Schools, former counselor sued
The Enterprise, Friday, March 25, 2005

A former Chopticon High School student and her parents filed a lawsuit this week against St. Mary’s public schools, Chopticon’s principal and a former school counselor once charged with sexually abusing the teenager.

The lawsuit seeks just under $100,000 on counts including sexual battery and negligent supervision, according to a copy of the documents provided by a lawyer for the family. The lawsuit follows the former guidance counselor’s admission last fall in court that prosecutors had evidence that she contributed to the child’s being in need of assistance. Leslie Rena Berg, 34, avoided trial on the abuse charge, received a suspended prison sentence and is on five years of unsupervised probation.

The lawsuit alleges that Berg and the girl entered into a sexual relationship, and that when the girl’s mother notified school Principal Joseph North, he agreed in February 2003 to keep Berg away from the girl at the school.

This relationship intensified that fall, however, with messages from Berg to the girl’s home to set up a secret rendezvous, the lawsuit alleges, culminating in a November 2003 sexual encounter at Berg’s residence. The relationship ended, but not before the girl carved the letters LES into her left forearm and attempted suicide.

“The schools at this point in time are maintaining that they’ve done everything proper,” plaintiffs’ Steven VanGrack said this week, but he alleged that the steps taken were ineffective. “The student was allowed to interact with Leslie Berg with the knowledge of school employees. Sometimes she would get passes … to visit with her guidance counselor, with Leslie Berg.”

The lawsuit alleges that North had a duty to prevent interaction between Berg and the girl, and that the failure of North and the school system to properly supervise Berg was a cause of the girl’s injuries. The lawsuit accuses the school system of negligence in hiring and retaining Berg as an employee.

As to the response by the school system and the principal, board of education attorney Bryan T. Dugan said Thursday, “We believe that they have acted appropriately throughout the entire process, once they became aware of it.”

The November 2003 incident occurred on Berg’s last day at Chopticon before her reassignment to another school took effect, court papers state, and she was suspended early last year when police found her and the girl in Berg’s pickup truck in Helen. Berg’s lawyer in the criminal case said at last fall’s court hearing that her acknowledgment of evidence related solely to the student’s absence from class and nothing else alleged by police or prosecutors.

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