UNC School of the Arts settles lawsuit alleging decades of sexual abuse

Editor’s note: This story repeats details of sexual assault allegations that may be disturbing to some readers.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts has settled a lawsuit with dozens of alumni accusing former officials there of allowing faculty to sexually abuse, harass and exploit students at the prestigious arts school.

The University of North Carolina System and the School of the Arts agreed to pay about 65 alumni a total of $12.5 million over four years. The UNC System will cover $10 million of the settlement and the school will cover the rest. The money will be divided among alumni based on factors such as the nature and duration of the abuse, said a lawyer representing the alumni.

“This has undoubtedly been a dark time for UNCSA,” Chancellor Brian Cole said in a statement

“We recognize the courage it took for these alumni to share their experiences,” Cole said, “and are committed to doing everything we can to continually strengthen an environment of safety and trust at UNCSA.”

The lawsuit alleges that throughout most of the school’s history from the 1960s to the 2010s, teachers sexually abused and exploited students as school administrators “willfully turned a blind eye” to egregious and outrageous behavior.

During this time, some teachers invited students to their homes and served them alcohol. Some developed what they portrayed as sexual relationships, but in reality they were sexual abuse that left students confused and traumatized for years, the lawsuit says.

Students as young as 12 entering the elite Winston-Salem campus had to contend with personal hygiene and sexual attention from teachers and mentors. Abusers often had power over students and could decide who could stay in their programs, enabling them to become musicians, dancers, and filmmakers through connections and attention.

“Despite clear commitments to the boys and girls who chose to attend the school, defendant administrators instead permitted, participated in, encouraged, permitted, perpetuated, and/or tolerated a culture of sexual abuse and exploitation.” , the lawsuit says.

The inaction potentially harmed hundreds of UNCSA students and students at other schools who were harmed by teachers who quietly walked off campus, the lawsuit says.

“While this resolution cannot heal the wounds of the past, I sincerely hope that through it the survivors who have come forward will feel our commitment to listen to them, recognize them and do what is right for them,” Cole said.

The UNC School of the Arts provides tremendous benefit to the state, UNC System President Peter Hans said in a statement.

“The commitment to acknowledge and make amends for past mistakes is exactly what we should expect from our public institutions,” Hans said.

From seven accusers to 65

The lawsuit was originally filed in September 2021 by seven alumni who were enrolled in dance at the school on the UNC System’s arts campus in the 1980s. The plaintiffs were represented by Gloria Allred, a California-based attorney known nationally for representing abuse survivors, and North Carolina-based Lanier Law Group.

Over time, more plaintiffs came forward with reports of employee mistreatment and became defendants. The defendants include around 20 mostly former employees, some of whom have died.

Opened in 1965 as the nation’s first public art conservatory, UNCSA houses both high school and college students on a 75-acre campus in Winston Salem. It remains one of the best arts campuses in the country.

Some teachers regularly touched students’ breasts, buttocks and groin areas to force them to stand upright or jump higher, the lawsuit says. Drawing on the plaintiffs’ stories, the lawsuit describes several instances in which various teachers touched, attempted to sexually touch or had sex with students.

They include Richard Kuch and Richard Gain, dance instructors who invited underage students off campus and sexually abused them, in one case leaving a student with bruises and bite marks on his chest.

“This resolution marks the end of a decades-long journey for these former UNCSA students,” said Lisa Lanier, an attorney for the alumni.

Previous allegations

The school faced similar allegations in the 1990s.

One of the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit, Christopher Soderlund, filed a lawsuit of his own in 1995 that sparked widespread criticism of UNCSA.

Soderlund said Kuch and Gain sexually abused him after he enrolled in 1983 at age 15.

Teachers groomed him until Gain took Soderlund to the Yadkin County farmhouse he shared with Kuch in 1984, plied him with alcohol and had sex with him, Soderlund’s lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, it was the first of several sexual assaults that Söderlund endured out of fear of losing his position at the school and other potential support from the men.

Their relationship was well known in college, but no one intervened, according to the lawsuit.

Soderlund complained to ballet teacher Duncan Noble, who said he, too, would have liked to have sex with Soderlund, as he alleged in his lawsuit.

Kuch and Gain resigned before they faced a disciplinary hearing or the outcome of a special commission appointed by the UNC Board of Governors the same year the lawsuit was filed to investigate UNCSA’s culture.

Kuch and Gain denied the allegations in a statement of claim.

Legal challenges

A judge dismissed Soderland’s 1995 lawsuit because he was over 21, which was the state’s statute of limitations for child abuse lawsuits at the time.

However, a change in the law allowed former UNCSA students to file suit, but the law may not stand up to legal scrutiny.

In October 2019, state legislatures passed the SAFE Child Act, which temporarily paused the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits from January 2020 to December 2021.

UNCSA Commission

The 1995 commission encouraged students and alumni to report abuse but never publicly named the accused faculty.

Following the investigation, the commission denied a widespread pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior between staff and students.

“However, there is evidence that at various times, particularly in the decade of 1980, some employees engaged in behavior that is intolerable and that must not occur in the future,” the commission’s final report said.

Following the commission’s recommendations, the school banned all relationships between teachers and students and committed to protecting students from retaliation after reporting abuse.

The commission’s findings incorrectly stated that most of the alleged perpetrators had left school.

Interviews with former members of the school community and unreleased documents revealed that 24 staff members were accused of harassing or having relationships with students, a News & Observer and Charlotte Observer investigation found.

Of the 13 who were still working for the school in 1995, at least 12 remained for several years after the investigation, the reports show. Five of those were still on the school’s roster as of October 2021. Five accused faculty members told the newspapers that they were never told of the allegations against them and were never given an opportunity to respond.

Documents also show that the commission was originally tasked with referring some allegations to university officials or legal authorities, but public records do not indicate it has done so.

Former teacher convicted

In the lawsuit, former UNCSA students also accused Stephen Shipps of sexual exploitation.

Shipps taught at UNCSA but accepted a position at the University of Michigan in 1989. His conduct during his employment there led to federal criminal charges.

A former student told investigators that Shipps took her to New York twice while she was employed in Michigan and sexually abused her in 2002, when she was 16.

In April 2022, a federal judge sentenced Shipps to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of human trafficking of minors.

Three women who studied with Shipps in North Carolina say he molested them on campus and at his home when they were teenagers, The Observer and The N&O reported.

Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the non-profit organization The Just Trust. The N&O retains full editorial control over its journalism.