A former student at an elite, all-girls Connecticut boarding school — that counts a Rockefeller as one of its alumni — is accusing the institution of turning a blind eye to a sexual-predator teacher who abused her.
The Westover School in Middlebury knew the faculty member and squash coach “preyed on minor female students” but failed to report him to authorities or discipline him, the ex-student claims in her federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
“Despite actual and constructive knowledge that [the teacher] was engaging in inappropriate sexual relationships with [the plaintiff] and with other minor girls… Westover failed and refused to prevent the abuse,” the filing states.
The former student — who attended the prep-school from 2003 to 2007 — said she was abused by the teacher beginning when she was a 15-year-old sophomore.
She claims the teacher groped her and sexually touched her at least three times and “kissed, hugged and touched” her hundreds of times while on campus.
“[The teacher’s] sexual assaults and his sexually abusive relationship with [the plaintiff] was widely-known to Westover students and faculties,” and was even reported to the dean by the mom of one of her friends, the filing states.
Three school employees even referred to the student as the teacher’s “girlfriend,” according to the lawsuit.
The instructor had also previously “openly dated” another minor student and had a sexual relationship with another underage girl in the 11th grade, the suit claims.
Despite that, the exclusive, $63,000 a year school, didn’t discipline him or “take any other steps to protect girls from [his] abuse.”
As a result of the abuse, the girl was “irreparably damaged” and suffers from post-traumatic stress, sexual dysfunction, nightmares and insomnia, among other ailments, according to the suit.
The faculty member was eventually canned in 2008 when the allegations were reported to authorities.
He was arrested in 2012 and charged with sexual assault. He pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of first-degree reckless endangerment and was sentenced to one year in jail.
Only the school is named in the lawsuit, which alleges negligence and seeks unspecified damages.
Westover’s head of school, Julie Faulstich, said in a statement to The Associated Press that she is aware of the suit, and that an outside investigator was hired in 2019 to look into allegations of sexual assault at the school.
“No student should be subject to sexual conduct of any mind by any teacher,” the statement said.
The institution counts Isabel Rockefeller Lincoln and Zein Al Hussein, the daughter of Jordan’s late King Hussein I, among its noted alumni.
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