The former head of a Massachusetts boarding school was indicted on a reckless endangerment charge on July 22, 2026, after investigators concluded she worked to silence reports about a teacher's misconduct rather than act on them. The case shows how a completed civil lawsuit can surface the evidence a prosecutor later needs.
Reviewed by Survivor Justice Alliance · Updated 2026-07-25
Figures compiled from Berkshire County court records and reporting by The Boston Globe and WAMC, current as of July 22, 2026.
On July 22, 2026, a Berkshire County grand jury indicted the former head of a private all-girls boarding school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on a single reckless endangerment count involving a child in her care. She led the school from 1996 to 2012. The charge stems not from any allegation that she personally abused a student, but from findings that she was aware of a longtime teacher's inappropriate relationships with students and worked to suppress reports about his conduct rather than investigate or report them.
The case became public in March 2024, when two former students publicly accused the teacher of grooming and sexually abusing them years earlier, while they were teenagers at the school. That disclosure prompted both a criminal investigation into the teacher and a separate look at what school leadership knew and when.
According to investigators, the record shows administrators were alerted to concerns about the teacher's conduct as early as the late 1990s and repeatedly afterward, spanning more than a decade of his tenure. Multiple firsthand accounts of boundary violations reached school leadership over the years, yet the teacher remained in the classroom. The former administrator's attorney has said she vehemently denies the allegations and maintains she did not know the teacher had abused students, setting up a dispute over what exactly she knew versus what she was told and how she characterized it internally.
One of the accusers has publicly stated that the former administrator knew what happened to both of the young women who came forward. The prosecutor's office has said its investigation into the broader handling of misconduct reports at the school is ongoing and that additional charges against other individuals connected to the case remain possible.
Before this indictment, one of the two accusers had already filed a civil lawsuit in Berkshire County Superior Court against the teacher, the school itself, the former administrator, and several other women affiliated with the school identified in court papers as Jane Does. That lawsuit remains pending and seeks accountability for the institution's alleged failure to protect students despite years of warning signs.
The sequence matters. Civil discovery, depositions, and document production in a case like this can surface internal emails, personnel files, and witness accounts that a criminal investigation can then use or corroborate. A civil case does not need to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, only that it is more likely than not that the institution's negligence caused harm, which is one reason civil litigation often moves faster and can generate the kind of factual record that later informs a separate criminal charge.
Reckless endangerment charges against a former school administrator, rather than only against the accused teacher, reflect a broader legal trend: prosecutors and civil plaintiffs alike are increasingly willing to examine the conduct of the people who managed an institution, not just the individual who committed the underlying abuse. For survivors and families, that distinction matters because an institution's assets, insurance, and governing bodies are often what fund meaningful compensation and reform, not an individual defendant's personal resources.
The teacher at the center of the underlying allegations faces separate rape charges in connection with both accusers and has pleaded not guilty. This article describes pending allegations and charges, not proven facts, and is not legal advice. Anyone who experienced abuse at an educational institution, or who has information about how administrators responded to reports of misconduct, should speak with a licensed attorney about their options.
The case moved from a private school's internal handling of misconduct reports to a criminal indictment of a former administrator over roughly two years. Here is the sequence.
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Yes, in some circumstances. Charges like reckless endangerment can apply when an official is found to have known of a danger to a child and failed to act reasonably to protect them, separate from any charge against the person who committed the abuse itself.
They are separate proceedings with different legal standards, but evidence developed in civil discovery, such as documents or witness testimony, can inform or support a subsequent criminal investigation into the same underlying conduct.
An institution and its leadership can be held civilly liable for negligent supervision or failure to act on known risks, and typically have far greater financial resources and insurance than an individual accused of abuse.
The former administrator's criminal case proceeds through Berkshire County Superior Court, the underlying civil lawsuit remains pending separately, and prosecutors have indicated additional indictments connected to the case are possible.