New Haven RegisterGrove School in Madison hit with second lawsuitPublished: Tuesday, July 05, 2011
By Alexandra Sanders, Register Staff
[email protected] / Twitter: @asanders88MADISON — In the wake of a lawsuit claiming that the staff at the Grove School used improper restraint procedures, another suit has been filed alleging negligence in its policies and practices after a student was allegedly sexually assaulted.
According to the lawsuit filed last month, the alleged victim of the sexual assault, a 16-year-old resident of New York, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and oppositional defiant disorder and was hospitalized six times prior to her enrollment at the private therapeutic boarding school.
The girl, who was supposed to be under constant supervision except for the time spent in her bedroom and bathroom, left her third-period art class June 21, 2010, after Brendan Moretti, then a 16-year-old student, passed her a note that told her to meet him after class in the main office restroom across campus, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that no one noticed that she left class and did not show up on time for her fourth-period class.
On her way to the restroom, the girl crossed school grounds and walked past two staff members who were permanently stationed at the entrance to the main office building.
CEO and President of the School Richard Chorney said that the two people are secretaries who likely assumed that she was going to therapy because the therapists are upstairs in that building.
“She wasn’t stopped because she was going to the bathroom like any high school student in America,” said attorney David Hill, who is representing the school. “Students are allowed to use the bathroom between periods, but they are not allowed to use the bathroom to have consensual sex.”
Moretti, at 6 feet tall, walked into the restroom a few minutes after she did and, according to the lawsuit, told her to “take off her clothes and shut up”; when she resisted, he allegedly said that she would be punished by the school if he told on her.
After the alleged sexual assault, the state Department of Children and Families required the school to replace the internal lock on the restroom door with a key lock outside.
The lawsuit states that the following day, the girl told her roommate about the incident, who urged her to tell her therapist, after saying that a former roommate had also been sexually assaulted by Moretti.
Chorney said the previous alleged assault was not reported and the first he heard anything of it was when he received the lawsuit.
“It’s a frivolous claim,” said Hill. “Two teens snuck away to have consensual sex and somehow the family claims monetary damages.”
The lawsuit states that the incident was a violation of the girl’s rights under Title IX as she is a female, and therefore a member of the group that Title IX protects.
Chorney said that the school has a sexual harassment policy that calls for police and DCF to be notified, and if the school has any concerns, it can suspend the student, which it did.
Moretti is now enrolled in a program in another state, according to Chorney.
On Aug. 17, 2010, Moretti was arrested by police, and according to the state judicial website, he was charged with six felonies, including sexual assault in the first degree, sexual assault in the second degree, two counts of third-degree assault, risk of injury to a child and unlawful restraint in the first degree.
The Register does not publish names of sexual assault victims or minors, but Moretti is being tried as an adult.
The lawsuit also states that after the girl was removed from school, the school published a yearbook with her photo in it without her mother’s consent, representing that she was a student at the school, although she was pulled out “on an emergency basis.”
“Conventionally, parents are required to sign releases for a photograph image reproduction of their children and my client didn’t sign anything like that,” said the girl’s mother’s attorney, Rachel Asher of New York.
Asher’s clients are seeking compensatory damages not to exceed $75,000 for physical and emotional harm.
“There is a general concern that this is a school that is holding itself out as a therapeutic school and not behaving in manner that is therapeutically attuned to the population,” said Asher.
This is the second lawsuit that brought that concern to light. A lawsuit was filed last winter by a Rhode Island man, known as John Doe to protect his identity, after he claimed the school used improper restraint procedures during an altercation.
Doe was arrested in 2008 on a charge of third-degree assault after staff at the school tried to restrain him. The charge has since been dismissed, but according to the lawsuit, he is suing the school after sustaining multiple injuries.
In April, Chorney made the claim as part of his reply brief to that suit that the incident was actually medical malpractice action and should be dismissed.
Diane Polan, attorney for Doe, noted that the school is licensed as a residential education center by DCF, not a “residential treatment center” or a “mental health residential living center,” which she said undermines the argument that it should be treated as a health care facility.
That lawsuit is pending.
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