Teacher at Lawrenceville School charged with aggravated sexual contact for allegedly touching two students (updated)

A second-year teacher at the Lawrenceville School has been arrested and charged with aggravated sexual contact for allegedly inappropriately touching two boys at the school, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

The teacher, Dominic Frank Brown, allegedly entered two student dorm rooms at the private boarding school in Lawrence in the early hours of Saturday morning and inappropriately touched two teenage boys while they were sleeping. The boys contacted campus public safety. The Lawrence Township Police Department and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office were then notified.

Brown has been charged with two counts of third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact and two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He is being held in the Mercer County Correction Center pending a detention hearing.

Lawrenceville Headmaster Steve Murray promptly wrote a letter to members of the school community on Saturday informing them of the incident and the school’s response.

“Although we are still investigating, so far we know that a teacher in the second year of his internship entered a House and reportedly had inappropriate contact with two students. We informed law enforcement and they are investigating. The students have been offered counseling and support from faculty and others. The teacher has been banned from campus and terminated,” Murray wrote.

“This incident is deeply troubling and violates the foundation of trust that our community holds between adults and the students in our care. Nothing in the teacher’s background check or references would have led us to believe he would act in this manner,” Murray wrote. “I commend the students for speaking up – and encourage anyone who may have additional information about this incident to share it with us. Lawrenceville’s top priority is the security and well-being of our students and making sure that our campus community is a safe environment for all.”

Brown, 23, is a Penn Boarding School Teaching Residency Fellow. He joined the Lawrenceville faculty in the fall of 2018 and taught in the history department. He also coached water polo. He is a 2018 graduate of Wesleyan University and previously attended the Hotchkiss School.

Dominic Frank Brown

The fellows are part of a two-year program between the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and the Lawrenceville School, Deerfield Academy, Hotchkiss School, Loomis Chaffee School, Milton Academy, Miss Porter’s School, Northfield Mount Hermon, St. Paul’s School, and the Taft School. The novice teachers work under the direction of an experienced faculty mentor while completing the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education’s master’s program in teaching and learning. Those serving at Lawrenceville join the faculty for two years as teachers, as well as coaches or assistants in the school’s community service program. Each fellow receives a house assignment.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the case should contact Detective Alicia Bergondo of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit at (609) 989-6568.

2 Comments

  1. This is a gross violation of the trust the students and parents put in the school faculty. Some of the students are away from home hundred miles 200 miles even from a different country . This will no doubt affect and enrollment next year at the school. With parents weekend coming up the school must try to restore the trust of the parents and the students by providing multiple layers of security

  2. This Serpent been suspicious in his home town Kingston Jamaica and I hope it reaches the local news there because he will return. God he knows how many other students he molested and they are embarrass to come out. His parents knows their son. Lock him away he will do it again and again.

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