Four Haines High School alumni came forward this week detailing sexual abuse by former Boy Scout leader, school principal and superintendent Karl Ward, who died 21 years ago. 
 
 Craig Loomis, Robert Brouillette, Nick Kokotovich and Roger Schnabel allege that Ward fondled them or acted inappropriately toward them while they were visiting at his home. 
 
 The men decided to speak out after news circulated of Ward's alleged sexual abuse of Rick Martin. Martin, who killed himself on March 11, left a video on his phone alleging he was fondled and later raped by Ward. 
 
 Loomis graduated in 1969 and played basketball for the Haines Glacier Bears. Loomis told the CVN on Monday that Ward invited students to his house and offered them alcohol. During one such encounter, when he was around 16 or 17 years old, Loomis said Ward "inappropriately touched" him. He said there are likely more victims. 
 
 "I don't want to mention any other names, but I'm sure there's probably more than a couple," Loomis said. 
 
 Loomis said he decided to speak out because too many people knew about Ward's behavior for too long. "God I feel so sorry," Loomis said. "I should have said something 30 or 40 years ago. Whoever's been suffering, we don't know what their life would have been if we would have said something." 
 
 Brouillette played basketball with Loomis. He said a teacher, in whose home he was staying at the time, asked him to go to Ward's to get keys to the school. 
 
 "Karl Ward came out on his porch, drinking, and touched me, too," Brouillette said. "He reached out and grabbed me by my manhood. I think it's happened to more than just two of us. I think there was more than Craig (Loomis) and I. It's sad." 
 
 Brouillette said he told the teacher who he was living with what Ward had done to him. The teacher did nothing. "It kind of made me feel like I did something wrong, at the time." 
 
 In 1977 when Nick Kokotovich was 19 years old, he said he was invited to Ward's home to drink alcohol. "I was in the kitchen mixing a drink and he came up behind me and grabbed my buttocks and squeezed it a couple times," Kokotovich said. "I mean he grabbed hold. I jumped back and told him to knock it off and don't do that. He just smiled at me and backed away." 
 
 Schnabel also played basketball. He graduated in 1973. Similar to the others, Ward invited Schnabel to his home. Schnabel said Ward had been drinking and was slurring his words. They were in his basement. 
 
 "Mr. Ward, he approached me inappropriately. I went into sort of a shock mode, immediately left his home and told my father. I was probably about 15 or 16 years old. I never visited him again." 
 
 Schnabel said Ward never approached him again and thinks his father, a prominent businessman at the time, dealt with Ward "behind the scenes." 
 
 The men who spoke out believe Ward's sexual abuse was an open secret in Haines that should be acknowledged. Two school staff members-friends of current school principal Rene Martin, widow of Rick Martin-took down a sign last week that named the school gym after Ward. 
 
 Mayor Sharan Van Winkle dedicated the gym to Ward in 1994 and cited his "unique rapport with students," according to a Jan. 13 CVN article from that year. "You don't see that kind of closeness between young people (and adults) very often," Van Winkle said. The plaque was later presented during the Class of 1994's graduation ceremony. 
 
 Loomis, who graduated years before the sign was hung, said he was shocked that the gym was named after Ward. "I thought to myself, how could this possibly be? People knew this. How could they possibly name the gym after him? Nobody talked about it back then. The victims kept quiet, because how could a kid go against the word of Karl Ward?" 
 
 Ward, originally from Philadelphia, joined the Navy in 1942, according to records obtained from the Haines Sheldon Museum. He was discharged in 1945. Two years later he joined the National Missions of the Presbyterian Church and was sent to Haines. He worked as an assistant farmer and maintenance man at the Haines House, a place where Native children lived who were orphaned, wards of the state or who lacked schools in their remote communities. 
 
 He later returned to Pennsylvania and obtained a master's in education. In 1954, he accepted a teaching position at Haines High School. He became the principal three years later. In 1960, the Presbyterian Church closed Haines House. Ward fostered four boys who left the orphanage. 
 
