Letter: Eleanor Sonsini Shelter Left Out

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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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Another Former Miss Hall's Teacher Being Arraigned For Assault

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Warning: this article discusses sexual assault. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— A second former teacher at Miss Hall's School will be arraigned for assault, appearing in Berkshire Superior Court on Thursday. 

Matthew Johnson, 70 years old, of Norfolk, Conn, will be arraigned for three criminal charges related to his time working as a teacher at Miss Hall's School in the 1990's.  He was indicted by a grand jury on Aug. 20 on one count of assault with intent to rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14; a student. 

Johnson was a science teacher at Miss Hall's School from 1993 to 1994.

"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 Berkshire District Attorney's Office wrote on Tuesday. 

"The criminal charges all stem from the Defendant's tenure at the school. The victim was a student attending Miss Hall's School at that time." 

Johnson is the third former staff member of the girls' boarding school to be charged this year. 

Former teacher Matthew Rutledge was indicted by a Berkshire grand jury in March following accusations dating back to the 1990s of sexually assaulting students at the girls' school.  Several women came forward publicly to accuse him of grooming them as teenagers and raping them. 

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