CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – The Groton School was criminally negligent for failing to report an allegation of sexual abuse by students at the elite boarding school five years ago, a grand jury indictment alleged Monday.

The “Trustees of Groton School” as an entity is charged with one count of failure to file an abuse report to the Department of Social Services, said Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley’s office. No individual will be charged, Coakley’s office said.

The charge carries only a $1,000 fine, but it’s a black eye for a private prep school that produces business and political leaders. Among its alumni are President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and McGeorge Bundy, a national security adviser to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Prosecutors said that in April 1999, the parents of a 16-year-old male student reported to school authorities that their son told them he was sexually assaulted by fellow students during the previous school year. At that time, the school did not file a report of suspected abuse or neglect, Coakley said.

The “mandated reporting” law requires teachers, school officials, doctors, day care workers, clergy and others to alert DSS of any suspected abuse.


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