When news broke at the end of August in the Lowell Sun that a former Bromfield teacher had been accused of sexual misconduct elsewhere, Harvard residents not surprisingly had questions about his time here. On July 31, a woman filed a civil complaint against the Innovation Academy Charter School in Tyngsborough, saying she had been “groomed, sexually harassed, assaulted and raped” by Ryan Deery while he was an English teacher there. Through his lawyer, Deery has denied the allegations.
Deery taught at the Tyngsborough school from 2010 to 2017 and at the Bromfield School from 2017 to 2020. Subsequently he was employed at the Windham Woods School in New Hampshire until this year, but that school suspended him when the allegations against him became public.
Under Massachusetts state law, every school employee or volunteer must have a background check known as a CORI (criminal offender record information) check. As specified by law in 2010, CORI records include felony convictions within the past 10 years or imprisonment records for 10 years from the date of release. A second required check is the Statewide Applicant Fingerprint Identification Services. School employees must have new CORI checks every three years, not just at the time of their hiring.
Deery underwent those background checks when he was hired in Harvard. He also supplied professional references and letters of recommendation at the time, according to Harvard Schools Superintendent Dana Labb. After three years of teaching at Bromfield, Deery was eligible for professional status (formerly known as tenure). But the school district did not renew his contract.
The woman’s current allegations against Deery are part of a civil suit against the Innovation Academy for failing to protect her from him. As such, even if a judge or jury finds the accusations credible, that finding would lead to a financial settlement from the school, not to a criminal record for Deery.
