Reply to Sidwell sued over staff psychologist's affair

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Sidwell sued over staff psychologist's affair"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous].[/quote]

Even if the psychologist only "assessed" the girl and made an internal recommendation for her academic management at the school, the psychologist will be considered to have violated his duty.  Based on the complaint, the father seems to have evidence of this.  Also, now that the complaint is filed, Sidwell will be required to produce relevant emails as part of discovery.  Sidwell now has a legal obligation to preserve all documentation on the issue or be vulnerable to destruction of evidence charges. For the PP who said Sidwell would have no motivation to settle now that the suit is filed, I think the opposite is true - there is greater motivation now that Sidwell is vulnerable to further disclosures in discovery.  That's why people sue.

FWIW, I don't know anyone involved in the case, but if the allegation is true that the psychologist slept with the wife after having seen the child in any capacity or having responded to the mother's questions about the child, then the psychologist (and the school as his supervisor) should absolutely be sued.  This kind of professional violation of sexual behavior is quite serious and predatory.  Often people don't recognize the seriousness of their boundary violation unless forced to confront it in the legal process.  Same goes for institutions - sexual boundary violations are often seen as "consensual" behaviors instead of the predatory, violative behaviors they are.  This re-victimizes the victim.

Most normal people when confronted by the questions posed by the psychologist's ex about the potential consequences of his behavior would step back and self-restrain, but he failed to do so.

[/quote]

This is the most sensible post I've read so far.  I don't quite understand why people are defending the school psych or the mother.   There are three very poorly behaving adults here, one of whom is also in violation of his professional code of ethics and his responsibilities in the workplace.  And one traumatized little girl.  How could the school not step in to protect the most vulnerable of all the parties - the little girl?[/quote]

I don't think anyone is defending the mother or the school but rather pointing out that the father played a big role (if not bigger than the school at a minimum) in failing to protect his child.  And really, would a 5 year old be more traumatized by "hanging out" with her schoolmate's family (did she really know what was going on?) on occasion or by her mother moving her away from her father and putting her into a school which her father didn't want her to attend?  My money is on her own parents screwing her up royally.  Sidwell is just collateral damage.  I have no idea what they did or what they knew -- I only know what the father claims.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics