Someone recently mentioned that John Dewey Academy was not mentioned at Fornits. Well, now it is. Seems there have been problems there before that perhaps weren't reported, or that were missed.
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0 ... 0.html#topDewey Academy is sued over teacher-student affair
By Derek Gentile
Berkshire Eagle Staff
GREAT BARRINGTON -- A former student at the John Dewey Academy is suing the private therapeutic boarding school and some of its officials, including headmaster Thomas Bratter, for allegedly failing to properly oversee a female teacher who enticed the student into a sexual relationship.
The civil suit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Boston by the Boston law firm of Brody, Hardoon, Perkins & Kesten.
The defendants are listed as John Dewey Academy, Bratter, dean of students Kenneth Steiner and Gwendolyn Hampton, a former teacher.
The suit was filed by former student Adam Helfand and his parents, Mitchell and Caron Helfand, all of Buckland, Ill.
The Helfands are seeking to be compensated for personal injury, emotional distress, breach of contract, reasonable attorney's fees and punitive fees. No specific figure was requested in the suit, but the Helfands contend they spent $110,000 on the education of their son at Dewey Academy.
Contacted yesterday, Bratter denied the claims in the suit. As soon as he and Steiner were made aware of the relationship, he said, the school fired Hampton.
"We take very seriously our position as role models for our students," said Bratter. "Had we had any suspicion that this was happening, we would have terminated that employee immediately."
Hampton could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The suit contends that Bratter and Steiner failed to properly supervise Hampton, a Spanish teacher who was also assigned as Helfand's clinician.
Helfand was admitted to Dewey Academy in 1999 after being expelled from high school in Illinois for drug and alcohol abuse.
In the spring of 2000, Helfand and Hampton began a sexual relationship when Helfand was 18 and Hampton was 28. Hampton had been hired by Dewey Academy in the mid-1990s, according to the suit.
According to the suit, Hampton was entrusted with counseling the young man. Instead, she regularly gave Helfand alcohol, encouraged his use of drugs and had sexual relations with him at her home in Great Barrington and in the school car.
After Helfand graduated in 2001, the relationship continued. In June 2002, with Helfand in college, the couple had a child, which was later placed for adoption, according to the suit.
Helfand was of legal age, and Massachusetts law does not prohibit teachers from having sexual relationships with their students if the students are 16 or older. No charges were ever filed against Hampton.
However, the lawsuit contends that students and staff were aware of the relationship between Helfand and Hampton, and that the school did nothing to investigate or stop it, a charge Bratter angrily denies.
Lawrence E. Hardoon, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Helfands, is a former state prosecutor who has handled sexual abuse cases.
He said he believes that state law should be expanded to make it illegal for teachers to have sex with their students, even if those students are 16 or older.
"Actually, I don't disagree with that," said Bratter yesterday. "The law should be changed."
This is the second time a Dewey Academy official has been charged with having an inappropriate relationship with a student.
In 1995, Bratter pleaded no contest in Connecticut to a charge of second-degree unlawful restraint, which involved an alleged relationship with a 17-year-old girl. However, the charges lodged by the girl in the same case in Massachusetts were dropped.
The Dewey Academy, a coeducational, college preparatory therapeutic boarding school, was founded by Bratter in 1985. The annual tuition at the school, which houses its students year-round, is $65,000.
