Third group of UNC School of the Arts alumni sue, alleging faculty sexually abused them
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UNC School of the Arts sex abuse claims
Alumni say they were sexually abused while students at UNC School of the Arts. A Charlotte Observer and News & Observer investigation found no evidence that the campus aggressively investigated similar claims when it had the chance. Here is ongoing coverage of the situation.
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Just days before the end of North Carolina’s two-year window for child sex abuse survivors of all ages to sue, 17 more plaintiffs have joined a lawsuit against the state’s most prominent arts school.
A total of 56 alumni included their claims against the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. They say the school ignored evidence of staff sexually abusing students, many of them while enrolled in the school’s high school program.
Their allegations span most of the school’s history, from the 1960s to the 2010s.
Alumni named five new defendants, accusing former instructors Ronald Borror of raping a 16-year-old music student and Lesley Hunt of telling a student she “should not be a crybaby” when the student told her that another teacher had forced himself into her dormitory and sexually assaulted her.
Mark Pirolo, one new defendant accused of failing to intervene after learning that colleagues had abused children, on Wednesday said he heard rumors but didn’t have the power to do more than stop assigning students to work with two of the school’s most infamous teachers, Richard Kuch and Richard Gain.
“We hear things,” said Pirolo, who taught design when he worked at the school. “But I wasn’t in a position to call anyone on the carpet on any of it.”
That study also gathered allegations against over 20 staff members, but the school said it has has no records showing that they were investigated or disciplined further. Some of the accused told The Charlotte Observer and News & Observer that they’d never been interviewed about the allegations.
The lawsuit’s allegations build on an original filing from earlier this year, in which a handful of plaintiffs who’d studied dance in the 1980s described teachers making sexual comments and touching them inappropriately during class, and in some cases sexually assaulting them outside of the studio. Since then, plaintiffs’ attorneys Gloria Allred and Lisa Lanier have urged fellow graduates to join the case.
Many of those who added their stories described years of emotional fallout. Some said the trauma ruined their love of the arts, while others described strained marriages, mental illness or suicide attempts.
One of the original plaintiffs had sued the school in 1995. His story of being groomed by Kuch and Gain as a teen prompted the UNC system to investigate other abuse allegations at the school, and the two teachers resigned before a disciplinary hearing. But the deadline for him to sue – then set just three years after a child sex abuse survivor turned 18 – had already passed, and courts dismissed his case.
His participation in this lawsuit is made possible by a provision of the 2019 SAFE Child Act, which temporarily nullified the usual deadline – a plaintiff’s 28th birthday, in most cases – for filing child sex abuse lawsuits in North Carolina.
Most plaintiffs have filed suit using their real names but some identify themselves as Jane or John Doe.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Bobby Jenkins said he expects a class-action bid in the state Industrial Commission to allow more clients to sue the school itself even in the new year. But that won’t let them add more abusers as defendants in the case, he said, so he’s urged alumni who wish to join to do so before the window snaps shut Dec. 31.
A three-judge panel in Wake County ruled last week that the constitution prohibited legislators from retroactively changing the statute of limitation, but Jenkins – who argued before the judges – said he plans to appeal the decision.
Several states with lookback windows have seen similar constitutional challenges, but the majority of them have let the law stand, according to Marci Hamilton, who advocates for legislation through her think tank CHILD USA. It focuses on eradicating child abuse and neglect.
In the meantime, plaintiffs’ attorneys are urging their clients to stick with cases and get filings in before the year-end deadline in hopes that the opinion will be overruled. While other states have faced similar constitutional challenges to window laws, most state courts sided with plaintiffs.
Observer reporter Ames Alexander contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Third group of UNC School of the Arts alumni sue, alleging faculty sexually abused them."
