Stonington The state Office of the Child Advocate has found that school officials knew of the sexual harassment allegations against high school teacher and coach Timothy Chokas from 2013 to 2017 and did not take all the steps it could to respond to the allegations before allowing him to resign after more complaints in 2019.
In a 52-page report, the office also criticizes school officials for not documenting or following up on the allegations against Chokas or placing complaints in his file, and pointed out that at least one teacher failed to report concerns about suspected abuse to the state Department of Children and Families or police as required by law.
Stonington Sarah Eagan, who heads the state Office of the Child Advocate, said Tuesday that she is working on the final draft of her review of how school officials handled the sexual harassment allegations against former Stonington High School teacher and coach Timothy Chokas and plans to publish her report next month.
Before then, Eagan said she will submit the draft of the report to the school system for its review.
Eagan began her review in July 2019 after The Day published the first of a series of stories about the allegations against Chokas and how school officials responded to them. Eagan is looking into whether school officials followed the policies in place at the time and if improvements are needed.