Not considered a school for disabled or troubled teens, actually I do not think they take any children with special needs but anyway interesting!
Andrea
Elite private school eyes guilty plea on abuse reporting
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press Writer | April 23, 2005
BOSTON --Trustees of the elite Groton School have voted to plead guilty to failing to report an allegation of sexual abuse by a student six years ago, the father of a prosecution witness said Saturday.
The boarding school was indicted last summer on the misdemeanor criminal charge. A guilty plea would end the case and allow the school to avoid a public airing of damaging testimony at the trial, which was scheduled to begin Monday.
"The district attorney's office called and said the trial has been canceled," said Peter Hawkins, whose son, Cannon, was a prosecution witness and helped launch the investigation. In 1999, Cannon "Zeke" Hawkins claimed during a school assembly that he'd been abused years before.
Peter Hawkins, of Darien, Conn., said prosecutor Katherine Folger called him Thursday to tell him his son wouldn't need to testify because school trustees voted that day to plead guilty and inform the court of their intention to change their plea before trial.
A spokeswoman for District Attorney Martha Coakley declined to comment Saturday.
A Groton School spokeswoman said Headmaster Rick Commons would not comment Saturday.
In April 1999, the parents of a 16-year-old male student told school authorities that their son told them he was sexually assaulted by fellow students. Prosecutors alleged the school did not file a report of suspected abuse or neglect. The state's "mandated reporting" law requires teachers, school officials, doctors, day care workers, clergy and others to alert DSS in writing of any suspected abuse.
The school was indicted on one charge of failing to file an abuse report to the Department of Social Services. No individuals were charged. The charge carries a $1,000 fine.
Cannon Hawkins, who has a civil lawsuit against the school, was not the alleged victim in the indictment, but was a prosecution witnesses. Now 24, he lives in New York City and is a filmmaker.
The criminal investigation was launched in April 1999 after Hawkins, then a senior, told a school assembly he'd been sexually assaulted several times by a group of older boys when he was a new student.
Peter Hawkins said he's disappointed that former school officials won't have to testify.
"All of that testimony would have become public," Hawkins said.
The state Supreme Judicial Court three years ago ordered Groton to turn over files to a grand jury and rebuked the school for its "dogged silence" about other possible victims.
The Groton School, located on 300 acres about 40 miles northwest of Boston, was founded in 1884 by the Rev. Endicott Peabody. Among its alumni are President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and McGeorge Bundy, a national security adviser to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
The five-year boarding school has 355 students.
After the indictment last June, school officials said they never hid reported abuse, and that they reported three allegations to DSS in prior years. They said the student in question did not provide enough information to make a report.
