Milton Academy cites more sex cases

An investigation at Milton Academy has turned up a third oral-sex session between a 15-year-old sophomore girl and varsity ice hockey players at the prestigious prep school, according to a school letter to be sent to parents today.

In the newly discovered episode, two hockey players and another 15-year-old male student requested and received oral sex from the girl in a boys locker room on Sunday, Jan. 23, the letter says. The school had previously reported that on Jan. 22, the same group engaged in the same sex acts in a boy's dorm room and that on Jan. 24, the hockey players, joined by three teammates, received oral sex again from the girl in the boys' locker room.

The school also reported a fourth episode to authorities yesterday, this one at a downtown hotel room, according to a state official briefed on the report. The same girl and two of the same hockey players allegedly attended a birthday party Feb. 12 at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel, where some guests engaged in sex acts, said someone who has spoken with students at the party and a school official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The school expelled the five hockey players last month and put the 15-year-old boy and the girl on leave. School officials said at the time that the episode in the locker room was an isolated event. They said that the 5-1 male-to-female ratio in the locker room episode represented coercion of the girl, whether implicit or explicit.

The new letter does not mention coercion and describes what occurred as an ''unfortunate pattern of behavior by a small group of students."

''While the facts took some time to emerge, I believe we have now come to an understanding of what occurred with regard to the incidents of oral sex," the head of the school, Robin Robertson, wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe. ''Initially, we thought we were dealing with one event, but after two weeks of following up we now understand that what transpired was a short and unfortunate pattern of behavior by a small group of students."

School officials reached last night said the school has not changed its view of the situation's coercive nature, adding that the girl was too young to consent to sex. ''The decision to expel the boys absolutely stands," academy spokeswoman Cathleen Everett said. ''We made the right decision in the first instance, and we stand behind it."

The Norfolk district attorney's office, which is investigating the sexual incidents, would not say last night whether the number of sexual encounters would affect whether the boys involved would be prosecuted for rape of a child, which under state law is having sex with someone under 16 years old. ''We're still gathering information," spokesman Kevin Bowe said.

In the hotel room incident, parents of a female student, a good friend of the 15-year-old girl, rented the suite for their daughter's birthday so she could have a sleepover while the parents stayed in an adjoining room, said the father of the friend, who spoke on the condition that his name would not be used to protect his daughter's identity.

The parents went out to a restaurant for dinner, as did the girls, three of whom are Milton Academy students, the father said. When the parents returned to the hotel at about 10:50 p.m., they found the girls had returned earlier and had boys in their room, at least one of whom was drinking beer, he said. The father warned the girls that the boys would have to leave by midnight, and he said he asked the boy with the beer to leave.

Some time that night, guests at the party, attended by the 15-year-old girl and two varsity hockey players, engaged in sex acts, according to the school official who spoke on condition of anonymity and to the person who spoke with students at the party. The father, however, while acknowledging that he and his wife were not aware of everything that went on that night in his daughter's hotel room, denied that any sexual acts had occurred.

The school reported the episode to the Department of Social Services yesterday after at least one of the students at the party told a school counselor that sex acts had occurred, according to the school official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The school is not under investigation for the incident, but the parents' supervision of the party will be reviewed, the official said.

The father said yesterday that the 15-year-old girl is a ''super kid," and said it's been very painful for her and those who know her to deal with the repercussions of the oral sex episodes becoming public.

''She is a good kid that has made a couple of mistakes," he said. ''It's taken on a life of its own. . . . I just hope that no more people, kids, are going to get hurt,"

The letter being sent to parents today speaks of the gulf between parents' assumptions about their children's sex lives and the reality. It suggests parents use what has happened at Milton as a ''teaching moment" for discussions with their children and recommends they read up on the ''cultural prevalence of 'hooking up.' "

''The mainstream mores of teenage life today are alarming to adults," Robertson writes.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.