A woman who, along with fellow former students, leveled accusations against a boarding school in Massachusetts earlier this year has filed a lawsuit seeking monetary damages from the private institution and former staff members.
The lawsuit filed by Melissa Fares, who attended Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield from 2007 to 2010, claims she was sexually abused and raped by her former teacher and advisor, Matthew Rutledge.
Court documents filed Tuesday obtained by WAMC allege Rutledge sexually abused other Miss Hall’s students and that “administrators knew or should have known about the prior abuse.”
The filing includes graphic accounts of abuse, including grooming and rape, allegedly committed by Rutledge.
The suit seeks damages from Miss Hall’s, former Head of School Jeannie Norris, who stepped down from the job in 2012, and three other unidentified supervisory defendants.
In response to an inquiry from WAMC, Miss Hall's School Director of Communications David Smith declined to comment on details of the lawsuit.
In an email, Smith said "the safety and wellbeing of our students — past and present — remain our highest priority. We are fully committed to learning the truth about what occurred so that we may extend support to any members of our community who were harmed, and continue our efforts to safeguard the wellbeing of our students today and in the future."
Earlier this year, Miss Hall’s School pledged to cooperate with an ongoing investigation into the actions of Rutledge by the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office. Miss Hall's is also conducting its own review.
Rutledge resigned in the spring amid allegations of decades of abuse.
In May, WAMC first reported that the district attorney was investigating a second Miss Hall’s teacher, former physics teacher Edwin Eckel.
Earlier this month, WAMC broke the news that Miss Hall’s fired a teacher for what it described as “unacceptable use of the school’s technology resources.”
