DEERFIELD — Following a June press conference seeking “justification” for sexual abuse allegations against former Deerfield Academy teacher Peter G. Hindle, attorneys representing the victims reached a settlement with the school Wednesday. It was announced that it had been reached.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based attorney who represents sexual abuse victims, said the school had accused an unidentified victim of sexual abuse at least 20 times in her dorm room between 1989 and 1990. announced that they had reached a civil settlement in the low digits. Hindle taught at the school for more than 40 years and passed away in 2017.
She said Hindle climbed through the window of the victim's home to get to the student, who reported the abuse to a counselor, but the abuse continued. Garabedian said in June that her former student is now about 50 years old and lives on the West Coast.
“My client, who was 16 years old at the time, was a resident of Deerfield Academy and believed he would receive a safe and good education there,” Garabedian said. “Survivors are brave, courageous and have shown tremendous strength in coming forward and reporting sexual abuse.”
Deerfield Academy spokeswoman Jessica Day said the school settled the lawsuit and has implemented strict policies over the past 10 years to protect students on campus.
“We have proactively put in place a number of overlapping safeguards to protect our students, including procedures for reporting boundary violations and careful and judicious investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct,” Day said. said.
These safeguards include regular reviews of policies and training for staff and students, she added.
“In consultation with outside experts, we regularly review our adult boundaries and sexual misconduct policies and procedures,” Day said. “We also conduct training to ensure all employees and students have the knowledge and support to identify and report inappropriate behavior” of any kind. “
Robert Hoatson, co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, a New Jersey nonprofit that supports sexual abuse survivors, hosted Wednesday's press conference on the Deerfield Academy campus, and Garabedian spoke via Zoom. I gave a lecture.
“I can confidently say that Deerfield Academy did not protect our children,” Hoatson said. “We know there are many more victims and we urge all victims to stop being secretive, because secrecy costs lives.”
Garabedian represents at least four other students who have accused Hindle of sexual abuse. In July, Garabedian also announced that he had settled a credible sexual abuse lawsuit with Norman Therrien, a longtime Deerfield Academy athletics employee.
Hoatson and Garabedian said the state could better protect children and other survivors by removing further restrictions on the statute of limitations for civil sexual abuse lawsuits.
According to the Massachusetts website, the current limit for filing a lawsuit in Massachusetts is within 35 years, or within seven years after discovering that the victim suffered emotional or psychological injury from the act. It becomes. In contrast, crimes such as murder have no statute of limitations, Garabedian noted.
“Revising the statute of limitations would be a deterrent,” Garabedian said. “We know that facilities, supervisors and pedophiles are more susceptible to the consequences of the civil justice system.”
“Whenever a victim comes forward to say they have been sexually abused, they should be able to bring their abuser to court,” Hoatson added. “We want accountability and we want the law to be on the side of the victims.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.
