Twenty-four male graduates from Kamehameha Schools and two from other schools allege in a lawsuit filed today that they were systematically sexually abused and prescribed inappropriate prescription drugs as children by the head of Kamehameha’s department of psychiatry, who later shot himself to death in 1991 when confronted by the allegations.

The lawsuit names 24 of the 26 alleged victims and their survivors. They are now adult lawyers, doctors, business professionals, police officers and “other prominent individuals within the Hawaiian community,” according to the Honolulu law firms of Davis Levin Livingston and Michael J. Green, who filed the suit.

Green called the plaintiffs “some of the bravest people I’ve ever known.”

Kamehameha Schools had no immediate comment today.

Attorneys Green and Mark Davis believe the number of victims is much larger and said at a press conference today that students from other Hawaii schools also were referred to Dr. Robert M. Browne, who had lost his privileges at St. Francis Medical Center before going to work at Kamehameha in the 1950s. He continued to have privileges at Kuakini Medical Center, now known as Kuakini Health System.

St. Francis Medical Center and Kuakini Health System are also named in the suit along with Kamehameha Schools.

The attorneys said the molestations occurred at Kamehameha for 27 years between 1958 through 1985.

Most of the alleged 24 Kamehameha students attended the Kapalama campus as boarders from neighbor islands.

They were ordered to see Browne as a patient for a wide range of issues, from adjusting to life on Oahu to minor infractions including tardiness, Green said.

The lawsuit outlines in often graphic detail allegations of violent rape, masturbation, oral sex and other sexual misconduct during sessions that sometimes were conducted in Browne’s office, home and in the residential apartment of the principal.

Browne had guns in his office that he typically showed to his patients, Green said, and often referred to gun suicide as a possible solution to their issues. Some of Browne’s colleagues at Kamehameha had killed themselves, Green said.

Kamehameha was confronted by the allegations in 1991 but school officials failed to respond, Green and Davis said.

Browne killed himself in 1991 the night that he was confronted by one of his alleged victims for the first time.

All of the alleged victims believed they were the only one, Davis said.

The allegations became public when one of Browne’s victims stood up at an unidentified church service in 1990 and made vague allegations about an unidentified school.

A woman who attended the service told her brother, an attorney, who met with the alleged victim.

According to Green, the attorney later contacted Browne and told the psychiatrist, “‘You ain’t getting away with this.’ Dr. Brown then shot himself, took his own life.”

Blake Conant also attended Kamehameha and was 4 years older than his little brother, Christopher, who had been ordered to see Browne as a patient because he was having difficulty adjusting to life on Oahu.

Blake told reporters today that Christopher had a difficult life far beyond Kamehameha and he only learned what had happened to Christopher when Blake moved back from the mainland three years ago.

A month before Christopher’s death due to alcoholism and drug abuse while in his 50s, Christopher for the first time revealed the allegations of abuse as a 12-year-old boarder student at Kamehameha.

“My brother’s life was ruined,” Blake said. “My mom and dad entrusted Kamehameha to watch over us. … We revered the legacy of (Bernice) Pauahi (Bishop). As a Hawaiian, it was the ultimate.”

The lawsuit was filed just before the statute of limitations expires in April, Green and Davis said.