'I felt really helpless': Testimony sheds light on accusations against ex-Cohasset teacher
QUINCY – When former Cohasset Middle School teacher Jeffrey Knight was first charged with sexually assaulting a student three years ago, one of the central questions parents had about the case at the time was: Why did it take officials three months to go to the police?
In Quincy District Court on Tuesday, former Principal Carolyn Connolly broke her silence and said it was because the accuser didn't make administrators aware of any claims of sexual assault when they first met with her. That statement contradicts the testimony of the accuser and her mother.
Knight, 60, faces one charge each of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14, indecent assault and battery on a child older than 14 and assault and battery.
The Patriot Ledger does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
Knight had a number of family members and supporters in the small courtroom Tuesday.
According to the police investigation, a teacher heard Knight's accuser, who testified Monday, discussing allegations about Knight with another student in February 2018. The teacher urged the accuser to go to a guidance counselor, according to the investigation.
The counselor took the allegations to the school's assistant principal, who in turn told Connolly the same day, police said. Mandated reporters, including teachers, are required by law to bring sexual assault claims against minors to state officials, which didn't happen until police were notified months later.
Connolly testified that the accuser and her mother only made her aware that Knight made her uncomfortable but did not go into specifics in a February 2018 meeting. Connolly said she spoke to Knight about the meeting and didn't follow up with other students about any incident until the mother contacted her again in April, asking her what was going on. Connolly said she wasn't told about sexual assault accusations until May, when Cohasset police were notified.
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The accuser's mother said in the February meeting she wanted answers from Knight about accusations that he had touched her daughter. The girl said Knight pressed himself into her back inappropriately at least twice when she was 13 and 14. The student said that after the meeting with Connolly, she went back to class with Knight, where she was assaulted again.
"I trusted the process," the mother said. "I trusted Carolyn Connolly."
The accuser said Connolly offered to take her out of class, but she asked that Knight just be told to stop his behavior. She said she was too young to know it might happen again.
Her mother said she expected to see more and quicker scrutiny from Connolly, given the nature of the allegations.
Prosecutors said notes taken by the assistant principal outlined the alleged victim's accusations in full and were supposed to have gotten to Connolly's desk. Connolly said she never saw the notes and didn't learn about any alleged touching from former Assistant Principal Kerri Sandler, who is expected to testify Wednesday. Connolly said she discussed the issues with then-Superintendent Louise Demas.
Demas said in a meeting with parents in November 2018 that she was given incomplete information at the time about what was going on.
A newspaper story about Knight's accusations in 2018 prompted a second accuser to come forward. Knight faces charges connected to those allegations in a pending Superior Court case. He has pleaded not guilty.
The second accuser also testified on Tuesday, and said reading about what Knight had done to someone else gave her the language to come forward and describe what had happened to her.
Through tears, she described Knight pressing himself into her when she was 13 and 14.
"I felt very violated," she said. "I felt really helpless."
Connolly's handling of the accusations was in part of the reason the district fired her after an outside investigation was ordered into how the accusations were handled. The termination is the subject of possible litigation and only a heavily redacted portion of the investigation's report was seen by the public after a lengthy public records battle with The Patriot Ledger.
No Cohasset administrators have been criminally charged with failing to report sexual assault allegations to state officials.
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Joe Difazio can be reached at jdifazio@patriotledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @jldifazio.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Ex-principal, second alleged victim testify against Jeffrey Knight