 In 1967 he was hired as the Haines School superintendent. Ward was also active in the Boy Scouts. He remained single until he was 46 years old. Ward retired as superintendent in 1976. Ward was active in Glacier Bears basketball. He served as a scorekeeper and travelled with the team. Ward also had the boys rub his head for good luck before taking the court. He died in 1997. 
 
 According to CVN records Ward received awards from students, local teachers, businesses and the University of Alaska. He was twice given an award for contributions to student activities. The University of Alaska Southeast gave him a meritorious service award for his work in education and his "strong, positive influence on youth," according to a December 1989 "Southeast Log" article obtained from the Sheldon Museum. 
 
 The CVN reached out to Ward's former peers, coworkers and administrators to see if they were aware of rumors or alleged abuse. 
 
 "I have no comment on that issue now or ever," former principal Alan Heinrich said. 
 
 Former teacher and school board president Dave Olerud said he heard rumors of Ward being "different." "I heard rumors," Olerud said. "He lived in a house and he always had some students with him. He worked at the Presbyterian (Haines) House with kids. The story was he was just a different person." 
 
 Former teachers Lyle Huff and Ron Smith said they'd never heard the rumors. 
 
 "I didn't know or I probably would have said something," Smith said. 
 
 Gary Matthews was a music teacher from 1968 to 1979 and the principal from 1979 to 1993. He said he thought it was somewhat unusual that Ward had students over to his house, but chalked it up to Ward not having a family. 
 
 "He was close to a number of kids," Matthews said. "There were students he had as his favorites. They would go to his house. He liked the basketball team really well. I know he was really close to those kids." 
 
 Other Haines residents said they believed for years that Ward abused kids. 
 
 "It's been hard to walk by that sign at the gym. When I was in high school, Karl Ward attempted to molest someone close to me who came straight from Karl's basement to tell me about it," said Pioneer Bar owner Christy Tengs Fowler. "Others have told me of their molestation. Parents were told, but nobody did anything." 
 
 Brouillette's sister, Harriet Brouillette, said she remembered eavesdropping on adult conversations about Ward's alleged abuse. She said it was "one of those things that every kid who went to Haines School knew." 
 
 "I just remember growing up knowing what everybody seemed to know, but didn't want to talk about, that he liked young boys," Harriet Brouillette said. "It was one of those 'hush-hush' things. Everybody seemed to know about it, but no one wanted to call him out." 
 
 Jeanette Menaker graduated in 1963. She said residents knew about Ward's behavior at that time. "It was wrong for the community to have allowed it to continue. It was wrong that action was not taken then." 
 
 Others say they are shocked at the news. One Haines graduate said he named his child after Ward. 
 
 Norm Smith, who attended school in Haines from the seventh grade until he graduated, said he had never heard any such allegations against Ward. 
 
 "To hear that about Karl Ward, I'm having a hard time believing that," Smith said. "He was the principal when I was there. I always thought he was a good guy myself." 
 
 It's doubtful whether anyone would be hearing about Ward now were it not for Rick Martin's video, and his wife's decision to share it publicly. 
 
 Tengs Fowler praised Martin's decision. "She said what many of us couldn't or wouldn't. She is giving voice to the people who were silenced and shamed." 
 
 Martin said her husband told his father about Ward groping him, but his father said they were Native and there was nothing they could do about it. "For the record, this goes back a long ways and probably a lot of the boys remember this," Rick Martin said in his video message. "Karl Ward butt f**ked me. And I had to keep my mouth shut about that." 
 
 Rick Martin, who worked in the school, told his wife that it was difficult to be in same hallway as the sign commemorating the gym's namesake. 
 
 Phillip Jackson said Martin told him about Ward's abuse in the late 1980s when they worked together logging. When he was a child, Jackson said a male relative sexually abused him. 
 
 "I felt his pain after I heard," Jackson said. "This issue is an ugly issue, but a good issue to talk about. I feel good when someone talks to me about it. The best thing you can do is to be honest." 
 
 Loomis said he's willing to talk to anyone who was affected by Ward and organize a meeting with anyone who wants to talk. 
 
