The bullying came in classes, at school dances and a dorm room by girls who called themselves “Oprichniki,” the name of a Russian attack squad notorious for torturing suspected enemies of a 16th-century czar.
After months of harassment, Tatum Bass says a cruel clique at the elite all-girls Miss Porter’s School wore her down so much that her parents traveled from South Carolina to comfort her, and two doctors advised her to leave the exclusive boarding school for a while.
Then, according to a scenario described in court papers, her tormentors delivered a parting blow: Returning to her dorm room one afternoon to pack a few possessions, the senior found her belongings crammed into a corner and a “For Rent” sign placed on her bed.
Two weeks later, Bass and her parents fought back: They sued the Farmington school — alma mater of such luminaries as Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Vanderbilt — and its headmaster in federal court.
Their lawsuit alleges Miss Porter’s School failed to protect her from the bullying and notified Bass, a native of Beaufort, S.C., in November that she would be expelled.
The school’s attorneys and headmaster did not respond to requests Wednesday for comment about the lawsuit, and messages left for Bass’s attorneys and family also were not returned. The lawsuit was first reported Wednesday by The Hartford Courant.
None of her fellow students are named in the lawsuit, which says the harassment stemmed from her support of a controversial plan to hold a multi-school prom with nearby schools.
