Kent School faces a class action lawsuit after IT breach
Kent School is currently entangled in a class action lawsuit that involves 70 students whose personal information was illicitly accessed by a former senior IT employee at the school. This lawsuit, which was initiated by three ex-students named Hannah Kent, Olivia Leary, and Natalie Hudson, represents all affected individuals. The complaint alleges that sensitive personal data, including intimate photos and videos, was viewed, copied, and retained without consent by Daniel Clery, the former network and systems administrator at Kent School.
According to the lawsuit, a state police investigation unearthed 3,670 personal image files belonging to or depicting current and former students on Clery’s devices. Furthermore, a private cybersecurity firm discovered that Clery accessed and copied personal files of 81 individuals associated with the school, with the majority being female. Clery was indicted on two counts of first-degree computer crime and is awaiting his court date in March. The lawsuit, represented by attorneys David S. Golub and Jennifer B. Goldstein, holds Kent School accountable for failing to supervise and monitor the employee adequately.
The legal action against Kent School alleges that the institution neglected to establish systems to monitor network access and did not safeguard students’ privacy over a four-year span. It claims that a prior complaint from a staff member in 2022 regarding Clery’s inappropriate behavior was ignored by the school. The employee reported an incident where Clery accessed her personal photos on her Google account without permission. Subsequently, there was another concerning interaction where Clery accessed her laptop under the guise of checking antivirus software.
Following these incidents and an internal inquiry, Clery was relieved of his duties in February 2023. Kent School commissioned an examination by Vancord, which revealed that Clery systematically targeted female students to locate and upload their personal pictures from 2019 to 2023. The class action lawsuit seeks damages exceeding $15,000 from Kent School for negligence, invasion of privacy, computer privacy violations, recklessness, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
This legal battle sheds light on the importance of robust oversight and security measures within educational institutions to safeguard students’ privacy and personal data. It underscores the repercussions of insufficient monitoring and accountability within organizations when handling sensitive information. The outcome of this lawsuit will likely have far-reaching implications for data protection and cybersecurity practices in academic settings. Kent School’s response and handling of this breach will be closely scrutinized to ensure such incidents are prevented in the future.
