NORTHFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - A selective boarding school in Northfield and several administrators are being sued in connection after a student accused a female teacher of repeatedly assaulting her over the course of several years.
Two deans, two teachers, an administrator, a mental health counselor, and a psychiatrist affiliated with Northfield Mount Hermon School are also facing charges of negligence, conspiracy, infliction of emotional distress, and violation of state-mandated reporting of sexual assaults to child protective services.
Court documents allege the abuse began in the Fall of 1998 when the victim, then 14, began school and met 26-year-old Susan McQuiston, who served as a teacher and coach at the school.
McQuiston is accused of creating an inappropriate relationship with the victim by taking her to movies, on vacations out of state, and inviting her over to her apartment.
A teacher and administrator questioned McQuiston about her seemingly unusual relationship with the teen, which McQuiston categorically denied.
Their relationship turned sexual before the victim’s 16th birthday and continued until January of 2001, according to the documents.
That is when school officials were notified of the alleged abuse by another teacher and coach at the school and the victim was brought in for counseling.
There the victim confessed to what had happened to the psychiatrist and the dean.
The suit will be brought before Suffolk District Court.
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