PARIS – A kiss has led to a lawsuit against a prestigious private high school.

A father and his son filed the civil suit against Hebron Academy, charging that the school was negligent in its response to an assault last spring.

Gregory Colarusso, a former student at the academy, and his father, Anthony Colarusso, both of Woburn, Mass., named the school in the suit filed in Oxford County Superior Court on Friday.

The Colarussos also name Oleksandr Romanenko, a former student at the academy, and Robert Gagnon, the academy’s head hockey coach, as defendants.

According to the suit, filed by attorneys Gregg Frame and Kim Anderson, Gregory Colarusso was the victim of an assault that occurred last April 22. Romanenko, then 19 and a senior at the academy, is accused of punching Gregory, a junior, in the face while wearing a large ring, knocking out a front tooth and cutting his lip.

Romanenko and Colarusso were fighting over a girl at the time, the suit notes. It says Romanenko has recently broken up with a girl and Colarusso later kissed her.

The suit claims that Hebron Academy failed to provide medical attention for the younger Colarusso until he was taken to the hospital, where he arrived an hour and 45 minutes after the claimed assault.

According to the suit, Romanenko entered Colarusso’s dorm room the next day and told him not to say anything that would get Romanenko expelled.

Gagnon is alleged to also have visited Colarusso that same day “to pressure Colarusso into doing what he could to keep defendant Romanenko in school.” The suit later states that Romanenko was one of Gagnon’s “strong players” on the hockey team.

According to the academy’s Web site, Romanenko was named to an All-New England hockey team after the 2005-2006 season.

Head of School John King said he didn’t know the suit had been filed. However, he recalled the incident, and said Romanenko was suspended for the entire year and left the school the day after the assault.

“They don’t have their facts right,” King said of the case. “There’s a lot of inaccuracies in their claims.”

The suit also maintains that Colarusso was harassed by other students after Romanenko was suspended, and that the academy failed to investigate the harassment. Colarusso withdrew from the private academy at the end of the year and is attending a school in North Carolina.

“Ideally he would have liked to return to Hebron,” said attorney Frame. “But we wanted to get him back there with assurances that this wouldn’t happen again.”

The suit charges Romanenko with assault, trespass and intentional infliction of emotional distress; Gagnon with intentional infliction of emotional distress; and Hebron Academy with negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence in obtaining emergency medical care, negligence in its handling of complaints of harassment, and breach of contract. The attorneys are charging all three defendants with acting in malice and are seeking punitive damages.

Frame said he tried to settle the matter with the school without filing a lawsuit.

“Quite frankly, these cases are not commonly litigated because there’s a resolution prior to litigation,” he said.

Romanenko, a Ukrainian national now attending college in New York City, has a charge of assault against him pending in Superior Court, although that case has been continued until summer.

In a court motion, defense attorney William Cote states that Romanenko will not be deported if convicted, but may be banned from re-entering the United States if he leaves the country.

Frame said Gregory’s medical expenses have included ongoing treatment and psychiatric visits.

King said he has not had contact with the Colarussos since Gregory ceased enrollment with the academy. King declined to comment on the alleged misconduct following the assault.

“At this point, we don’t think there’s any merit to the claim,” he said. “But we await the response from our attorneys and we’ll have an appropriate response at that time.”