 "To make Haines a better place, this should come out," Loomis said. "I'd be willing to sit down with anybody else and talk it through. There are adults out here who are suffering. I'm sure there are other kids like Rick." 
 
 Kokotovich agrees with Loomis. "People are too silent about stuff like this. It needs to be brought out." 
 
 Lynn Canal Counseling is offering walk-in services and staff will be available with or without an appointment. 
 
 Haines Borough police chief Heath Scott met with Mayor Jan Hill, borough manager Debra Schnabel and other community leaders after police found Rick Martin's video. He told them there's a chance more victims, from multiple generations, will come forward. He said Ward's status as a respected community leader indemnified him from public criticism for years, starting with his involvement at the Haines House. 
 
 "He brings in kids that are already torn out of their home that really have no voice," Scott said. "He was probably given a certain level of trust when he came in with the Presbyterian Mission and the Haines House and he goes into the public school system, and that level of trust just continued. He operated in the shadows based on that level of trust." 
 
 Scott encouraged other victims who might seek help to call the SEARHC crisis hotline at 1-877-294-0074 or Lynn Canal Counseling at 766-6383. 
 
 Ward's widow, Doris Ward, who still lives in Haines told the CVN through a third party that she isn't ready to talk and that she is in shock and in mourning for a life she thought she had. ||||| 
 
 Karl Ward, a former schools superintendent and principal at Haines High School in Alaska, was recently accused of sexual abuse. He died in 1997. (Alaska State Department of Education and Early Development/AP) 
 
 Rick Martin used his last words to share a painful secret. 
 
 The 60-year-old man from Haines, Alaska, was suffering from an incurable liver disease. But before he took his own life in March, Martin recorded videos on his cellphone. In one clip, he claimed he had been sexually abused decades earlier by local luminary Karl Ward. 
 
 For 22 years, Ward worked in the town’s school system, rising from teacher to superintendent until his retirement in 1976. Although he had been dead since the 1990s, his presence still clung to the small fishing town 80 miles northwest of Juneau. The high school where Martin’s wife worked had a plaque celebrating the former superintendent’s career. 
 
 “For the record, this goes back a long ways and probably a lot of the boys remember this,” Martin said in his message, the Chilkat Valley News reported. “I had to keep my mouth shut about that.” 
 
 After Martin’s final message, four other former students came forward with their own stories about alleged misconduct by Ward, according to the Valley News, pushing a town with fewer than 2,000 residents to confront a possible pattern of sexual exploitation by an eminent authority figure. 
 
 “I love my town,” Martin’s widow, Rene, told KHNS. “I love the people who live here. We will not keep secrets. We will not live in the dark.” 
 
 
 
 Rick Martin recorded a video before he died by suicide in March in Haines, Alaska. (Rene Martin/AP) 
 
 Local law enforcement say they have no reason to doubt the allegations, but no further investigation is planned, according to the Associated Press. The alleged incidents fit into a larger pattern across the state. Alaska’s rate of sex crimes is three times the national average, the Anchorage Daily News has reported, with the child sexual assault rate six times the national figure. 
 
 Ward spent his career around children. 
 
 Originally from Philadelphia, according to the Valley News, Ward landed in Haines in 1947 working for the National Missions of the Presbyterian Church, an outreach group of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He also worked at the Haines House, a facility for orphaned Native American children. 
 
 In 1954, Ward began teaching at Haines High School, rising to principal in 1957 and superintendent in 1967. He also served as a Boy Scout leader, fostered four boys and worked as a scorekeeper with the local youth basketball team. He died in 1997. 
 
 “He brings in kids that are already torn out of their home that really have no voice,” Haines Borough Police Chief Heath Scott told the paper. “He was probably given a certain level of trust when he came in with the Presbyterian Mission and the Haines House and he goes into the public school system, and that level of trust just continued. He operated in the shadows based on that level of trust.” 
 
 Rick Martin grew up in Haines and graduated from the high school in 1975. Years later, when both he and his wife worked at the school, Martin told her about his run-in with Ward. 
 
