In late 2024, allegations of staff misconduct at Pittsfield High School led to multiple administrators being placed on leave. Allegations range from large-scale cocaine trafficking to sexual relationships with students. With multiple investigations underway and outcry from the community, the city council and school committee held a special meeting to hear from Enough Abuse, a child advocacy group that bills itself as the oldest in the nation.
“It's exciting to be here tonight, because I have spent the past three days on a virtual road trip. I have been meeting with schools in Worcester County, in Franklin County nearby, and today with schools in your own county here in Berkshire. They have a common concern, one that you all have, and that is, they want to keep their schools safe for children," said Executive Director Jetta Bernier. “The athletic director for the city of Auburn, just last week, was fired because of sexually inappropriate relationship. Three days later, Hull, the Hull community had to fire an employee who was engaged with special needs kids for the same reason. This is in one week. So, I share this with you because you need to know that we are all facing this.”
Bernier pitched Enough Abuse’s programming as a meaningful way to fill current gaps in the Massachusetts school system around screening and training staff members with access to young students.
“Our organization developed an in person training specifically for schools around problematic sexual behaviors so that schools understand what are those, what we call green light behaviors, the developmentally expected behaviors that you see in kids around their development," she explained. "What are the yellow light behaviors that are concerning, and the red light behaviors that have to be stopped immediately. We also are working with a group of clinicians who have real expertise around how to handle these kinds of cases, how they can help parents, help the child.”
Bernier noted that the problem isn’t limited to public schools, invoking the parallel sex abuse scandal at the private Miss Hall’s School just down the road. Former history teacher Matt Rutledge, who taught at the school for decades, is the subject of multiple allegations of grooming and rape from graduates during their time at the school. Citing current state law, local authorities are not pursuing criminal charges against him.
“Many of these relationships were known but were not addressed," said Bernier. "They were just buried. And even your Berkshire County District Attorney, Mr. [Timothy] Shugrue, was quoted just a few weeks ago as saying, this is inappropriate behavior, but I can't prosecute because it's not illegal for him to have had a sexual relationship with a child over the age of consent.”
Rutledge has not responded to requests for comment.
Bernier says Enough Abuse is working with state legislators on a series of bills aimed at shoring up the protection of students.
“The first one would make it mandatory for every school, public and private," she told the council and committee. "No other state of the country has pushed the private piece, but we have- And every youth serving organization would be required to provide child sexual abuse prevention training education for all employees. We're not talking teachers and all the licensed staff only. We're talking about the custodian, the coach, the bus drivers, the food service people, everyone, because the whole environment has to be an environment that's safe, right?”
Another piece is aimed at strengthening conduct policies at schools.
“Within that bill, we were able to put language that said that the Department of Education and schools will have to develop an abuse prevention policy, which is the word that they're using for a code of conduct, and having seen the codes that are out there and how incomplete they are, we are hoping that our code will be seen as a model for schools and even DESE to adopt,” said Bernier.
Enough Abuse is also working to address the consent issues highlighted by the situation at Miss Hall’s.
“Right now, if parents find out about this relationship, there's nothing they can do," Bernier continued. "If the child says, no, I don't want to press charges, we're in love, the local police can do nothing, the district attorney can do nothing. The only way we're going to get this change is through laws. And so the current law would basically say age of consent is not a defense. You can't use age of consent as a defense. So any child under the age of 18, or if it's a special needs child, under the age of 21, they may not consent to a sexual relationship with a person in a position of authority in a school or other organization.”
Bernier told city leaders that the group’s services would cost $20 per participant as well as training and technical assistance for $125 an hour.
The city council and school committee accepted her presentation without immediately taking hiring action.
Audio from the meeting is provided by Pittsfield Community Television.
