Silver Golub & Teitell Files Lawsuit for Kent School Students Whose Photographs Were Accessed by School IT Employee

February 11, 2025

Silver Golub & Teitell has filed a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of 70 current and former students at the Kent School, a boarding school in Kent, Connecticut, whose personal photograph and video files were illegally accessed, viewed, copied, and retained by a senior school IT employee.

The lawsuit seeks to hold Kent School, a co-educational boarding school for students aged 14 to 18, responsible for failing to oversee and supervise the employee, failing to establish a system to monitor access to the school computer network and students’ personal devices, and failing to protect the students’ privacy. At least 68 of the students affected were female.

“These young women and girls have had their privacy invaded and have lost control of highly sensitive images and information, which will forever be vulnerable to misuse,” said Silver Golub & Teitell partner Jennifer Goldstein, who is representing the students. “This should never happen at a school whose top priority should be to keep its students safe, including protecting their personal information.”

According to the lawsuit, the employee used his position as Network and Systems Administrator to access, view, copy and retain personal pictures and videos belonging to the 70 students over a period of up to four years. The employee, who has been charged with two counts of computer crime, also accessed the personal pictures and data of 11 female members of staff.

According to the lawsuit, a member of the staff notified the school in 2022 that the employee had accessed her personal data, but the school failed to investigate and failed to take any steps to safeguard the students’ data. The school finally took action after the same staff member notified the school eight months later that the employee had accessed her data again, terminating the employee in 2023.

“Kent School, which turned a blind eye to this conduct for eight months, acted negligently and recklessly,” Ms. Goldstein said.

The lawsuit seeks damages from Kent School for its negligence, invasion of privacy, computer privacy violations, recklessness, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. It names three former students as plaintiffs and seeks class representation for other current and former students similarly affected.

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