 “He told me that it really bothered him to go by the Karl Ward plaque, because he knew that Karl Ward was just a real creepy guy,” Rene, now the high school’s principal, told KHNS. “I said ‘well what do you mean by that?’ And at that time he told me that Karl Ward had tried to grab his penis. And he ran away and went and told his dad, who was Native. And his dad was like ‘okay you’re not really hurt.’ We’re Native and he’s the white superintendent. So you know, we just have to move on.” 
 
 After her husband’s suicide, Rene Martin disclosed that his allegations were on a video. The Chilkat Valley News began tracking down former students to corroborate the abuse. Four former students — Craig Loomis, Robert Brouillette, Nick Kokotovich and Roger Schnabel — eventually agreed to talk publicly about Ward’s advances. They told stories that were remarkably similar — Ward would invite students over to his house, give them alcohol and touch them. 
 
 “I don’t want to mention any other names, but I’m sure there’s probably more than a couple,” Loomis told the Valley News. “I should have said something 30 or 40 years ago. Whoever’s been suffering, we don’t know what their life would have been if we would have said something.” 
 
 Haines has responded positively to the painful story, Borough Manager Debra Schnabel explained to KHNS. 
 
 “That’s one of the things that’s so right about Rene Martin being willing to come forward,” Schnabel said. “It’s not to make a sensational story. But it’s to tell people, this is one person’s story. And if it’s happened to you, then it’s our story.” 
 
 Ward’s widow, Doris, lives in an assisted-living facility in the town. She declined to speak to the Associated Press. According to the facility’s nurse administrator, she is “in shock and she’s in mourning for the life she thought she had.” 
 
 The gym sign honoring Ward at the high school — the same sign that reminded Rick Martin about his alleged abuse decades ago — has been taken down. 
 
 “We had to take it down for me to be able to go back to school, quite honestly,” his widow told KHNS. 
 
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 ‘The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ now wants his day in court ||||| This November 2015 provided by the Alaska State Department of Education and Early Development shows Haines School, in Haines, Alaska. The high school gym at the school was named for Karl Ward, a former... (Associated Press) 
 
 This November 2015 provided by the Alaska State Department of Education and Early Development shows Haines School, in Haines, Alaska. The high school gym at the school was named for Karl Ward, a former school superintendent recently accused of sexual abuse and inappropriate touching by several former... (Associated Press) 
 
 JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Karl Ward is long dead, but some say the once-revered school superintendent in a small Alaska fishing town was not the benevolent educator worthy of having the high school gym named in his honor. 
 
 A cellphone video made by a man before he died by suicide last month has given voice to at least five other men, all of whom say they were sexually abused decades ago by Ward, confirming publicly whispers that had long quietly existed. 
 
 Rick Martin graphically explained on the video what he said Ward had done to him, and now his widow Rene, who serves as the principal in Haines, is speaking out. 
 
 There is no legal recourse, all concede, but she hopes to spark a conversation about mental health and abuse. 
 
 The guilt "needs to only live with that one man," she said. 
 
 Ward worked in the school district for more than 20 years, including as superintendent in the 1960s and '70s, according to the Chilkat Valley News; he died in 1997. His widow is in an assisted living facility. 
 
 The facility's nurse administrator, Stephanie Pattison, said the woman asked her to tell people that she is "in shock and she's in mourning for the life she thought she had." 
 
 Police Chief Heath Scott said he has no reason to doubt the allegations, but there's nothing to investigate, nor reason to suspect any sort of cover-up. He confirmed that Martin made the abuse claims on the video. 
 
 Haines, a fishing and tourist community of about 1,740, is located about 80 air miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, in southeast Alaska. 
 
 The men who have spoken since Martin's death about unwanted touching or advances by Ward while they were teenagers spoke to the Chilkat Valley News' Kyle Clayton, who went through yearbooks and called dozens of people to locate alleged victims. 
 
 "I had to find everybody. No one came forward to me," Clayton said. 
 
