Safety + Wellbeing

Published May 9, 2024
(updated September 2, 2024)

At Miss Hall’s School, protecting the safety, health, and wellbeing of our students is, and always will be, our primary concern. The appointment in 2023 of a Dean of Wellness, a reimagining of students’ Personal Teams, and more time for social-emotional learning (SEL) are some of the ways that we work to ensure students are healthy, safe, and supported.

Alumnae reports of past sexual misconduct on campus are a solemn reminder that the work of protecting students from sexual assault and misconduct is our profound responsibility. These efforts must be continually reviewed and enhanced and we are eager to keep our community updated as we work to make Miss Hall's stronger.

In April 2024, the Miss Hall’s School Board of Trustees authorized an external investigation into allegations of improper sexual conduct toward MHS students by Miss Hall’s employees. The School has been in contact with legal counsel representing alums who have shared that former faculty member Matthew Rutledge sexually abused and/or engaged in other sexual misconduct with them between the years of 1994 to 2010.

We are heartbroken by these accounts and commend the courageous women who have come forward to share them. We are fully committed to learning the truth about what occurred so that we may extend support to survivors, address any past harm, and continue our efforts to safeguard the wellbeing of our students today and in the future.

The MHS Board has initiated a comprehensive, external investigation led by trauma-informed investigators from Aleta Law. We want to emphasize that Aleta Law is not a legal advocate for the School. Instead, they are serving as neutral investigators to discover any improper conduct, to examine what faculty and administrators may have known about it, and to chronicle and report on how they responded.

As of early July, the investigators at Aleta Law have interviewed fifty-three MHS alumnae and employees (current and former). They anticipate scheduling many more interviews in coming months, in order to gain a complete understanding of what happened, and they continue to review relevant documents and evidence. Based on their progress, Aleta Law estimates that the full investigation will require an additional six to nine months to complete.

After the fact-finding is complete, Aleta Law will prepare an investigative report that includes findings and conclusions. MHS will share the report with our entire community, as part of our commitment to being forthright and transparent in this process.

Because it is important that everyone involved has the opportunity to share their perspectives and information at their own pace, the Aleta Law team will continue to make themselves available to anyone who wishes to talk with them in the future.

We encourage anyone with information pertaining to child abuse or sexual misconduct at Miss Hall’s School to contact:

Kai McGintee (she/her), Managing Director - kmcgintee@aletalaw.com or
Amber Attalla (she/her), Director - aattalla@aletalaw.com.

All communication with the investigators will be treated with the utmost sensitivity, and your name and other identifying details will not be shared or made public without your authorization or except as required by law. No survivors will be named in the report. Further, Aleta Law also will not personally identify individuals reporting misconduct and will be sensitive to all trauma-related concerns when preparing the report.

The School is cooperating fully with authorities, including the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office, which is conducting its own investigation. Miss Hall’s has also been in active communication with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and will continue to cooperate fully with any investigations.

The School encourages all members of our community to communicate directly with the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office (413-443-5951) and/or the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (413-236-1800) if they are contacted by either of these agencies or if they have knowledge regarding any misconduct within the scope of their investigations.

We know that this comprehensive investigation will take time. We also know that many members of our community are hurting now and are in need of immediate and supportive action steps. To this end, we have initiated a multi-year partnership with Learning Courage, a survivor-led national nonprofit that works with schools to support sexual misconduct prevention, trauma-informed response, and healing.

Survivors themselves, they are also acting as a neutral third party who survivors can speak with as they determine whether to reach out to the investigators.

Amy Wheeler, Executive Director, 508.241.3429, AWheeler@learningcourage.org

Jamie Forbes, CEO, 603.315.0576, JForbes@LearningCourage.org

Starting this fall, there will be opportunities for MHS alums to engage with Learning Courage’s experts both in-person and on Zoom to process and talk about their role in changes underway to prevent future abuse. Dates, locations, and times will be shared as they are confirmed.

Learning Courage is conducting a thorough review of all MHS policies related to preventing and responding to sexual misconduct. They will make recommendations that can be implemented immediately for the start of the 2024-25 school year.

In September, they will conduct a comprehensive assessment of programs and practices related to adult-student and student-student boundaries; hiring, supervision, and evaluation of employees; education and training for students; and procedures for reporting and investigating sexual misconduct. Through the lens of best practices in schools, and informed by conversations with MHS alums, faculty, and students, they will make specific recommendations, both immediate and ongoing.

Among their expertise, Learning Courage’s trauma-informed team facilitated sessions during the recent Reunion Weekend to provide a supportive setting for processing the reports of historic sexual misconduct and abuse at MHS.

