GILL — Northfield Mount Hermon School is being sued for more than $2 million in a case alleging sexual abuse of a minor female by a female teacher between 1999 and 2001, according to a complaint filed in Suffolk Superior Court.

Received by the court on June 12, the complaint alleges administrators and teachers knew about the abuse at the time, but failed to notify state child protective service agencies or law enforcement officials. Two former deans, an administrator, two teachers, a mental health counselor and a psychiatrist are facing charges of negligence, infliction of emotional distress and violation of state-mandated reporting of sexual assaults.

The complaint alleges that due to the negligence of the school and employees, the victim, who was 15 in 1999, was sexually assaulted by a former female teacher who was 26 at the time. The victim is now suing for $2,420,000 in compensation for personal injuries and damages suffered as a result of her alleged abuse while attending NMH.

“If she had been a man and had sex with the defendant, she probably would have been charged with statutory rape, yet nobody reported it,” said Carmen Durso, the victim’s lawyer. “For some reason the school did not treat this the same way.”

Despite being named in the complaint, the alleged abuser is not being charged in this case. Durso said the plaintiff has until she is 53 years old, based on the statute of limitations, to bring a suit against the teacher should she choose to do so. He said this case is about “the other adults in the room” who didn’t uphold their responsibilities to intervene.

When reached Friday, NMH said it can’t comment on pending legal matters.

“We take the trust families place in us very seriously, and student safety is our highest priority,” Director of Communications Sharon Lindale said in a statement Friday. “Northfield Mount Hermon has zero-tolerance for any sexual misconduct by faculty and staff members against students. We have protocols for all employees at the school, conduct background checks on all who work at the school, provide regular employee training around issues of student safety and adhere to all mandatory reporting guidelines.”

This is not the first instance of alleged sexual misconduct involving school employees. After hiring the law firm Jackson Lewis to investigate alleged incidents of past sexual misconduct, NNH fired longtime teacher Gary Partenheimer in 2016 over allegations of misconduct with a female student from more than 30 years earlier. In 2017, a former NMH photography instructor and dorm head, John “Jock” Sturges, was charged with statutory rape of a 14-year-old female student in 1975.

According to the June 12 complaint, the inappropriate relationship began in 1999. It states the teacher “would initiate physical contact” with the victim, playfully pushing her during pick-up basketball games in front of other students and faculty. The teacher reportedly indulged the student with expensive gifts and shared faculty gossip with her.

In fall 1999, according to the complaint, the teacher confessed her romantic feelings toward the student. In December 1999, six months prior to the victim’s 16th birthday, they engaged in a sexual relationship. The report states the relationship continued through January 2001.

In August 2000, two of the named defendants questioned the teacher about her relationship with the student, but she denied the accusation, the lawsuit states.

In January 2001, the suit states, the teacher began dating a fellow employee at NMH. According to the complaint, this employee told the victim she should “respect” the pair’s “adult relationship.” While the teacher reportedly encouraged the victim to date someone her own age, she also “continued to engage in sexual intercourse” with her.

In February 2001, the victim was referred by a NMH nurse to speak with a mental health counselor, who is named in the suit, for profound depression. The health counselor’s report from that February states “the school had some sense that something was going on last spring, but failed to find anything concrete. ... The faculty member has also been interrogated by the school dean and a faculty member and has denied anything that happened.”

“That several people, including two mental health professionals, did not do anything is a very big deal,” Durso said.

The complaint states that because the individually named defendants, and the school, did not make any report to state child protective service agencies or any law enforcement agency, and the teacher was never charged with a crime, the victim was “unable to understand she was the child victim of a crime, and not a jilted lover in a failed adult relationship.” The suit claims the defendants negligently inflicted lasting emotional distress.

Durso said the victim came to the realization she had been abused as a result of therapy in 2018. Her main motivation for coming forward now, Durso said, is to help young people in similar situations find a voice for themselves. His firm, Durso Law, of Boston, focuses on representing survivors of child sexual abuse and adult sexual assaults. He said it can be especially difficult for young people who identify as gay to accept or realize the harmful nature of the relationship with their abuser.

“It’s sexual abuse regardless of the sexual orientation of the perpetrator,” Durso said. “This is what has motivated my client to bring this suit more than anything else.”

According to the complaint, the suit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston because some of the instances of abuse occurred in that city. Durso said it would be “pure speculation at this point” to estimate the timeline for a trial, due to the COVID-19 health concerns and limitations for gathering a jury.

Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.]]>