 Once one of the men, Craig Loomis, spoke to Clayton about his own alleged experience with Ward, others began to speak. 
 
 "It kind of started falling over like dominoes," Clayton said. The Associated Press typically doesn't name victims of sexual abuse but the men have publicly come forward to discuss their allegations. 
 
 Loomis told the newspaper that Ward invited students to his house and offered them alcohol. On one visit, Ward "inappropriately touched" him, Loomis said. 
 
 "I should have said something 30 or 40 years ago," Loomis said. "Whoever's been suffering, we don't know what their life would have been if we would have said something." 
 
 Some residents told the paper they had heard allegations about Ward growing up. 
 
 Others saw Ward as a stand-up guy. One former principal, Alan Heinrich, would not comment on the reports. 
 
 Robert Brouillette said he told a teacher that Ward touched him but the teacher did nothing, the newspaper reported. 
 
 Martin said her husband once told his father that Ward tried to touch him, but his father said they were Native, and there was nothing they could do about it, she told KHNS radio. 
 
 Rick Martin later worked at the school as a janitor and told his wife it was tough to see a sign celebrating Ward outside the gym, the station reported. 
 
 Borough Manager Debra Schnabel said some issues weren't talked about 30 years ago, the way they have been during the current #MeToo movement. 
 
 "I think a lot of people in the community, we're not beating ourselves up for the culture that we lived in," she said. "I think that we're kind of pleased with the fact that we can, at this point in our lives, bring it to the fore and use the knowledge that we have to try to make things better for everybody." 
 
 Many residents seem relieved, Clayton said. 
 
 Local officials are trying to steer residents in need to available counseling services. Alaska has a high rate of sexual assault and abuse, and authorities said the recent news stories may have dredged up for some residents painful memories of past abuse. 
 
 The school board issued a public apology, saying the district must learn from this "heartbreaking" situation. "We can no longer accept a culture of silence about sexual abuse," the statement says. 
 
 The plaque outside the gym bearing Ward's name has been removed, though a decision remained on whether to rename the facility. The borough assembly, meanwhile, has asked Schnabel to draft a policy for the naming of facilities. 
 
 Martin doesn't want anyone to make the same choice that her husband did. 
 
 "Where I hope this leads is for us to have honest conversations about mental health and abuse and how we need to support people and be honest and face truths, even if they're hard and ugly," she said. ||||| Four Haines High School alumni came forward this week detailing sexual abuse by former Boy Scout leader, school principal and superintendent Karl Ward, who died 21 years ago. 
 
 Craig Loomis, Robert Brouillette, Nick Kokotovich and Roger Schnabel allege that Ward fondled them or acted inappropriately toward them while they were visiting at his home. 
 
 The men decided to speak out after news circulated of Ward's alleged sexual abuse of Rick Martin. Martin, who killed himself on March 11, left a video on his phone stating he was fondled and later raped by Ward. 
 
 Loomis graduated in 1969 and played basketball for the Haines Glacier Bears. Loomis told the CVN on Monday that Ward invited students to his house and offered them alcohol. During one such encounter, when he was around 16 or 17 years old, Loomis said Ward "inappropriately touched" him. He said there are likely more victims. 
 
 "I don't want to mention any other names, but I'm sure there's probably more than a couple," Loomis said. 
 
 Loomis said he decided to speak out because too many people knew about Ward's behavior for too long. "God I feel so sorry," Loomis said. "I should have said something 30 or 40 years ago. Whoever's been suffering, we don't know what their life would have been if we would have said something." 
 
 Brouillette played basketball with Loomis. He said he was staying at a teacher's home at the time who asked him to go to Ward's to get keys to the school. 
 
 "Karl Ward came out on his porch, drinking, and touched me, too," Brouilette said. "He reached out and grabbed me by my manhood. I think it's happened to more than just two of us. I think there was more than Craig (Loomis) and I. It's sad." 
 
 Brouillette said he told the teacher who he was living with what Ward had done to him. The teacher did nothing. 
 
