What happened to you at Sonoma Academy wasn't okay. It still isn't.

Sonoma Academy is the small private high school out on Farmers Lane in Santa Rosa. It opened in 2001, and the pitch, always, was how close the teachers got to the kids. Twenty years on, in 2021, the school hired a New York law firm to look at itself, and here's what came back: one humanities teacher had crossed boundaries with at least 34 students over 18 years, two other former staff had sexually abused three more, and the people running the place had a habit of brushing complaints aside. Not once. A pattern. Twelve graduates sued in December 2022. If you went there and something from those years still sits wrong with you, keep reading. This is about you.

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This applies to you no matter what

You were one of the 34, or you weren't; either way. Investigators counted at least 34 students, classes of 2005 through 2021, and twelve of them, only twelve, are in the lawsuit. The rest are out there, some reading this. And that 34 came from 133 interviews done in one summer, 2021, with whoever was willing to talk, so treat it as a floor.
And if it wasn't him? The same report has an assistant soccer coach sexually abusing a student in 2002 and 2003, and a guest filmmaking instructor doing the same to two students in January 2004, and on neither one did the school ever file a report. So no, this isn't a case about one man. It's about a school.
You told somebody. A counselor, the head of school, the assistant head, a parent who called in. The investigators said dismissing exactly that was the school's pattern, and a cover-up, in a California childhood case, can triple what a jury awards. Can, not will; a lawyer explains that part.
2007, 2012, 2019, whatever the year was, you may assume it's ancient history; it isn't. The report's own window is 2002 to 2020, and the California deadline, for anyone abused as a minor, is the later of two dates: your 40th birthday, or five years after the day you understood what it did to you.
You're a parent, a sibling, a classmate asking for someone who can't bring themselves to. Reach out anyway; we can talk to you first.

The Sonoma Academy record: the firing, the report, the suits, and where it stands

None of what follows is ours. The Press Democrat, the school's own investigators and the Sonoma County court file wrote it, and every line below links to where it came from. Where it says alleges, that is what it means: the civil case is pending, Sonoma Academy has not admitted liability, and Marco Morrone denies all of it in his own court filing. Nobody has been criminally charged.

October 2020

Sonoma Academy fired Marco Morrone, a humanities teacher there since 2002 who taught English, history and a martial arts class, after an internal look at complaints from graduates confirmed boundary violations with students from the classes of 2008 to 2014. This wasn't the first time. In 2007 a student had reported him; he got discipline and counseling, and he kept teaching. No criminal charges have been filed, then or since. The Press Democrat.

November 29, 2021

Seven women went public in June 2021. The school hired Debevoise & Plimpton, a New York law firm, and on this date released its 49-page report. 133 interviews, 61,000 documents. It found Morrone had engaged in inappropriate boundary crossing with at least 34 students between the classes of 2005 and 2021, that an assistant girls' soccer coach sexually abused one student in 2002 and 2003 and a guest filmmaking instructor sexually abused two in January 2004, that no mandated report was filed about any of it, and that administrators showed a pattern of dismissing students' concerns. The Press Democrat.

November 30, 2021

The report said head of school Janet Durgin was aware of Morrone's conduct with female students by 2004, that in 2007 the school's own attorneys recommended a mandated report to law enforcement and none was filed, and that Durgin and assistant head Ellie Dwight knew or should have known the conduct continued after 2007. Durgin apologized for any missteps and said she disputed some of the report's facts and conclusions as they related to her. The Press Democrat.

December 2021

A graduate, filing as Jane Doe, sued Sonoma Academy, Durgin, Dwight and Morrone in Sonoma County Superior Court for sexual abuse and harassment in the educational setting, sexual battery and gender violence. Her lawyers were Alex Schack of San Diego and Jack Weaver of Santa Rosa. The complaint alleged misconduct by staff across 18 years. The Press Democrat.

December 30, 2022

Twelve female graduates sued Sonoma Academy, Morrone, Adrian Belic, Durgin and Dwight in Sonoma County Superior Court, represented by Allred, Maroko & Goldberg. Four are named, Linnet Vacha, Cleo Wilde, Savnnah Turley and Morgan Apostle; eight sued as Jane Does. What it alleges: negligence, childhood sexual assault, harassment, molestation, battery, gender violence, civil rights violations. And about the school itself, in the complaint's own words, that it 'did not take reasonable steps to investigate numerous complaints of adult sexually improper conduct with minors' and 'actively concealed this information.' The board answered that the two years since had been a transformative period. The Press Democrat.

