Second former Concordia Preparatory School student files federal lawsuit alleging sexual assault complaints were ignored

A former Concordia Preparatory School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Towson private school and the governing body of the Lutheran Church ignored her reports of sexual assault and harassment on campus.

The Harford County woman, who was a minor at the time of the allegations, filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court arguing Concordia administrators and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod failed to investigate her reports and discriminated against her when she spoke out.

According to the suit, the then-high school student and her mother, who was a teacher at Concordia at the time, say school administrators suspended the girl and threatened to inform another school -- to which she was attempting to transfer -- of the punishment if they continued to speak of the assaults.

Concordia and Lutheran church officials did not respond to a Thursday afternoon request for comment. Concordia is formerly known as Baltimore Lutheran School and is affiliated with the church.

The complaint follows a similar lawsuit filed Oct. 28 by the family of another former student, stating that Concordia’s administrators and staff failed to investigate when a sexually explicit video of the underage girl -- taken without her consent -- was circulated around the student body. Male students then repeatedly harassed the teen, who was later sexually assaulted in a religion class and a locker room, the suit states.

Concordia officials denied the allegations in the Oct. 28 lawsuit and plan to “vigorously defend against it,” school spokeswoman Jane Ponton said in an email last week. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is not named as a defendant in the suit.

Asked about the allegations in the Oct. 28 complaint, Baltimore County police said they are reopening an investigation “based on the new information.”

Appellants in both lawsuits are represented by Christina Graziano of Ketterer, Browne & Anderson. The Sun typically does not identify victims of sexual assault.

The latest complaint says the incidents began around spring of 2019 when three members of the boys soccer team began routinely making sexually explicit comments and gestures toward the girl during class, at sports functions and on social media during school hours.

The girl repeatedly reported the harassment to a teacher, who told her that she would take care of it and that “everything would be fine.”

Around the same time, a male football player also made similar comments to the girl in front of her mother, who was his teacher. The girl and her mother both reported the incident to the headmaster, who, according to the lawsuit, instructed them to “leave it alone” and discouraged the girl from further reporting the conduct.

Around March 2019 on two different occasions, two soccer players assaulted the girl by putting their hands up her skirt during an anatomy class. And another male student grabbed the girl’s arm and forced her hand against his genitals during a math class, according to the suit.

The girl reported the math class assault to her teacher the same day, the suit says, and another male student who witnessed the incident corroborated the report to Concordia administrators.

Following the math class assault, the lawsuit says the girl was pulled out of class in front of her classmates to attend meetings in the administrative offices every day for about a week. Concordia administrators failed to report the assault to state or local authorities, failed to conduct an investigation or take action against the boys, the lawsuit states.

The girl began attending school virtually to avoid the boys and other Concordia students who were bullying her for speaking out against the athletes. She and her mother soon decided to seek out another high school to attend during her senior year.

Around the same time, administrators and the headmaster called a meeting with the girl and informed her that she was suspended for one day. According to the lawsuit, the headmaster told the girl and her mother that if she continued to speak out about the assaults she would jeopardize the soccer players' college athletics scholarships. He also warned that if they continued to speak out, he would inform her intended transfer school of the suspension, threatening her admissions chances, according to the suit.

The lawsuit also describes a clash between the administration and several staff members, who expressed concerned about allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

A Concordia school psychologist abruptly left her position around 2017 after repeated clashes with the school headmaster, who, according to the suit, refused to allow her to implement mandatory reporting policies for sexual assault cases.

And a group of teachers -- including the student’s mother -- reported concerns over the administration’s treatment of sexual assault and harassment on campus to Concordia’s board of directors, but no action was taken. The group also shared their concerns with administrators during monthly “all-faculty” meetings, according to the filing.

During the 2018-19 school year, Lutheran church officials sent a crisis management team to Concordia, who instituted “gag orders” on staff members. The lawsuit does not describe what the gag orders covered. Several teachers left their jobs at Concordia at the conclusion of the school year in protest of the administration’s response, the lawsuit states.

While Maryland law requires certain classes of people -- including educators -- to report suspected child abuse by a guardian, the law does not necessarily apply to a child victimized by a peer, said Adam Rosenberg, an attorney and executive director of the Baltimore Child Abuse Center.

“That’s the gray area of mandated reporting,” Rosenberg said. “But I think there’s a social contract there that they should report it based on the fact that [schools are] custodians of our children.”

Some educational institutions tend to treat sex crimes differently than other crimes reported on campuses. For example, while school officials would most likely call police if a body was found on campus, they may not pick up the phone in cases of sexual assault and harassment, Rosenberg said.

“Sometimes we find that schools want to undertake their own investigation before reporting abuse,” Rosenberg said. “More often than not, they’re not equipped to do it. They end up asking leading questions, intentionally or unintentionally covering up the incident to protect the school."

The former Concordia Preparatory student claims in the lawsuit she has been treated for anxiety and depression and is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.

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