A former Belmont High School student has accused the school district and its former principal of failing to stop a teacher from engaging in a sexual relationship with her from 2009 to 2011, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this month.

The student, who now lives in Massachusetts and filed the lawsuit using a pseudonym, said then-social studies teacher Phillip Anderson repeatedly kissed and groped her during the 2009-10 school year.

Last year, she learned for the first time that a fellow staff member had reported the inappropriate relationship to then-principal Russell Holden in the fall of 2009, the legal complaint states. She contended Holden failed to sufficiently investigate the report and prevent future abuse, which continued until 2011.

Both Holden and the Shaker Regional School District are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Holden is now the superintendent of the Sunapee School District, and neither he nor his attorneys responded to requests for comment. Shaker Regional superintendent Michael Tursi referred an inquiry to the district’s attorney, Dona Feeney, who declined to comment.

Until “about a year ago,” Anderson worked as a teacher at the New York Military Academy, a private preparatory school in Cornwall, New York, a secretary at the school said on Wednesday. The New York State Education Department did not immediately respond to a question about whether he is currently employed or certified as a teacher in the state. Anderson could not be reached for comment.

The misconduct began in the fall of 2009, weeks into the 15-year-old student’s sophomore year at Belmont High, according to the complaint. Anderson, in his first and only year as a teacher at the school, served as both the student’s U.S. History teacher and her assistant cross country coach.

As the cross country season progressed, according to the lawsuit, Anderson began to flirt with her, compliment her on her appearance, join her for “special practice runs” and drive her home from practice. He also began to send her emails that “became increasingly suggestive of sex.”

About a month into the school year, Anderson started inviting the student to his classroom after practice, where he kissed her on several occasions. On one of those occasions, longtime head cross country coach and teacher John Goegel walked by Anderson’s classroom and witnessed the interaction.

“It was getting dark outside. I was passing the classroom, the lights were off, and the two of them were in the room,” Goegel said in a brief interview this week. “That coupled with what I had seen in practice — that, in and of itself, in a dark room after practice — would raise the alarm.”

He reported the behavior to Holden and removed Anderson as a coach of the team. However, the school district re-assigned Anderson to supervise a pair of theater productions during the late fall and spring, which the student also participated in, according to the lawsuit. The abuse continued throughout the school year and escalated after Anderson left the school in June of 2010, the student said.

At one point, when the student began a relationship with a classmate, Anderson threatened suicide, according to the lawsuit.

Goegel, who coached at Belmont High until 2020, confirmed he reported his concerns about the relationship to Holden in the fall of 2009 and said that the principal “was concerned, too.” However, Goegel declined to answer questions about school administrators’ internal response following his report.

The student said the abuse escalated, involving groping and sexual touching backstage during theater rehearsals, and Anderson exposed himself to her on school grounds. Though Anderson resigned from the school in the spring of 2010 and began teaching in Vermont, he continued to engage in sexual activity with the student until August 2011, according to the lawsuit.

The student said she was unaware of Goegel’s report to Holden until October of last year, when her attorney, Megan Douglass, interviewed the former coach.

“It took several years for [the student] to understand that she had been exploited by Anderson, that she was not at fault for Anderson’s abuses and that she could seek legal relief related to the abuses,” the legal complaint stated.

She declined, through her attorney, an interview request.

Anderson has worked in public and private schools in New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington D.C. and Australia, according to a screen-shotted version of his New York Military Academy biography, which was shared by the student’s attorney and is no longer accessible online.

The New York Military Academy did not respond to questions about Anderson’s employment background or requests for his contact information.

Anderson is not currently eligible to teach in New Hampshire. It was not immediately clear which schools he worked at other than Belmont High School and the New York Military Academy.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.