May 2025

The twelve graduates' case was still in litigation before Judge Patrick Broderick, on a third amended complaint filed August 28, 2024, with case-management conferences through the spring. The Press Democrat reported the December 2021 Jane Doe suit had settled confidentially about two years earlier. No figure was disclosed. The Press Democrat.

December 8, 2025

December 8 is when court records showed a pending settlement between Sonoma Academy and the twelve graduates, on terms set to be confidential. Morrone had filed a cross-complaint in October and objected to the deal. Not one person, his filing says, did he ever sexually harass, abuse or inappropriately touch; the culture at the school, which it calls one of forced intimacy, is where he puts the blame. The school: no comment on an ongoing legal matter. The Press Democrat.

We checked this on September 12, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from December 8, 2025. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Sonoma Academy lawsuit

The school, first. Sonoma Academy is private, nonprofit, a day school of roughly 325 kids in grades 9 through 12, and that matters more than it sounds, because a public school district in California gets a stack of protections a private school never gets. Here there is no government claim form, no six-month deadline hiding in the fine print, and no cap on what a jury can award. What the twelve graduates allege is not that one teacher went bad. It is that a school heard about him in 2004, was told by its own lawyers in 2007 to file a report with law enforcement, did not, and let him teach for thirteen more years. That is the school's own investigators saying so, not a lawyer's guess.

Then the people. Four of them are in the 2022 complaint besides the school: Marco Morrone; Adrian Belic, the guest instructor; Janet Durgin, the founding head of school, retired since 2020; and Ellie Dwight, the assistant head, who left at the end of 2021. Naming an administrator is not about her bank account. It is how a case gets to the question of what was known upstairs and when. Durgin has apologized for missteps and disputes some of the findings; Morrone denies everything. The court hasn't decided any of that, and this page doesn't either.

Who pays is a fair question about a school this size, and a lawyer will walk you through it. The short version is that the December 2021 case settled and the 2022 case is settling, which tells you a payer is there and answering. What we don't know, because it's confidential, is the amount, and we won't pretend to.

Your deadline: the California statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse at a private school

Until you turn 40, or five years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever is later. That is the California rule for anyone abused as a minor before 2024, in Code of Civil Procedure section 340.11, and it is why we ask your birth year. Born in 1987 or later and the door is open on age alone, today, no special window needed. Born before 1987, and you were in the school's first three or four classes, so it turns on discovery, which is a conversation about when the harm landed for you, not a date on a calendar. A lawyer sorts that out on the first call, and it is not a reason to stay quiet.

One more thing about this school in particular. Because it's private, none of the government-claim deadlines that trip up public-school cases apply here. The conduct in the record runs from 2002 to 2020. Nearly every student from those years is between 20 and 42 right now. If you're in that range, your case is very likely still yours to bring.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told anyone. Tiny school, everyone on a first-name basis with him, who would you have told?
It didn't feel like abuse, not then. It felt like being chosen. The favorite. That is what the report describes, and it is what grooming is built to feel like.
It happened after graduation. The investigators said the grooming happened as a student and the contact came later. That still counts.
You've already talked to the school, or to the investigators in 2021, and heard nothing since. Talking to the school is not the same as having a lawyer.
You're a man. The record is mostly about girls, and the martial arts classes and the rest weren't only girls.
You live somewhere else now, Oregon or Nevada or across the country. Most people do by the time they're ready.

Facilities covered

The Sonoma Academy campus at 2500 Farmers Lane in Santa Rosa, from its opening in 2001 on: classrooms, the martial arts and athletics programs, the girls' soccer team, the guest and visiting instructor programs, off-campus trips and any contact that started at school and continued off it or after graduation. Another school in Sonoma County, or a Santa Rosa private school that isn't this one? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue Sonoma Academy?

Twelve graduates already have, and an earlier case settled. Whether you can depends mostly on when you were born and when it happened, which is what the questions above sort out. Being one of the 34 in the report is not a requirement.

Has Marco Morrone been charged with anything?

No. Fired in October 2020, named in the school's own findings in 2021, sued by twelve graduates, and still no criminal charge against him; he denies the allegations. A civil case does not need a conviction, and most cases against schools never had one.

What did the Sonoma Academy investigation find?

Four things, mainly. Morrone crossed boundaries with at least 34 students, classes of 2005 through 2021. Two other former staff sexually abused three students between 2002 and 2004. No mandated report was ever filed, about any of it. And administrators had a pattern of dismissing students' concerns. Debevoise & Plimpton wrote it, the school published it on November 29, 2021, and it's linked above.

The school already settled. Is it too late?

A settlement with twelve people is a settlement with twelve people. It doesn't close the door on anyone who wasn't in that case, and the deadline for you is set by your own birth year and your own discovery, not by their paperwork.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed California attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.