LAWSUIT
Feb 12, 2008 - A former Brookline High freshman and her family received a $150,000 settlement to drop a suit against the town after her disgraced music teacher had pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape in 2004.
The 20-year teacher, Geoffrey Dana Hicks, 53, made headlines in March 2003 when allegations arose that he had been involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with the student when she was a freshman in 1996. Hicks pleaded not guilty in 2003. In 2004, he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to 10 years of supervised probation with no employment as a teacher.
During his two decades in the Brookline schools, Hicks made a name for himself as a popular teacher whose own musical accomplishments included recording albums and performing concerts in the Vatican and the White House.TT - What was alleged was that 49-year-old Hicks had sex with a 15-year-old girl. Don't you wonder about the moral obtuseness of such people?
When news of the charges against him hit newspapers, parents and peers wrote in to defend his integrity and insisted his innocence.
“Despite the seriousness of the allegations against him, Geoffrey Dana Hicks deserves the support of our community because he has done so much to enrich the lives of our children,” wrote Stanley D. Klein, Pond Avenue, in a 2003 TAB letter to the editor.
They still feature pictures of Hicks on the town web page reading from the works of Martin Luther King and posing with local celeb-wannabes.
According to a story on his guilty plea, Hicks also must register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender treatment. Kinda strange keeping him on the Brookline web page.
