SPRINGFIELD — After a young lifetime of neglect, uncertainty and foster placements, Chanel Nugent-Dunson thought she had finally found a savior in a seemingly warm-hearted high school teacher.
He paid her special interest in school, gave her rides home, even suggesting she call him “dad,” which she did. She didn’t care if her classmates found it odd.
Kenneth Strout taught her information support systems class for two years at the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative in West Springfield.
On Sept. 5, Strout pleaded guilty in Springfield District Court to two counts of annoying or accosting another person in connection with his behavior toward Nugent-Dunson and another former student. He was sentenced to a year of probation.
Strout’s lawyer, Boston attorney Kenneth H. Anderson, could not be reached for comment.
“Everyone knew Strout as this really loving, church-going, wholesome person,” said Nugent-Dunson, now 19 and a psychology student at Western New England University.
But back in high school, her so-called savior turned unseemly, eventually asking her for nude photos and to disrobe in his vehicle when he took it through a car wash during the 2024 academic year. She complied with neither request, she said.
“He told me he had permission to drive me home, because I had no legal guardian,” she said.
She was later informed by school administrators that there was no such clearance. In fact, there is a policy in place prohibiting that, except in emergency situations.
Nugent-Dunson lost her father in 2013, his body recovered from the Connecticut River. His cause of death was inconclusive, she said.
Her mother had her own problems with drugs and alcohol, according to Nugent-Dunson, who said she and her twin sister were often locked in a closet for hours while their mother entertained men. Their mother also was in and out of jail.
The girls bounced between different family members over the years, and Nugent-Dunson even couch-surfed for a while.
She felt school administrators didn’t take her seriously, urging her silence after she first came forward with her concerns about Strout.
School Principal Director Donald Jarvis and Executive Director Alvin W. Morton tell a different version of the story, though they couldn’t speak at length because of personnel protections.
“Once she came forward with her concerns, we began an investigation, and she had zero contact with him in the building after that,” said Jarvis.
Morton said Strout has not worked there for more than a year, after having taught there for seven. Strout had no prior disciplinary history, Morton added.
“We take these allegations very, very seriously,” he said. “We try to act fairly for both student safety and our staff in terms of due process. But student safety is our top priority.”
Jarvis said he believed the school did the best it could with the information that was presented to them.
“I feel very bad about what happened. I truly wish it never happened,” Jarvis said, adding that he’d not received a similar complaint in his 32 years in education.
As part of his guilty plea, Strout was forced by a judge to surrender his Massachusetts teaching license, court records show. He also was ordered to stay away from Nugent-Dunson, plus another former student.
That second woman shared messages that the two exchanged in a previous story in The Republican.
“What are you in college for? Your (sic) the only student I’ve ever wanted to see naked fyi,” he wrote.
“That’s a little weird Mr. Strout don’t u think? Like I was very much underage in ur (sic) class … jail bait,” she responded.
She ultimately blocked her former teacher on all social media platforms.
While Nugent-Dunson gave the newspaper permission to publish her name and likeness, The Republican typically does not identify victims of sexual misconduct or assault.
The college sophomore shared her story in the hopes that it might encourage other victims to come forward, from the school or any other setting.
“If there’s someone else who’s felt silenced, I want to tell them to speak up,” she said.
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