" to Maine and Toronto. Geer reportedly raped and sexually abused the two students while on those trips. According to Syracuse.com, the victims included a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy.

Geer reportedly worked as a music teacher and choral director, and he served as a "family leader."

In a statement, United States Attorney John Sarcone III called the defendant a "monster," adding, "As a teacher, Geer was supposed to help his students become better versions of themselves. Instead, Geer used his position of power to torture these children physically, emotionally, and psychologically. When Geer believed his tactics had been sufficiently effective in breaking these children and scaring them into silence, he proceeded to sexually abuse them. These children deserved to be protected, to be cared for, and to be helped, but Geer viewed these children only as a means to his sadistic and predatory end. Geer is now paying the price for his heinous conduct and will spend the next 27 years where he deserves to be, in a cage."

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