Parents Say Daughter Was 'Groomed' By LI Teacher, Coach; Lawsuit Filed

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — The family of a Hampton Bays student, whose teacher was arrested in July after he was accused of inappropriate texting with a student, has filed a lawsuit against the teacher, the school district and the Southampton Town police department, according to court documents.

According to Southampton Town police, in July, authorities received a walk-in complaint of an "inappropriate relationship between a student at Hampton Bays High School and a member of the teaching staff."

During the interview with the juvenile, detectives learned that there was a inappropriate texting relationship between the student and the teacher, police said. No allegations of a physical relationship were made, police said.

Kevin O’Toole, 40, of Ronkonkoma, was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, police said. He was processed at Southampton Town Police headquarters and held overnight for morning arraignment, police said.

O'Toole no longer teaches in Hampton Bays; the Board of Education accepted his resignation in September.

O'Toole taught mathematics, the Hampton Bays Public Schools website said before his resignation. According to LinkedIn, O'Toole was also the head coach of girls cross country, and track and field before he resigned.

According to the lawsuit, filed with the Suffolk County Supreme Court on Nov. 25, the parents said their daughter, who is currently a Hampton Bays High School senior, was "groomed" by O'Toole, beginning when she was in 7th grade. The suit said that he "strategically began leveraging his employment as a teacher and coach" to groom her, building "a sense of predatory trust and power imbalance through favoritism, phone calls, text messages, social media office visits, counseling sessions, inappropriate coaching methodologies, and extracurricular activities."

An attorney for O'Toole could not immediately be reached for comment. Lars Clemensen, superintendent of the Hampton Bays School District, told Patch the district does not comment on pending litigation.

The Southampton Town Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment by Patch.

The suit states that the "sexual grooming" took place during school hours and school district approved training times, on school grounds, during district-approved extracurricular activities, and through school-district approved means of communication.

"The Hampton Bays School District negligently failed to draft and maintain practices, policies and procedures which could "effectively safeguard" the student "from suffering the 'sexual grooming' committed by Kevin O'Toole," the suit states.

O'Toole's "interactions with" the student "became overtly sexual and egregiously abusive," the suit said. O'Toole is accused of the "exchange of a voluminous amount of extremely explicit sexually messaging," the suit said.

The parents said that when they saw the "egregious communications" involving O'Toole, they brought the matter to Southampton Town police, where they expressed "extreme worry" that their daughter's identity would be revealed but were assured that her identity would be kept confidential.

Instead, the suit accuses, the minor's identity was revealed, and fellow students learned that she had been "identified as a person who was involved with being in an inappropriate relationship with Kevin O'Toole. Specifically, in this regard," the minor "received a message, seemingly forwarded by an employee of the Southampton Town Police Department, which verified" the student's identity "as the "person being involved in an inappropriate relationship with Kevin O'Toole," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit continued that the student's "identity was seemingly spread virally throughout the Hampton Bays School District. As a result of her identity being revealed, the minor "immediately began suffering torment, scorn, abuse, and ridicule from many of her peers," the complaint states.

A parent contacted the Southampton Town Police Department inquiring how and why the minor's identity had been revealed, the suit said. "At such time, I was informed by the investigating detectives that the employee responsible was 'being dealt with,'" the suit said.

As a result of her communication with O'Toole, the minor's "welfare has been endangered," she has "developed an inappropriate and misguided understanding regarding intimacy, sex, romanticism, and love," "developed a distrust in authority" and "lost her proverbial sense of 'innocence,'" the suit said.

She has also developed an inability to "perform in athletics," and to "trust people," the suit states. Her "athletic scholarships have become imperiled," she has "suffered academically," "suffered negative treatment from her peers," and "suffered extreme mental, emotional and psychological damages," the suit maintained.