 In 1977 when Nick Kokotovich was 19 years old, he said he was invited to Ward's home to drink alcohol. "I was in the kitchen mixing a drink and he came up behind me and grabbed my buttocks and squeezed it a couple times," Kokotovich said. "I mean he grabbed hold. I jumped back and told him to knock it off and don't do that. He just smiled at me and backed away." 
 
 Schnabel also played basketball. He graduated in 1973. Similar to the others, Ward invited Schnabel to his home. Schnabel said Ward had been drinking and was slurring his words. They were in his basement. 
 
 "Mr. Ward, he approached me inappropriately. I went into sort of a shock mode, immediately left his home and told my father. I was probably about 15 or 16 years old. I never visited him again." 
 
 Schnabel said Ward never approached him again, and thinks his father dealt with Ward "behind the scenes." 
 
 The men who spoke out believe Ward's sexual abuse was an open secret in Haines that should be acknowledged. Two school staff members- friends of current school principal Rene Martin, widow of Rick Martin-took down a sign last week that named the school gym after Ward. The sign was hung in 1994. 
 
 Loomis, who graduated years before the sign was hung, said he was shocked that the gym was named after Ward. "I thought to myself how could this possibly be? People knew this. How could they possibly name the gym after him? Nobody talked about it back then. The victims kept quiet, because how could a kid go against the word of Karl Ward?" 
 
 Ward, originally from Philadelphia, joined the Navy in 1942, according to records obtained from the Haines Sheldon Museum. He was discharged in 1945. Two years later he joined the National Missions of the Presbyterian Church and was sent to Haines. He worked as an assistant farmer and maintenance man at the Haines House, a place where Native children lived who were orphaned, wards of the state or who lacked schools in their remote communities. 
 
 He later returned to Pennsylvania and obtained a masters in education. In 1954, he accepted a teaching position at Haines High School. He became the principal three years later. In 1960, the Presbyterian Church closed Haines House. Ward fostered four boys who left the orphanage. 
 
 In 1967 he was hired as the Haines School superintendent. Ward was also active in the Boy Scouts. He remained single until he was 46 years old. Ward retired as superintendent in 1976. Ward was active in Glacier Bears basketball. He served as a scorekeeper and travelled with the team. Ward also had the boys rub his head for good luck before taking the court. He died in 1997. 
 
 According to CVN records Ward received awards from students, local teachers, businesses and the University of Alaska. He was twice given an award for contributions to student activities. The University of Alaska Southeast gave him a meritorious service award for his work in education and his "strong, positive influence on youth," according to a December 1989 "Southeast Log" article obtained from the Sheldon Museum. 
 
 The CVN reached out to Ward's former coworkers and administrators to see if they were aware of rumors or alleged abuse. 
 
 "I have no comment on that issue now or ever," former principal Alan Heinrich said. 
 
 Gary Matthews was a music teacher from 1968 to 1979 and the principal from 1979 to 1993. He said he thought it was somewhat unusual that Ward had students over to his house, but chalked it up to Ward not having a family. 
 
 "He was close to a number of kids," Matthews said. "There were students he had as his favorites. They would go to his house. He liked the basketball team really well. I know he was really close to those kids." 
 
 Other Haines residents said they believed for years that Ward abused kids. 
 
 "It's been hard to walk by that sign at the gym. When I was in high school, Karl Ward attempted to molest someone close to me who came straight from Karl's basement to tell me about it," said Pioneer Bar owner Christy Tengs Fowler. "Others have told me of their molestation. Parents were told, but nobody did anything." 
 
 Brouillette's sister, Harriet Brouillette, said she remembered eavesdropping on adult conversations about Ward's alleged abuse. She said it was "one of those things that every kid who went to Haines School knew." 
 
 "I just remember growing up knowing what everybody seemed to know, but didn't want to talk about, that he liked young boys," Harriet Brouillette said. "It was one of those 'hush-hush' things. Everybody seemed to know about it, but no one wanted to call him out." 
 
 Others say they are shocked. One Haines graduate said he named his child after Ward. 
 
