CT Student Claims School 'Fostered Sex Abuse Environment,' Files Suit

LAKEVILLE, CT — A class-action lawsuit filed Monday against a private boarding and day school in Connecticut alleges that the school "fostered an environment rife with abuse" at the hands of staff members including Roy G. Smith, Jr., a former teacher and athletic trainer.

The complaint—filed by Plaintiff Mark Moe and on behalf of other male students at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville—asserts that Hotchkiss not only failed to protect its students from Smith but also actively protected and enabled him.

Claiming that Smith had "clear and consistent patterns of abuse and behavior," the lawsuit states that since at least the 1970s, Hotchkiss officials knew that Smith had been accused of drugging, raping, and otherwise sexually assaulting students but "permitted known sexual abusers to remain on its staff and faculty for decades."

The allegations in the lawsuit include claims that Hotchkiss knew of Smith's inappropriate touching of students' genitals and sexual abuse under the guise of tutoring but failed to intervene for 30 years while providing Smith with access to thousands of students. The lawsuit also claimed that when a student reported Smith's alleged abuse, the school expelled him instead of disciplining Smith.

The case is asking the court to certify a class of all male Hotchkiss students who were student-athletes on a Hotchkiss sports team for which Smith served as an athletic trainer, or who visited Smith’s on-campus apartment for "tutoring," according to the lawsuit.

This would encourage other survivors could come forward to seek damages against Hotchkiss, the suit asserts.

Moe, whose name is a pseudonym, stated in the lawsuit that he hopes it will "pave the way for others to come forward and more easily hold the school accountable for the abuse it allowed to happen to them."

"Instead of ensuring a safe and secure community, Hotchkiss betrayed the trust of its students and exposed them to a dangerous environment for young people," Annika K. Martin, who is representing the survivors, and is a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and head of the firm’s Survivor Advocacy Practice Group, said in a news releade Monday. "Students should have been able to focus on their education without fear of sexual abuse from their teachers."

Martin, who has successfully represented other survivors who brought about individual claims against the school, added that, like Moe, she also hopes that "this lawsuit will open the door for other Smith survivors to more easily come forward."

According to his obituary, Smith was an English teacher at The Hotchkiss School. He retired in 1995 after 30 years with the school, where he was also a coach and trainer.

Smith died at the age of 72 in 2015 after a lengthy illness, his obituary states.

The Hotchkiss School is an independent boarding school founded in 1891, its website states. It has around 600 students in grades 9 through 12, plus a small number of postgraduates.