Oprah Winfrey's boarding school in South Africa has been hit with a second sex scandal since opening two years ago.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy School for Girls suspended seven students last week for sexually harassing and fondling classmates, the New York Daily News reported.
The News quoted from a South Africa newspaper that reported one 15-year-old had urged her victims to lie to investigators about what happened. Others were accused of trying to entice students at the all-girl academy into lesbian encounters, the News reported.
A Winfrey spokesperson confirmed the girls' suspension to the News, but was mum on details.
The incident is the second sexually-related scandal to rock the $46 million school, which Chicago-based talk show host and media mogul Winfrey opened in Jan. 2007 to educate poor South African girls who showed strong academic potential.
Just 10 months after the school opened, the school's dorm matron, Virginia Makgobo, was accused of sex abuse and other charges involving 15 girls. She will appear in court in June, according to the News.
Winfrey, a victim of sexual abuse herself, wept on air when discussing the scandal at the time. In response, she gave out her cell phone number to every girl at the academy and fired the school's headmistress.
U.S. & World
It is unknown if any of the girls had called Winfrey to report the most recent incident, according to the News.
