Elite NYC private school volleyball coach groomed and raped student for years, horrific lawsuit charges

Yahoo

22-02-2025

A volleyball coach at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School allegedly groomed and repeatedly raped one of his players — and told her she was 'just as much a villain as he was' during the years-long abuse, according to a shocking new lawsuit.
The abuse allegedly occurred on the campus of the elite Bronx private school, after volleyball practices, at the movies and at the girl's home, and began when she was 17, she claimed.
Now 36, the victim, identified in her Bronx Supreme Court filing only as Jane Doe, said she has suffered decades of depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress syndrome following the two years of abuse by former girls varsity coach Collin Henry.
Once a high-performing student, the Westchester resident was forced to forego medical school because of the fallout, she contended in the suit, which was filed Thursday against Fieldston, Henry and former JV coach Lynford Foreman.
A former Jamaican national volleyball team player in the 1990s, Henry, 55, was lauded for building a championship-winning program but 'regularly crossed boundaries and made sexually inappropriate comments or acted flirtatiously with his players,' the victim said in court papers.
The coach allegedly sent the girl sexual messages beginning in 2004, drove her to off-season practices for a club team in Queens and spent the long car rides 'deliberately [eroding] the boundaries between coach and student with his sexual 'jokes' and personal stories,' according to the suit.
Once she turned 17 in the spring of 2005, the married father allegedly told her she was 'old enough' for a sexual relationship, and said he wouldn't go to jail for it but could lose his job, according to the suit.
After a summer of grooming the victim to 'foster emotional dependence, encourage obedience, and establish his expectation for sexual contact' with her, the abuse became physical in the fall when Henry kissed her after a practice — then made her the team captain, she said in the legal filing.
He allegedly groped and kissed her during a showing of the psychological thriller 'The Quiet,' about a dad who abuses his teenage daughter, and forced her to perform oral sex during another movie outing, she said in court papers.
When she turned 18, Henry allegedly began raping the girl, refusing to use a condom and telling her to 'get through' the pain, she charged in the suit.
As part of his alleged manipulation, Henry featured the girl in a book he wrote about coaching and would threaten that if the 'relationship' was discovered it would jeopardize her shots at college, according to the filing.
In late April 2006, while in history class, she received a text message from Henry saying he could no longer see her because his wife was pregnant — but the abuse continued anyway until her freshman year of college, according to the lawsuit.
School staff was aware of the abuse and even gossiped and joked about it, she alleged.
'Due to my mental health, I struggled to maintain a full-time job … and currently work as a warehouse associate,' she said. 'However, I still wish to pursue a fulfilling career.'
In July, she filed a complaint with the school detailing the abuse, addressing it to then-Head of School Joe Algrant and Upper School Principal Stacey Bobo.
'I decided to report Henry and Foreman's abuse to Fieldston to reclaim the power and control that had been stolen from me as a teenager and change the trajectory of my life, which had been defined for too long by the sexual abuse I endured,' she said.
The $65,540-a-year Riverdale school, which boasts alumni including Barbara Walters, Sofia Coppola and Sean Ono Lennon, hired an outside law firm to investigate and fired Henry based on its preliminary findings, according to a spokesperson.
In August, it sent an email to the school community about a 'staffing update' related to Henry's 'misconduct' and termination, but didn't mention the sexual abuse.
In a statement, the school denied mishandling the allegations and said it had not received any complaints regarding Henry in the past.
'The safety and wellbeing of our students is our top priority, and ECFS acted quickly and appropriately to address this issue as soon as a concern was raised,' a spokesperson said.
All staff undergo comprehensive background checks, including criminal background and fingerprinting, and are trained annually in preventing abuse and misconduct, she added.
Henry declined to comment on the allegations and Foreman did not respond to messages from The Post.