Teh One Who Knocks
12-02-2011, 02:49 PM
By Lane Lambert - The Patriot Ledger
STOUGHTON — A former Stoughton High student has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the school, a former principal and former superintendent, claiming that they failed to protect her after they knew she was being harassed when another student circulated nude photos of her.
Now 18, the young woman was 14 at the time. The lawsuit includes former principal Brett Dickens, former superintendent Anthony Sarno and the town. The harassment occurred in October and November 2007.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Norfolk County Superior Court. The woman is identified as “Jane Doe” in the suit.
She’s being represented by attorney Carmen Durso of Weymouth, who handled scores of civil clergy sexual abuse cases against the Boston Archdiocese.
Jane Doe is asking for a jury trial, punitive and compensatory damages. Durso filed the lawsuit under federal Title IX, which is familiar from equality cases involving female athletics but also covers sexual harassment and abuse.
Dickens, Sarno and town officials couldn’t be reached for immediate comment on the lawsuit.
Dickens became principal in 2007. She resigned in 2010 to take the job as headmaster at a Boston public charter school, the Boston Community Leadership Academy. Sarno had come out of retirement in 2007 to be interim superintendent.
In the lawsui, the woman claims that in October 2007 a 17-year-old male student identified as “RJ” asked her to send him nude photos. When she did, he “sexted” them via cell phone and on the Internet. She was then subjected to “relentless and unremitting sexual harassment,” and called “whore.”
In the lawsuit she says she spoke with guidance counselors after each incident, but that they and others “turned a blind eye” to the harassment.
After the male student circulated the photos, she says he also sexually assaulted her. She says she developed eating disorders, attempted suicide several times, and left Stoughton High in March 2008.
The lawsuit alleges that Jane Doe’s mother learned that the student who’d asked the girl to send the nude photos is the son of a relative of Dickens. Jane Doe’s mother also said Sarno told her that the school didn’t take action because the girl hadn’t made a formal harassment complaint.
Jane Doe then told her mother about the sexual assault, which occurred in November 2007. The male student was charged with statutory rape, pleaded guilty to assault and battery, and graduated with his class in 2009. The lawsuit says Dickens could have suspended the male student for being charged with a felony but did not.
STOUGHTON — A former Stoughton High student has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the school, a former principal and former superintendent, claiming that they failed to protect her after they knew she was being harassed when another student circulated nude photos of her.
Now 18, the young woman was 14 at the time. The lawsuit includes former principal Brett Dickens, former superintendent Anthony Sarno and the town. The harassment occurred in October and November 2007.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Norfolk County Superior Court. The woman is identified as “Jane Doe” in the suit.
She’s being represented by attorney Carmen Durso of Weymouth, who handled scores of civil clergy sexual abuse cases against the Boston Archdiocese.
Jane Doe is asking for a jury trial, punitive and compensatory damages. Durso filed the lawsuit under federal Title IX, which is familiar from equality cases involving female athletics but also covers sexual harassment and abuse.
Dickens, Sarno and town officials couldn’t be reached for immediate comment on the lawsuit.
Dickens became principal in 2007. She resigned in 2010 to take the job as headmaster at a Boston public charter school, the Boston Community Leadership Academy. Sarno had come out of retirement in 2007 to be interim superintendent.
In the lawsui, the woman claims that in October 2007 a 17-year-old male student identified as “RJ” asked her to send him nude photos. When she did, he “sexted” them via cell phone and on the Internet. She was then subjected to “relentless and unremitting sexual harassment,” and called “whore.”
In the lawsuit she says she spoke with guidance counselors after each incident, but that they and others “turned a blind eye” to the harassment.
After the male student circulated the photos, she says he also sexually assaulted her. She says she developed eating disorders, attempted suicide several times, and left Stoughton High in March 2008.
The lawsuit alleges that Jane Doe’s mother learned that the student who’d asked the girl to send the nude photos is the son of a relative of Dickens. Jane Doe’s mother also said Sarno told her that the school didn’t take action because the girl hadn’t made a formal harassment complaint.
Jane Doe then told her mother about the sexual assault, which occurred in November 2007. The male student was charged with statutory rape, pleaded guilty to assault and battery, and graduated with his class in 2009. The lawsuit says Dickens could have suspended the male student for being charged with a felony but did not.