The Middlesex district attorney's office is investigatingreports of bullying at the Groton School involving an incidentafter which one of the alleged bullies killed himself because he hadbeen pressured to leave the school, according to the boy's father.
Cara O'Brien, a spokeswoman for Middlesex District AttorneyGerard T. Leone Jr., would only say his office is reviewing reportsfrom local police about allegations of bullying at the school. It isnot clear if any criminal behavior occurred on campus, she said.
Groton Police Chief Donald Palma could not be reached forcomment last night. He told the Globe last week that police were"looking to see if there is any criminal matter involved or if therewas any bullying involved."
Walter Perkins, 59, a lawyer living in South Riding, Va., saidthat his son, Hunter, a 16-year-old sophomore at the prep school,was one of three students accused of putting lewd, doctored picturesof a classmate on the Internet about three weeks ago and that theimages contained "homosexual overtones."
Walter Perkins said all three students were sent home, and Hunterfatally shot himself Oct. 11 in the basement of their house inVirginia.
The suicide occurred about three days after Perkins showed Hunteran e-mail from the Groton headmaster, Richard B. Commons, outliningan agreement the men had reached that Hunter would withdraw from theschool because of the incident. Perkins said his son did not want toleave Groton, which he had come to love.
"My poor son, God love him," Perkins said. "He thought the wholeworld hated him."
When asked by a Globe reporter to see the e-mail last night,Perkins said he could not come up with it.
A spokesman for the Groton School did not return messages lastnight. School officials declined to comment on the allegations ofcyberbullying.
Perkins said that after he and Hunter left Groton's campus aboutthree weeks ago, Commons said in phone calls and e-mails that theboy should withdraw from the school, rather than plead his case in adisciplinary hearing, which would go on his permanent record.
Perkins said Commons said his son "was guilty of one of the mostserious crimes imaginable" and had perpetrated a hate crime. Thefather also said his son had been on antidepressants.
Shelley Murphy of the Globe staff contributed to this report.Travis Andersen can be reached at tandersen@globe.com.
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