Letter: Eleanor Sonsini Shelter Left Out

Letter to the Editor04:00PM / Thursday, July 21, 2022Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

So I see the story about the ground breaking for a new building for the [Berkshire] Humane Society and I can't help but wonder, 'Why are funds and news articles always going to/about the Humane Society?'

Why isn't the Sonsini Shelter given the same funds and publicity? Am I missing something? Sonsini needs a new facility, Sonsini needs funds!

Sally LeBarnes
Hinsdale, Mass.

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Former Miss Hall's Teacher Indicted on Assault Charges

02:02PM / Thursday, August 20, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Another former employee at Miss Hall's School has been indicted on assault charges.

Matthew Johnson, 70, of Norfolk, Conn., was indicted Thursday by a grand jury in Berkshire Superior Court of three criminal charges: assault with intent to rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery over age of 14.

The defendant was a science teacher at the girls' day and boarding school from 1993 to 1994. According to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office, evidence gathered during the investigation shows that the defendant was dismissed from the school in 1994, prior to the end of the school year. The criminal charges all stem from the defendant's tenure at the school.

On Monday, Jeannie Norris, head of the girls' boarding school from 1996 to 2012, was arraigned for one count of reckless endangerment of a child. Now living in North Carolina, she appeared virtually before Judge James Manitsas in Berkshire Superior Court and pled not guilty.

Norris and Johnson's tenure did not overlap but both worked Miss Hall's during the time Matthew Rutledge was a faculty member from 1991 to 2024. Rutledge was charged in April with three counts of felony rape.

The revelations about Rutledge brought forth publicly by former students Melissa Fares and Hilary Simon sparked an intense investigation by the Berkshire District Attorney's Office. The result was Rutledge's indictment despite the passage of time, a school-commissioned, independent report by Aleta Law that found the school had failed in "multiple instances" to protect its students, and the passage of state Rep. Leigh Davis' bill legislating that children cannot consent to trusted authority figures.

An arraignment date for Johnson will be set in the future. The arraignment will take place in Berkshire Superior Court.

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