At the conclusion of a well-attended panel entitled A Community-Centered Approach to Responding to Sexual Misconduct, members of the Class of 2014 delivered a letter signed by more than 180 alums expressing concerns, sadness, disappointment, and anger with the School, questioning how reports were handled, and making specific requests related to the investigation, reporting protocols, staff training, and counseling for students.

Since Reunion, school leaders have been in conversation with many alums, gathering feedback, and following up. In the coming weeks, we will update the community on the status of the investigation and on progress we are making on campus, and respond to the Class of 2014 letter.

With respect to our students, the School took immediate actions to protect their safety, which is our most important responsibility. Mr. Rutledge was banned from campus and will not return, and campus safety measures were increased. MHS adults had frequent check-ins with students, meeting individually and in groups, emphasizing how to recognize and report inappropriate conduct, providing time and space to process and ask questions, and encouraging students to make use of on-campus resources. The School increased counseling resources on campus and will continue to provide time and space for students to process their emotions, ask for what they need, and seek support from advisors, counselors, and other trusted adults in their lives.

Looking ahead to 2024-25, we have partnered with UWill, a network of licensed therapists who provide students with extra mental health and wellness support 24/7/365 via telehealth, expanding availability and enabling quick access to counselors outside of the School and beyond MHS counseling hours. With a goal of eliminating all barriers to care, UWill counselors reflect the identities of all MHS students and can work with them in their native languages.

Faculty and staff participated in workshops led by a trauma expert focusing on the neurological and physiological impacts of trauma and how best to support students experiencing trauma. This training continued the important work the faculty were already engaged in this year based on the work of Lisa Damour, a psychologist specializing in adolescents.

The School has also engaged MassKids, a Massachusetts-based child advocacy organization committed to preventing the abuse and neglect of children, to secure additional training in sexual misconduct prevention for MHS faculty and staff. It is anticipated that this training will be added this fall to our existing training on healthy student-adult boundaries and mandatory reporting.

All Miss Hall’s School employees are mandated reporters for any student under the age of 18. We are required by law to report sexual assault and misconduct to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

The Health and Wellness Center is staffed by four nurses and two school counselors, who are licensed mental health counselors. The center is overseen by Dean of Wellness Kristen Milano, who is also a trained school counselor. A nurse is on duty on weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with an abbreviated schedule of clinic hours on weekends. During overnights and off-hours, a nurse and a counselor are on call around the clock and can be reached through Campus Safety, which is staffed 24/7.

MHS Campus Safety: 413-395-7299
MHS Health and Wellness Center (Nurses and Counselors): 413-395-7074

To supplement that team’s work at this critical time, we have contracted with two additional local mental health clinicians to offer one-on-one counseling and optional group workshops to students throughout the spring. These licensed and trauma-informed professionals have extensive experience in adolescent mental health.

As with all of our health and wellness offerings, these services are open to all students at no cost.

Through a partnership with Authentic Connections, all MHS students take an anonymous survey each spring that elicits input on wellbeing aspects at school. This allows us to compare Miss Hall’s results to peer schools around the country. In 2023, the overall wellbeing index for MHS students was 85%; the national average is 82%.

School leadership and the Health and Wellness team use the survey results to inform our programming and allocation of resources to prioritize the most pressing issues in student wellness, such as social media and technology use and navigating peer relationships.

Wellness programming at MHS includes the 9th grade Health and Wellness curriculum run through our four-year, service learning and internship program, Horizons. This 19-lesson curriculum engages students in seminar-style learning on wellness topics, including school adjustment, communication, healthy relationships and boundaries, sex education, substance use and abuse, technology, body image, and nutrition, and on mental health topics such as stress, anxiety, and depression.

The Health and Wellness and Student Life teams also provide a series of developmental workshops to all students throughout the year. These have included themes such as healthy relationships, time management, avoiding overwhelm, and self-advocacy.

Learning Courage (Survivor-led sexual misconduct prevention, response and healing organization)
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): Contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673)
STESA (Standing Together to End Sexual Assault): Access STESA’s crisis hotline at 805-564-3696
Elizabeth Freeman Center (Domestic violence and sexual assault prevention in Berkshire County) 24 Hour Hotline (866) 401-2425
Western MA Trauma Recovery Network
Crisis Text Line (free 24/7 crisis support via text message for any type of crisis): Text HELLO to 741741

Child Mind Institute: Helping Children Cope After a Traumatic Event
American Psychological Association: How to Talk to Children About Difficult News
Stop It Now: Possible Reactions of Non-offending Parents and Caring Adults
SAMHSA: Tips for Talking to Children After a Traumatic Event