Former student speaks on her experience with Darien teacher charged with inappropriately touching a student

DARIEN, Conn. (WFSB) - The Darien High School teacher, charged with inappropriately touching a student, was in court to face a judge Friday. The judge said he is no longer allowed to work with children or have unsupervised contact with minors, as part of his bail conditions.

Sean Boardman is charged with risk of injury to a child, after police say he inappropriately touched a 14-year-old student at Darien High School. When the I-Team tried to ask Boardman and his attorney about the allegations, as they walked out of the Stamford County courthouse, they said “no comment.”

But another former student, Carolyn Young, talked to the I-Team, telling us this case feels like Deja Vu. Young was a senior at North Branford High School in 2008, Boardman was her math teacher.

She says one day in October 2008, she went to his classroom to ask about a math test and the two began to talk about the stresses in her life. That’s when Young says Boardman, “went to his closet and grabbed a piece of cardboard and placed it up on the window of the door so you know longer could see inside.”

She says he then began massaging her shoulders. “It was as his hands were getting lower down on my shoulders that I finally jumped up and I was able to get out of his classroom,” says Young.

Young told a friend, then a guidance counselor. The I-Team obtained a copy of the guidance counselor’s report which confirms Young’s story. In the report, Boardman was asked about the incident with Young, and “he said that he did not do anything.”

The guidance counselor’s report says Boardman was placed on paid leave. The report does mention when police and DCF came to investigate, they were told Boardman had three disciplinary letters in his file, though the counselor was not allowed to go into more detail.

North Branford’s Superintendent says they were unable to find Boardman’s full personnel file.

“He ended up getting arrested however the case ended up being dismissed if he had good behavior for 18 months,” says Young.

Boardman was arrested, but North Branford Police could not give us any records related to his arrest, referencing a statute that shows the case was dismissed, either because prosecutors declined to proceed or Boardman completed a diversionary program.

North Branford’s Superintendent told the I-Team Boardman resigned in June 2009. He had been on leave since October 2008.

We did ask Boardman and his attorney about the 2008 arrest outside of Stamford court Friday. His attorney, William Westcott said, “What part of no comment didn’t you understand?”

As for his current allegations, we know Boardman was hired by the Darien School District in June 2022. According to Darien Police, while working at the high school, he is accused of sticking his hands down a student’s pants to touch her hip, after covering the windows and doors in his classroom, during a tutor session. This was in November 2025.

According to Darien High’s counselor, when the student arrived to tell her about the incident, she was “visibly shaken, and was tearful during the disclosure.”

Boardman denied touching the student. He was placed on leave from the school district right away.

According to his arrest report, Darien Police also found Boardman was accused of inappropriate behavior at two other schools where he worked, Bunnell High School in Stratford and Nathan Hale-Ray High School in East Haddam.

The report said, in spring 2022, the principal at Bunnell High received multiple complaints from players on the softball team Boardman helped coach. Those complaints included allegations that Boardman massaged a player’s shoulders for several seconds.

When asked about it, Boardman told police that he briefly touched a player’s shoulders. In another incident, when a player cried out as a teammate braided her hair, Boardman allegedly said, “I thought you would have liked it like that,” according to the report. Boardman told police that other players took it the wrong way, but the player didn’t mind. The matter was reported to DCF, which did not accept the report for further investigation, according to the report. Boardman resigned in May 2022. He had been working there since August 2020.

Boardman was also investigated for allegations in East Haddam, at Nathan Hale-Ray High School. He had worked in the district from 2012 to 2020. According to the warrant, in December 2019, a principal found his classroom door locked, the lights off, music playing and the window curtain drawn. The principal “found Boardman inside the classroom on the floor next to a female student who was seated on a towel.” “Both were clothed but sweating,” according to the report.

The student initially said “Boardman gave her a massage for workout soreness but that nothing sexual occurred. In a follow-up interview, she denied receiving a massage and said he touched her neck with a finger. East Haddam police found no probable cause for an arrest, the arrest report says.

According to DCF’s report in the incident, they “alleged grooming behavior by Boardman”. But the student did not participate in a forensic interview or report the incident to police. Boardman denied the allegations. The student denied feeling uncomfortable and had previously been alone with Boardman on several occasions while acting as his intern without any reported incident, according to the report.

The I-Team obtained records showing that neither school district disclosed these allegations to Darien school officials on forms that are part of the employment process for educators seeking jobs at other school systems.

When asked about this, Stratford Public Schools said in a statement, “As a matter of practice, the district does not comment on personnel matters”.

East Haddam Schools did not respond to our emails, but released a statement on social media, saying in part “There is no evidence to conclude that the previous administration did not comply with employment law.” It went on to say “Notwithstanding, our review did reveal that certain aspects of the matter could have been handled differently.”

Young says she hopes districts learn from this. “Being in school is where you are supposed to be able to feel safe and that didn’t happen for a lot of us. I hope that something changes at this point,” says Young.

We did this interview with Young outside the Stamford court last Friday, February 13th. She had come to court to see Boardman arraigned. That day, Boardman nor his attorney showed up to court, with the judge issuing a re-arrest warrant, but we’ve learned there appeared to be a miscommunication with the court, so no one had known Boardman’s attorney asked for the case to be continued to another date. The re-arrest warrant was canceled.

Boardman is out on bond but if he breaks any of the judge’s rules regarding contact with minors, he could have his bail revoked.