By Bill Hetherman
City News Service
A 25-year-old woman who attended Flintridge Preparatory School is suing the La Cañada Flintridge private institution, contending that she was sexually abused by an instructor there and that the administration knew or should have known about a past history of students being victims of similar misconduct by teachers.
The plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit brought against the school and former instructor Edward “Toby” Wagstaff, alleging sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, child sex abuse, failure to report suspected child abuse, civil rights violation and negligence. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A school representative issued a statement Monday regarding the suit, saying that the school became aware in February of “troubling” allegations by an alumnus against a former faculty member. Upon learning of the allegations, Flintridge Prep put the faculty member on administrative leave, contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and thoroughly investigated the matter, after which the faculty member was fired in April, the statement read.
“While we have every reason to believe this is an isolated incident, we have encouraged any current or former student, faculty member, or any other member of our community to come forward and share their concerns,” the statement read. “The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority and we are committed to doing everything we can to provide a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for everyone in our community.”
Famous alumni of Flintridge Preparatory School include attorney Mark Geragos and actors Harry Hamlin of “L.A. Law” and Haley Joel Osment of “The Sixth Sense” as well as Bill Monning, the current majority leader of the California state senate. Doe attended Flintridge Prep from 2012 until her graduation in 2016.
The headmaster at the time was closely involved in the daily operations of the school, the development of curriculum in school policies and in ensuring the well-being of students, the suit stated. Before 2012, there were multiple inappropriate student-teacher relationships, all of which Flintridge Prep administration knew or should have known about, the suit stated.
“A reasonable and responsible secondary school would train its staff and students to recognize sexual abuse and to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate student-teacher interactions,” the suit stated.
Wagstaff was a world languages instructor. He was 31 years old when he began teaching at Flintridge Prep and in 2013 he began sexually grooming and molesting Doe, the suit alleged. Wagstaff targeted Doe for individualized attention while she was a student in his class and sought meetings with her alone in his classroom and in public areas around campus in order to discuss her course work and her personal life, the suit alleges.
Before and after class, the two often took part in activities unrelated to Doe’s coursework, including crossword puzzles, the suit states. Wagstaff “praised her maturity in his written evaluations of her work as well as in private conversations with plaintiff,” according to the suit, which further alleged he began developing a closer personal relationship with her after her sophomore year.
“He provided her with a long list of personally selected films for her to watch, many of which had adult or romantic themes,” the suit stated.
Wagstaff and Doe exchanged 82 emails through their school accounts in September 2014, according to the suit, which further alleged that during the plaintiff’s junior year, Wagstaff purchased and hand-made several gifts for her and regularly brought her tea. At times, at Wagstaff’s insistence, Doe skipped classes to visit him and talk about sexually explicit matters, according to the suit, and that at one point, Wagstaff told her he considered the two of them to be in a relationship.
By September 2015, when Doe was a 17-year-old senior, Wagstaff began “pushing the sexual boundaries of his relationship with plaintiff” and began showing her sexually explicit films, the suit states. Wagstaff insisted that Doe keep their alleged relationship secret and became angry and would scold her if he believed that she was not following his orders, causing her significant anxiety, the suit stated.
Doe eventually isolated herself from her family and peers and stopped participating in the Flintridge Prep student community and also skipped activities that Wagstaff could not also attend, such as the school prom, the suit stated. Doe’s classmates who learned of the alleged relationship often teased the plaintiff about her relationship with Wagstaff, further contributing to her social isolation and sense of fear, the suit stated.
After Doe’s June 2016 graduation, she began spending extensive time at Wagstaff’s home at his insistence, the suit stated. Doe “escaped” the alleged relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed her to avoid Wagstaff’s advances and attention, the suit stated.
Doe has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder along with depression, anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks and difficulty focusing, according to the suit.
First published in the November 16 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
