Sexual Abuser of Teenage Girls allowed to work on High School Production

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

TW: The following article discusses allegations of sexual assault.

A former CT community theater director accused in civil lawsuits of sexually assaulting teenage girls who were in his productions, recently was allowed to help with the lighting for a local high school production.

Dan Checovetes, who admitted during a deposition to abusing two teen girls who he worked with on local productions, recently helped with Thomaston High School’s production of ‘Elf Jr.’ Checovetes is facing a civil lawsuit from the women he abused from 2008 to 2015. That suit is set to go to trial in 2024.

In programs for the show, Checovetes was credited as “lighting designer.” School Superintendent Francine Coss said she received an email on Dec 10th, alerting her of Checovetes’ pending lawsuit and allegations. Coss confirmed with the school’s theatre department that no students were present when Checovetes was in the building and that he would not be allowed to work with the group again. It should also be noted that Dec 10 was the final day of the performance of 'Elf Jr.’

While it is not known how exactly Checovetes was able to work on the production, my sources say that his close relationship with members of the school’s music department is what led him to help program the lightboard on two separate dates.

I’m also told that when locals, including an alleged victim, tried to bring this issue up at a school board meeting, they were quickly silenced.

So here is my take on all of this. I appreciate Superintendent Coss’ swift actions in finding out about the situation and making sure Checovetes is not welcome back. But it should never have gotten to this point in the first place.

While it was reported that no students were in the presence of Checovetes; I’d like to know how he was able to light the show as a designer without seeing the show? He would have to have attended rehearsals for that.

The fact that a member of the Thomaston High School musical staff thought it was appropriate to bring Checovetes on to a high school production, having very publicly been accused of sexual abuse by three different women, is very disturbing to me. That put tremendous risk on the Thomaston students, not to mention other liability issues.

I know it’s the holidays, but I want that Thomaston High School music staff fired over their egregious lack of judgment.

It’s sad that this discussion even needs to be raised. You would think that people would be smart enough not to bring in sexual abusers to work on a high school theatre production. Sadly, folks at Thomaston High School need some education in that.

UPDATE: (June 5, 2023) Dan Checovetes has been arrested on sexual assault charges after police said he admitted during a civil lawsuit deposition sexually assaulting two teenaged girls in 2015 and 2016.