Former Palmer High School student claims in lawsuit ex-guidance counselor targeted her for sex

Former guidance counselor Patrick Van Amburgh, the town and several town officials were named in the U.S. District Court suit.

File photo | The RepublicanPalmer High School.

PALMER – A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of a former Palmer High School student who said she was targeted by her ex-guidance counselor for a sexual relationship in 2008 when she was a senior.

Filed earlier this month by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Jeffrey E. Poindexter of the Springfield firm Bulkley, Richardson & Gelinas, the complaint names as defendants former Palmer High School guidance counselor Patrick Van Amburgh, the town of Palmer, School Superintendent Gerald A. Fournier, former High School principal Bonny B. Rathbone, and the School Committee, including past member Mary A. Salzmann.

More than a year ago, Poindexter filed a similar complaint on behalf of his client - referred to as “Jane Doe” - with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, which found probable cause for the complaint.

Included in the MCAD complaint was a statement from Van Amburgh that said he did not have sex with Doe; Van Amburgh, believed to be living in New York, could not be reached for comment, nor could his attorney, Hal Etkin, regarding the new lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends that school officials knew about Van Amburgh’s behavior and should have taken action against him.

Bonnie B. Rathbone

Now, Doe is seeking compensatory damages, including for emotional distress, attorney’s fees, interest and any other relief deemed appropriate by the court.

Fournier declined comment about the suit; he said he is still waiting to hear from the state Department of Education if Van Amburgh’s educator’s license has been revoked.

The suit states that Van Amburgh had a pattern of inappropriate relationships with students that came to light in 2006.

It states that Van Amburgh, also the assistant football coach, was “very popular,” and “very friendly” with students, particularly female students, and kept photographs of them on his office wall.

Through a police investigation, it was reported that Van Amburgh had sex with a student. He denied he had sex with the student, but admitted to failing to maintain proper boundaries and using poor judgment, according to the suit.

The complaint goes on to say that Van Amburgh did not change his dealings with students after the 2006 police investigation, and that he bragged about his conquests of female students, including a “belt system” used by him and another high school employee. They collected belts of the students they slept with as “trophies or proof of their conquests,” the suit states.

Gerald Fournier

“Dr. Fournier ... has testified under oath that he believed that Mr. Van Amburgh was too ‘cozy’ with female students,” the complaint reads. “Dr. Fournier on one occasion observed a female student in Mr. Van Amburgh’s office wearing a short skirt with her feet up on Mr. Van Amburgh’s desk and took action to stop such conduct.”

It also states that Van Amburgh monitored the ages of female students to ensure his sexual conquests would not result in statutory rape charges.

Doe turned 17 in January 2008, and started her senior year that September. A month later, the complaint states Van Amburgh started showing “an unusual and unprofessional interest” in her. Between Oct. 3 and 18, they exchanged more than 1,300 text messages, and Doe said the two had sexual relations during her second visit to his apartment.

Doe’s mother met with Fournier and Vice Principal Joseph Bianca about the relationship; school officials asked her not to go to the police with the story, according to the suit.

“Mr. Van Amburgh asked Jane Doe to lie and tell the school officials that they just talked about college and relationship issues,” the suit states.

Mary A. Salzmann

Fournier placed Van Amburgh on paid administrative leave on Oct. 20, 2008, pending an investigation regarding allegations of inappropriate interactions with students. On Nov. 17, 2008, Fournier told Van Amburgh by letter that he intended to terminate him for having sexual intercourse with at least one current student, inappropriate interactions with several other female students, misuse of work time for sending thousands of text messages to female students, and visiting inappropriate websites during school time.

Van Amburgh resigned that day.

The suit states that Doe was “vilified and ostracized by various students and staff members” because of Van Amburgh’s popularity.

And, it states that she was sexually harassed and abused by Van Amburgh, and that the defendants failed to address or remedy adequately the sexual harassment by Van Amburgh, which interfered with her education by “creating an intimidating, hostile, humiliating and sexually offensive educational environment.”

State Rep. Todd M. Smola, R-Palmer, said legislation that was filed that would have made it a felony for a school employee to have sex with a student, regardless of age, “died” in the last legislative session, but it is continuing to be reviewed by legal counsel.

Smola said this should be something every school district addresses in its policy handbook.

Palmer schools have had a policy since 2006 that bars “student-staff personal relationships which exceed the scope of normal professional student-staff relationships.” Violating that policy can result in termination, it reads.