Saying it was "an off-campus party" makes it sound as though it was a Storm King-sponsored, or abetted, party that happened to be held not at the school but elsewhere (I believe in Brooklyn, in this case).

It in fact was a party that had absolutely nothing to do with Storm King. If the person who allegedly assaulted her happened to be a University of Michigan student, say, is Michigan responsible for his conduct? Hardly. Is Storm King responsible for "protecting and supervising" this student if she travels to Spain on vacation and gets caught smoking dope? That's a stretch...

Agreed. I don't understand how a small institution such as SKS can possibly be expected to look out for the welfare of its students when they leave the campus of their own free will for something like a private party.

As an alum, I can tell you that some students left campus with great regularity to (ahem) blow off steam and none of them would have ever expected the school to be looking out for them. If you were off campus against policy, not having the school looking out for you was the whole point!

I was a day student at SKS, but on a couple of occasions went in to NYC for parties. The idea that SKS would have been responsible for our actions in such situations is ludicrous.

It is difficult to give the full story about any lawsuit. This suit alleges that the school refused to adequately address the sexual assault of the child, get the child victim help, never advised her parent of the situation, refused to hold the students who committed the crimes accountable, then retaliated against teachers who tried to help the child and comply with the NY?s Mandatory Reporter law. The school is the only party responsible for "protecting and supervising" their students, as these kids all live at that school. The boys allegedly taunted the child after the assault and passed around a picture of her being victimized to her classmates and the school?s faculty. We gave the school every opportunity to take responsibility and make things right, but they still claim they did nothing wrong. We were reluctantly forced into court, and hope the entire Storm King community will one day benefit from this lawsuit.

Jeanne M. Valentine
The Valentine Law Office PLLC
Attorney for Plaintiffs Shelly Kaye, Desiree St. John and George C. Kaye

"...and hope the entire Storm King community will one day benefit from this lawsuit."

Yes, suing this small school for $25 million will definitely help them, particularly if they lose. They'll certainly thank you later.

If these allegations against the school are true (and I'm not saying they are) then it's certainly possible that the school bears some responsibility, but $25 million? For what sounds more like a criminal case? How is putting SKS out of business going to make anything better for the child in question? If a serious and clear sexual assault occurred, and the victim was later humiliated by the alleged perps with evidence of that assault, why isn't this in a criminal court right now?

Oh right, I forgot, the perps would just potentially go to prison/juvie, but there might not be any ridiculously huge financial settlements to get 50% of.

Plus, while I understand that any private boarding school is going to be responsible for "protecting and supervising" their students, this alleged assault happened off campus, so we're only talking about the school potentially being liable for failing to follow-up and take appropriate action after the incident. We're not talking about the school being liable for the incident occurring in the first place.

So, again, I ask, $25 million? Seriously?

I attended this school, and considering that the school held students accountable for any activities that occurred off campus(many students were expelled for activities that took place off campus), yes, they should be held accountable...it works both ways

the school has expelled plenty of students for "Smoking dope" off campus, so why should they not be held responsible for something such as this? after all the reason for the expulsion of these students was that "their actions reflect the school itself"