Fieldston alumna sues school in abuse claim

An alumna of Ethical Culture Fieldston School accused her varsity volleyball coach, Collin Henry, of sexual abuse and trafficking while she was a student in the mid-2000s.

The survivor, identified as Jane Doe, filed the lawsuit in late February and claimed former junior varsity coach Lynford Forman was aware of the abuse, but did nothing to stop it.

In the 47-page suit, Doe detailed her educational history and the sexual abuse and rape she endured from 2004 to 2006. She added that 20 years later, she continues to experience post-traumatic stress disorder that has profoundly impacted her quality of life and mental health.

Doe first enrolled at ECFS in kindergarten, with the support of a local organization dedicated to helping children of color access better educational opportunities. By high school, she was an active community member, immersing herself in school activities like orchestra, but volleyball was where she shined.

In November 2004, the 16-year-old made the varsity volleyball team, where the highly revered coach, Collin Henry, took a particular interest in her. Making it on the multi-championship winning team was a significant accolade reserved for the best of the best, but for Doe, it was where her nightmare began.

Henry was known for training athletes who went on to play at the collegiate level, including some of the top Division I volleyball programs. In Doe’s senior year, Henry turned their unsupervised drives to and from volleyball practices into repeated instances of sexual abuse.

In the complaint, Doe alleged the coach told her to keep quiet or risk losing any prospect of a college volleyball career and possibly, college admission.

“If you look at these institutions, like Horace Mann or Fieldston, you can think of them like closed systems,” Amos Kamil told The Press, a Horace Mann School alum. “Closed systems where the person who is being abused has everything to lose and predators know that. It’s sort of the perfect environment.”

In 2012, Kamil, now a clinical social worker and author, published, “The Horace Mann School’s Secret History of Sexual Abuse,” in The New York Times. The article detailed decades of child abuse at Horace Mann, which Kamil assimilated to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

Like Doe, all of the survivors in Kamil’s article chose to remain anonymous.

After graduating from Fieldston, Doe earned a degree from a prestigious liberal arts college, but the scars of the repeated abuse dug themselves deeper. The depression and anxiety that set in while she was still a high school senior worsened. In 2012, she began experiencing panic attacks, some so intense they warranted a trip to the emergency room. 

Doe once hoped to pursue a career in medicine, completing the necessary coursework for medical school and taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) in 2013. However, two years later, while applying to medical school, she “ultimately withdrew her applications” due to mental health issues.

Between 2016 and 2022, she was unable to hold a full-time job, consumed by the trauma that continued to haunt her. She was unable to come out until decades later at 36-years-old.

“It’s a lot to ask a 15,16,17-year-old to stand up against the face of a big organization like Fieldston,” Kamil said. “The culture has changed a bit and more people are speaking out. They realize in order to move on with their own life, they need to seek some form of justice.”

According to the Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN), children 12 to 17 make up 66 percent of cases where sexually abused minors, with nearly 60 percent of the abusers being someone they know.

In January 2024, less than a year before the lawsuit was filed, Doe reported the abuse to the school in a letter. A month later, the school sent her an email Doe described as misleading because it informed the community of Henry’s departure due to recent “misconduct,” omitting any comment of sexual abuse.  

“We deny any assertion that we mishandled these allegations and will vigorously defend the school,” the school wrote in a statement to The Press. “We prohibited the individual with any contact with ECFS students and from accessing the campus and retained an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation.”

Based on the investigation's initial findings, the school quickly “terminated the individual’s employment.”

The school added that employees are put through comprehensive background checks and are annually trained to prevent abuse and misconduct, regardless of their full-time, part-time or seasonal status.

The Press also contacted Doe’s Lawyer, Iliana Konidaris.

“Our client seeks justice. Justice means uncovering the truth and demanding accountability from the individuals and the school that should have protected her but failed to do so. Our client filed this lawsuit to obtain this form of justice to the fullest extent of the law,” Konidaris wrote.

Henry did not reply to requests for comment.