Masconomet Regional High School’s standout freshman golfer, 15-year-old Charlotte Rollins, says she is leaving the Boxford district at the end of the school year after what she describes as months of bullying, sexually explicit comments and a threat from teammates. Her decision, aired publicly in front of the Masconomet School Committee, set off a wave of backlash on campus, with teachers speaking out and nearly 200 students walking out of class in protest. District leaders insist they did not ignore her complaints, and an outside investigator hired by the district concluded there was no substantiated harassment during the golf season.
What the student said
At an April school committee meeting, Rollins told elected members that when she tried to get help from the adults in charge, the process failed her. “When I reported serious misconduct, I was left unprotected, unheard, and unsupported,” she said, according to The Boston Globe. Two teachers followed by reading a prepared statement on behalf of colleagues, saying faculty were “horrified” and “confused” by how administrators handled the situation. Their remarks put public pressure on the committee to scrutinize how the district deals with complaints from student-athletes.
Teachers urged the committee to “insist that the administration punish the students involved according to the student handbook,” and about 200 students from the middle and high schools staged a walkout and marched to the superintendent’s office, according to NBC Boston. Several committee members said they felt blindsided by the public airing of the allegations and debated how, or even whether, to respond in detail. The dispute has drawn outsized attention in part because Rollins recently competed at the Drive, Chip & Putt national final at Augusta National, according to MassGolf.
Investigation and the district's response
The Rollins family filed a Title IX complaint in October and say school officials initially brushed it aside as something that did not require a full review. They appealed that decision, hired legal counsel and ultimately spent nearly $20,000 on attorney fees over the roughly three-month process, as reported by The Boston Globe. The district brought in an outside investigator, who found no substantiated evidence of bullying during the golf season. That inquiry, however, did not cover the alleged sexual harassment or a later threat of sexual violence, the Globe reported.
Boxford Police Chief James Riter said he wishes school officials had looped in law enforcement sooner, since his department would have opened an investigation, according to the Boston Globe. Superintendent Michael Harvey has pushed back on the broader criticism, saying the district “promptly responds to, investigates, and provides written notice of outcome to the parties involved,” language that appears in the district’s own policies, according to Masconomet Regional Schools. The Rollins family maintains that the student handbook and the district’s bullying prevention and intervention plan were not followed in Charlotte’s case. School officials say they are constrained by state and federal privacy laws and cannot comment publicly on individual student matters.
Title IX questions and expert view
Under federal Title IX rules, schools that receive federal funds must address sex-based harassment and take steps reasonably calculated to stop the misconduct and protect a student’s ability to stay in school and learn, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Advocates at the National Women's Law Center say investigations that are too narrow in scope or delayed for months can leave students without meaningful remedies and increase the risk of retaliation. Those legal and advocacy frameworks sit in the background of the Masconomet dispute and now shape the debate over whether the district’s response was adequate or fell short.
What comes next
The school committee has not laid out a formal timeline for any broader review of district practices. Teachers and outside advocates are calling for clearer enforcement of the student handbook, as well as tighter oversight of co-ed athletic programs and how complaints move from coach to administrator, according to NBC Boston. The Rollins family says Charlotte plans to enroll elsewhere after this academic year, and the charged atmosphere at the April meeting made clear that families across the district are now watching closely to see what, if anything, Masconomet changes about its complaint and appeal process.
For now, Rollins’s pending departure has become a local flashpoint over whether the district’s policies genuinely protect vulnerable students in high-profile programs or merely look good on paper. The school committee is likely to face continued pressure to revisit investigation practices and athletic oversight before the next golf season tees off.
