The nation’s most selective, exclusive and well-respected boarding school, Miss Porter’s School, in Hartford, CT, is being sued in federal court by senior Tatum Bass and her family for allowing bulling to take place on campus.
According to the suit, Bass, who was elected by her peers as the activities director for the school, proposed holding the senior prom with other schools in the neighborhood. Some rich snubs at the school, who called themselves “Oprichniki” (named after a Russian attack squad notorious for torturing suspected enemies), did not like the idea of mingling with the locals whose parents were not in the same tax bracket as their parents.
Bass, a native of South Carolina, insisted that her idea was a good one, and decided to pursue it, and that was when the bullying started.
At first, only the students who were on the dance committee were bullying Bass. Then one day, Ms. Bass who was an honor roll student, uncharacteristically cheated on a history test, and that was when the bullying escalated with students calling her “retarded” and “stupid” and she started receiving text messages by her fellow classmates peppering her with profanity and insults, and some of these insults were put on Facebook
Racked by the guilt, she confessed to the headmaster of the165 year old school. The headmaster, Katherine Windsor, suspended her from school for three days.
The final incident that caused Bass to take this matter to court, was when her fellow classmates decided to put a “For Rent” sign on her bed, and the school, whose lists of former graduates includes Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Vanderbilt did not do anything about the sign.
In her suit, Bass claims that the school has inflicted long-term damage on her academic career by notifying at least one college about her suspension without giving her a chance to tell her side of the story.
The lawsuit asks a judge for an injunction barring Miss Porter’s School from sharing Bass’ academic status with college to which she has applied.
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7 users commented in " Miss Porter’s boarding school is being sued by senior Tatum Bass "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhat the? Parents with the money to afford lawyers are part of what is wrong with this country. My parents didn’t sue my school when I was ridiculed for 4 years of high school after someone started an impotency rumor my freshman year. 4 years of being called “Limpy” is probably worse than what this poor little girl has gone through. Her parents should teach her to brush this stuff off… mine did and I turned out just fine. And it sounds to me like her first 3 years of school went a lot better than mine did.
Get over it Tatum. I don’t care what sort of mental anguish you were feeling when you felt compelled to cheat. You broke a rule, got suspended, and now it may come back to haunt you. Oops, your mistake. Guess you’ll learn that your actions have consequences, and you can’t blame others… oh wait, you probably have good lawyers… nevermind.
Reporting the details of one side of a disputed lawsuit is shaky reporting at best. However, to do it with such a tone of bias and sensationalistic fantasy, and to drag not only an institution but also an entire student body of young girls through the mud is morally reprehensible. This article is full of inaccuracies and it does a grave injustice to the wonderfully supportive community so many have worked to maintain at MPS. I am particularly offended that the article relates a now defunct name to a Russian group of no relevance to the story or Miss Porter’s school.
Miss Porter’s was eradicating bullying from its student body long before bullying became a national issue. I can only speak from my own experience but in my days there I saw zero instances of anything that could be construed as bullying. Zero. And I am quite certain anything even close to bullying would not be tolerated by the administration nor the student body.
I am proud to say I recently graduated from Miss Porter’s and that I experienced an environment where diversity, intellectual debate, and a supportive, welcoming community thrived. The faculty, administration, and students go above and beyond to make MPS a rich and warm community with tremendous support for all. This article is really just gross pandering to outdated stereotypes and sensationalism. I hope you will all reserve judgment until all the facts are revealed in a more unbiased and responsible manner.
Ancient,
The facts that you didn’t witness any bullying at MPS, and that your experience there was positive, doesn’t mean that Tatum Bass is not in complete agony right now. Who cares about this article? Who cares about the name of the school and the controversy over legal action? The bottom line is that Tatum Bass has lost everything. She is in pain. As human beings, shouldn’t we have compassion for her? The “ladies” at MPS have displayed apalling behavior when it comes to their classmate (I am reading their comments on Facebook right now). They should be ashamed.
Thank you Sara I could not have said it better myself. I wrote a blog about this on WordPress and mine focused on the bullying itself. Responses have been about discrediting the school and sensationalizing the situation and not having facts. I was not trying to discredit the school or skew anything. Just educate on the bullying occuring. I have yet to read anywhere about concern for this young ladies well being. What indignities she may have suffered.
This is a human being we are talking about here. Shouldn’t the welfare of others be of upmost importance? Nobody is dissing the school at all. Just having concern for another human and educating on the dangers of bullying.
Miss Porter’s is by no stretch of the imagination “the nation’s most selective, exclusive and well-respected boarding school”.
It is clear that as a student ‘Ancient’ had a possitive and fulfilling experience at Miss Porter’s School. But how could a seemingly intelligent, forward-thinking woman in today’s world assume that all other students would enjoy the same good fortune? Simply because an institution has a stellar reputation doesn’t automatically exempt it from controversy. I sincerely doubt that there has been a grave injustice to the supportive community of MPS over this lawsuit. The grave injustice, quite frankly, rests on the shoulders of Tatum Bass. Not only did a school fail in its duty to assist and protect her, but now the entire world is privy to her pain.
The entire world is privy to this lawsuit and the claims therein because of the unscrupulous American media. Why did scores of media outlets publish the same AP story solely based upon the claims made by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit? Because those claims are easily constructed into a narrative that reads like a “mean girls” teen movie, and because if they waited for the full story to come it out it is doubtful that anyone would care. No one knows the full story yet. To treat it as if its true and start passing judgments left and right helps no one — certainly not the plaintiff. If it turns out that the plaintiff’s claims are fabricated or grossly out of wack with reality, who will suffer from this now that half the country knows about them? What is her parents forced her to do this? I would also be extremely concerned for her welfare but it boggles the mind that people are so ready to overlook some of the very real possibilities here just to blame a bunch of (as of now) fictional bullies. The very fact that we all know about this is quite possible one of the worst aspects of the whole situation. Yes we are all part of the problem. Regards.
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