A lawsuit was filed with accusations of sexual abuse between minors on the campus of Perkiomen School, an elite private school in Montgomery County. Now lawyers are detailing an alleged system of safety and security failures. NBC10’s Aaron Baskerville has more on the lawsuit.
A lawsuit was filed alleging the sexual abuse of a minor and safety failures on the campus of Perkiomen School in Pennsburg.
These accusations surrounding the elite private school were detailed in a lawsuit filed on Monday against the school.
“This is a case about an institution protecting its own prestige over protecting the community members,” said Jillian Roth, an attorney with Stark and Stark, which represents the victim and filed the lawsuit.
According to the alleged victim’s lawyers, a 12-year-old boy, who’s the son of someone who works for Perkiomen School, sexually abused a seven-year-old boy on campus for months.
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This was first discovered in February of this year, and the lawsuit states the two boys became friends since the older boy was always on campus and the younger boy lived at the school. The younger boy has a father who’s a faculty member at the school, according to the lawsuit.
This behavior was originally discovered when the seven-year old’s mother caught the older boy pulling up her son’s pants in one of the equipment rooms, which should have been locked, according to documents.
After the alleged encounter, the seven-year-old went on to tell his family about a history of sexual abuse on campus for a while. Documents also reveal the victim told his mother the 12-year-old said this behavior would make him a big boy, they would be closer friends and he wouldn’t be allowed to ride his scooter if it didn’t happen, the lawsuit states.
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“We have heard of other complaints of sexual abuse of minors on the campus of Perkiomen, not by this other individual, the 12-year-old boy,” said Roth.
In the lawsuit, it talks about the school’s failure to keep students safe, and fix broken security cameras, doors, locks and key cards. It says the family complained to school leaders several times about safety.
“You can’t pass out access and key cards like candy and not expect kids to roam freely. And you can promote a family environment and safe home and not keep it safe,” said Carin O'Donnell, an attorney with Stark and Stark.
The school’s attorneys tell NBC10 they immediately notified authorities about the alleged abuse.
“Today, we became aware of media reports that a family filed a lawsuit against Perkiomen School and me as Head of School. While the complaint has not yet been served, the reports indicate the lawsuit makes claims about alleged interactions occurring on the school’s campus last winter between non-students that, upon learning, we/the school reported to the authorities, consistent with our mandated reporter requirements,” said Mark Devey, the Head of School for Perkiomen, in a statement sent to faculty, staff, family and students.
Devey went on to say due to the “sensitivity of the matters involved and our duty to protect the privacy of minors” they would not be able to provide any further details.
NBC10 reached out to Upper Perkiomen police, and all they would say is at the advice of the solicitor, they have no information to share right now.
“Even though the family took immediate action and did everything as we as a society expect parents to do, and victims to do, the school failed,” said Roth.
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