Minutes from Key School Board of Trustees meetings during the mid- to late-1970s indicate school officials turned a blind eye to alleged sexual abuse of students by teachers.
Investigators retained by the school pored over minutes from board meetings, which revealed concerns about the school’s culture. However, those fears were framed around the school’s business operations.
“The minutes reflect that in the mid- to late-1970s the board and administrators recognized that Key’s informal culture might be problematic,” according to a report released Monday by Baltimore-based law firm Kramon & Graham. “But these concerns were framed primarily as worries about the negative impact the culture had on enrollment and fundraising goals.”
Investigators concluded 10 adults in positions of authority engaged in sexual misconduct or inappropriate relationships with at least 16 students from the 1970s through the 1990s. And since making the report public, Key School officials have shared information about policies and safeguards put in place to protect students.
School leaders issued an apology to former students who have alleged abuse.
Anne Arundel County police say they are investigating the allegations, but no charges have been filed.
Decades of abuse
Perturbed by low enrollment numbers, board members shared serious concerns about shuttering the Annapolis private school during the 1970s. The school relies heavily on tuition dollars. It is one of the most expensive private schools in the county, with current upper school tuition set at $28,000.
The report indicates board members were focused on protecting the school’s reputation. During the years when the abuse was occurring, board members were advised not to share concerns with friends and, instead, were encouraged to speak positively about the school to attract students.
The state of the school was evident to teachers, students and parents, said a former Key School student, who asked that her identity remain anonymous. The former student, who still lives in Maryland, left Key School after ninth grade, in 1976. Uncomfortable interactions she had with male teachers contributed to her decision to leave.
“It’s something you knew was wrong when you were there,” she said about school’s culture. “I was definitely in the midst of the really intense time when it was really visibly evident. Some of my friends the next year after I left, they were pretty open about the relationships that they were having.”
The former student said she felt teachers were “mental grooming” students. She remembers male teachers asked about her personal life and made comments about her body.
“When I was 12, those men made me feel as if I was like 25,” she said. “I always felt as though they put me on a pedestal.”
The former student told her mother about her experiences at the school, who later relayed those concerns to other parents. Some parents refused to acknowledge the complaints. Others were “accepting and aware” of what was going on, she said.
Some teachers mentioned in the report were fired from the school after students or parents came forward with complaints. One worked at the school until 2015. Investigators said the “school’s response, or lack thereof, to their misconduct spans decades.”
Nine of the 10 people named as abusers did not participate in the investigation; declining interviews or failing to respond to investigators. One of the accused was also a victim. Three of the alleged abusers — Eric Dennard, Vaughan Keith and Tad Erickson — have died, investigators said.
The Capital is not naming the others because they have not been charged with a crime.
Reports of sexual abuse and harassment of students by teachers did not go unnoticed by school leadership, according to the report.
Ronald Goldblatt — a former headmaster who reported potential child abuse from the 1970s to the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services — told investigators that “there were tradeoffs being made.”
The report found that “highly talented teachers were on some level forgiven for transgressions.” Goldblatt, who was not accused of being involved in the abuse, served from 1989 until 1999.
Another headmaster, David Badger, served for four years in the mid-1970s. He told investigators he was aware to a “surface degree” that teachers hosted parties with students but did not take any action regarding those incidents.
Badger did, however, tell investigators he fired Keith after the English and foreign languages teacher confirmed he had an ongoing relationship with a student. Badger was not among those identified in the report as being involved in the abuse.
A former school admissions employee, Barbara Vaughan, told investigators she confronted a teacher whom she suspected was in a relationship with a student, but “wished she had been stronger” in their interaction. Vaughn also was not among those identified as an abuser.
That teacher was fired in the late-1970s after a parent saw him holding hands with a student.
The Key School was founded in the 1950s by faculty members at St. John’s College. Investigators speculate Key’s culture was modeled after St. John’s, where instructors are encouraged to have close relationships with students.
But parents, students and faculty members were vocal about what they perceived as “unhealthy” and “unprofessional” relationships between teachers and students, according to a fundraising survey the school conducted in 1975.
Board of Trustees members discussed feedback from that survey, but minutes do not indicate officials took any further action.
Key School apologizes
The Key School has made the results of the investigation available to the public. Officials issued an apology to former students who have alleged abuse.
“Reading this report is incredibly difficult. Actions, and inaction, described within are hard to process and have left us in shock and dismay,” said Head of School Matthew Nespole and Board of Trustees President Joe Janney, in a letter sent to the Key community.
“It is clear that adults at Key in the past abused, mistreated and failed to protect children entrusted to them. It is also evident that reports of misconduct from the past, made years later, were neither acknowledged nor addressed as they should have been by previous leadership at the school.”
Key School officials declined an interview request from The Capital.
School officials in a statement said they handed over the report to Anne Arundel County police.
It is unclear what the statute of limitations is regarding the alleged abuse.
“That depends on the specific charges and at this point, we can’t speculate,” said Emily Morse, a spokeswoman for the county State’s Attorney Office.
The Key School has removed a plaque recognizing one of the accused teachers from a school bench and is communicating with the leadership of other schools where former instructors identified as abusers have worked, or are currently working, officials said in a statement.
School leaders have also committed to a “recurring and systematic review of its policies and procedures” regarding misconduct reporting and interactions between students and school employees.
Faculty and staff are trained in partnership with Praesidium, a national firm dedicated to preventing child sex abuse and employee misconduct, administrators said. It is unclear when Key School hired the firm.
Praesidium offers a 24-hour helpline that individuals can use to report suspicious or inappropriate behavior. The helpline is available at 866-607-SAFE (7233).