 Norm Smith, who attended school from the seventh grade until he graduated, said he had never heard any such allegations against Ward. 
 
 "To hear that about Karl Ward, I'm having a hard time believing that," Smith said. "He was the principal when I was there. I always thought he was a good guy myself." 
 
 It's doubtful whether anyone would be hearing about Ward now were it not for Martin's video, and his wife's decision to share it publicly. 
 
 Tengs Folwer praised Martin's decision. "She said what many of us couldn't or wouldn't. She is giving voice to the people who were silenced and shamed." 
 
 Martin said her husband told his father about Ward groping him, but his father said they were Native and there was nothing they could do about it. "For the record, this goes back a long ways and probably a lot of the boys remember this," Rick Martin said in his video message. "Karl Ward butt f**ked me. And I had to keep my mouth shut about that." 
 
 Rick Martin, who worked in the school, told his wife that is was difficult to be in same hallway as the sign commemorating the gym's namesake. 
 
 Phillip Jackson said Martin told him about Ward's abuse in the late 1980s when they worked together logging. When he was a child, Jackson said a male relative sexually abused him. 
 
 "I felt his pain after I heard," Jackson said. "This issue is an ugly issue, but a good issue to talk about. I feel good when someone talks to me about it. The best thing you can do is to be honest." 
 
 Loomis said he's willing to talk to anyone who was affected by Ward and organize a meeting with anyone who wants to talk. 
 
 "To make Haines a better place, this should come out," Loomis said. "I'd be willing to sit down with anybody else and talk it through. There are adults out here who are suffering. I'm sure there are other kids like Rick." 
 
 Lynn Canal Counseling is offering walk-in services and staff will be available with or without an appointment. 
 
 Kokotovich agrees with Loomis. "People are too silent about stuff like this. It needs to be brought out." 
 
 Haines Borough police chief Heath Scott met with Mayor Jan Hill, borough manager Debra Schnabel and other community leaders after police found Rick Martin's video. He told them there's a chance more victims, from multiple generations, will come forward. He said Ward's status as a respected community leader indemnified him from public criticism for years, starting with his involvement at the Haines House. 
 
 "He brings in kids that are already torn out of their home that really have no voice," Scott said. "He was probably given a certain level of trust when he came in with the Presbyterian Mission and the Haines House and he goes into the public school system, and that level of trust just continued. He operated in the shadows based on that level of trust." 
 
 Scott encouraged other victims who might seek help to call the SEARHC crisis hotline at 1-877-294-0074 or Lynn Canal Counseling at 766-6383. 
 
 Ward's widow, Doris Ward, who still lives in Haines told the CVN through a third party that she isn't ready to talk and that she is in shock and in mourning of a life she thought she had.
– Karl Ward is long dead, but some say the once-revered school superintendent in a small Alaska fishing town was not the benevolent educator worthy of having the high school gym named in his honor. A cellphone video made by a man before he died by suicide last month has given voice to at least four other men, all of whom say they were sexually abused decades ago by Ward, confirming publicly whispers that had long existed quietly. Rick Martin, who the Washington Post reports had an incurable liver disease, graphically explained on the video what he said Ward had done to him; the Chilkat Valley News reports he says he was raped. The paper's Kyle Clayton used yearbooks and phone calls to get four other men to go on record with their own decades-old claims. Haines Police Chief Heath Scott said he has no reason to doubt the allegations, but there's nothing to investigate, nor reason to suspect any sort of cover-up. Ward worked in the school district for more than 20 years, including as superintendent in the 1960s and '70s, according to the Valley News; he died in 1997. The school board issued a public apology, saying the district must learn from this "heartbreaking" situation. The plaque outside the gym bearing Ward's name has been removed, though a decision remained on whether to rename the facility, reports the AP. His widow is in an assisted living facility, and the facility's nurse administrator said the woman asked her to tell people that she is "in shock and she's in mourning for the life she thought she had." Haines, a fishing and tourist community of about 1,740, is located about 80 air miles northwest of Juneau.