Hartford Courant
Justin Muszynski
Former students have brought a class action lawsuit against a private college-preparatory day and boarding school in Connecticut alleging that the school’s former IT administrator exploited them through his access to their electronic devices and the school’s computer network.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court against Kent School, a coed boarding school in Kent, that employed Daniel Clery in its IT department for more than 15 years. The lawsuit was brought by New Haven-based attorney Joel Faxon of the Faxon Law Group.
The six plaintiffs in the lawsuit include four Connecticut residents, a New York woman and a woman from Hong Kong that attended the school between 2017 and 2022. The complaint also alleges that there are “potentially many hundreds of former Kent School students and employees who are victims of Clery’s invasion and sexual exploitation and the misconduct of the Kent School. …”
The school is the only defendant listed in the class action lawsuit. A spokesperson for Kent School did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Multiple attempts to reach Clery were unsuccessful Tuesday.
“Parents placed their children in Kent’s care,” Faxon said in a statement issued Tuesday. “The school completely failed to implement rules, policies or procedures to protect the Kent community and vulnerable children from hacking, cyberstalking, theft, computer voyeurism or sexual exploitation. This misconduct is absolutely unacceptable and we’re confident a jury would agree.”
Faxon alleges that Clery, who worked at the school from 2007 until February 2023, was “allowed to troll every part of the school’s network with no oversight, enabling him to take whatever images and/or information he desired from every personal electronic device used by the students.”
The lawsuit alleges that Clery “cyberstalked, surveilled and sexually exploited” students by accessing their electronic devices. According to the lawsuit, students were required to use the Kent School network, which gave Clery “unrestricted access” to their “sensitive personal information,” including “intimate photographs and videos, credit card information, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, birthdates, financial information, educational history and medical information.”
Faxon contends in the lawsuit that Kent School officials failed to put an appropriate cybersecurity safeguard in place to protect students and that they did not properly monitor Clery’s activities. It also alleges the school failed to notify students once the data breach was discovered.
According to the lawsuit, the school sent out an email in February 2023 notifying individuals that officials discovered Clery “accessed and may have copied personal photographs and/or videos” from their computers and that of nine current students, seven current employees, four former employees and 59 recent alumni.
In October, the lawsuit alleges, the school acknowledged that Clery was allowed to access “really all software and other systems that allows our network to operate” and that school officials committed a “massive shortcoming” in putting safeguards in place. It further alleges school officials admitted the school’s cybersecurity controls “were not good enough,” that the school committed an “error” and that their protocols violated the “industry standard.”
The counts laid out in the lawsuit include those of alleged negligence and invasion of privacy, saying students suffered claimed “sexual exploitation, emotional distress, personal injuries and economic losses.” The lawsuit seeks punitive damages, attorney costs, money damages and other relief in excess of $15,000.
According to Faxon, Clery has been arrested on two felony counts of computer crimes, charges that remain pending in Waterbury Superior Court. Judicial records indicate the criminal case has been statutorily sealed.
According to a LinkedIn page, Clery did IT work for Yale University after his time with Kent. A spokesperson for the university said he was hired by a contractor that was retained by Yale, and that the contractor had conducted a background check.
“Immediately upon learning of this issue, the university ended the engagement with the contractor,” the spokesperson said, adding that Clery was never employed by the university. “This person did not work with or interact with students.”