• By
  • Sophia Hollander
Mr. Rusch’s accusers include, right to left, former Woodward students Sara Smahl, her sister Nancy, Lisa Young, Jane Bedell and Wendy Hooker.
Erin Patrice O’Brien for The Wall Street Journal

Lawyers for women who say they were sexually abused by a popular teacher at their Brooklyn private school during the late 1960s and early 1970s announced a news conference at 3 p.m. in Manhattan to detail what action they think should be taken.

Nearly a dozen former students accused former Woodward School teacher Bob Rusch of sexual abuse; some were as young as 12 years old. The abuse allegations, reported Wednesday in the Greater New York section of The Wall Street Journal, range from touching and groping on school grounds to sexual intercourse on cross-country trips he ran every summer with his now-deceased wife. The school no longer exists.

Mr. Rusch, now 71, acknowledged to the Journal that he had sex with students, though he denied certain allegations and declined to comment on others. He apologized for his behavior, saying he is “embarrassed and remorseful and I have been for the better part of 41 years.” He also said he would meet with the women if they wanted.

Seven women are represented by lawyers Gloria Allred and Mariann Wang, who have partnered on several high-profile cases representing women who say they were sexually abused. They recently represented women who accused a teacher at their former Virginia school of abusing them in the late 1960s and 1970s. The teacher, Christopher Kloman, was sentenced to 43 years in prison last October after pleading guilty to multiple charges.

In New York, the statute of limitations to pursue criminal or civil cases expired years ago for the former Woodward students.

For nearly a decade, some legislators in New York have been trying to change the state’s statute-of-limitations laws, which rank among the strictest in the country. People who say they were sexually abused as minors must file a claim by the age of 23, although psychiatrists say it can take decades for people to process abuse they experienced as children.