TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – A 97-page report released Tuesday details decades of alleged sexual misconduct at Interlochen Center for the Arts, a boarding school located south of Traverse City, with incidents spanning from the 1950s through the 2010s and a reference to Jeffrey Epstein, who attended in the 1960s and later became a donor.
Dozens of former students describe allegations ranging from inappropriate comments to rape, according to the report and attorney Matthew Curtis, a senior shareholder at Sommers Schwartz, P.C., who represents several survivors. “It was basically a free-for-all there,” Curtis said, adding, “It was the same thing over and over again.”
One former student, represented by Douglas Fierberg of The Fierberg National Law Group, who asked to remain anonymous, told Local 4 he was nine years old in the junior boys’ camp in 1997 when he says his in-cabin counselor abused him.
“I had almost zero understanding,” said the survivor.
A former student’s story of abuse
The now 38-year-old described arriving excited for what felt like “paradise” in northern Michigan back then, saying it was his “first long-term stay away” from family: four weeks as a piano major “focus[ing] just on a bunch of arts.”
He said there were 12 campers in the cabin and two counselors, but one of the in-cabin male counselors began sexually abusing him.
“The feeling of guilt and the idea that I had done something wrong kicked in pretty quickly,” he said, adding that he knew he wanted to go home.
He said he tried to report what happened while he was still at camp but said he felt dismissed.
“I approached the head junior boys’ counselor… started to tell him what had happened and I was just quickly brushed off,” he said. “I wasn’t able to even finish the story.”
A year later, he said, police called his home after that counselor was arrested in a case involving another student.
“The conversation quickly ended, and I never heard about it again,” he said. “It was completely ignored by the police.”
“You’ve told leadership at the camp, your parents, the police – nothing’s happening. You just bury it,” he told Local 4. “It just becomes like this awful part of your life, and you just move on, except… you’re just a little bit more ruined.”
‘Here we go again’
Attorney and advocate Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse and later identified in the Nassar documentary as “Athlete A,” said the patterns described in the Interlochen report are disturbingly familiar.
“We see survivors who have spoken up, we see red flags, we see breakdowns in the culture and the policies and the structure of these organizations, and we see an organization that repeatedly refused to take responsibility and to act proactively to keep children safe: Here we go again,” Denhollander said.
Denhollander said the response survivors receive when they disclose abuse can also shape the damage that follows.
“The depth of the damage and the ability of a survivor to heal from that abuse is definitively linked to the response they receive when they disclose that abuse,” she said. “It’s everyone around you who is unsafe.”
More allegations detailed in the report
The report does not name survivors and withholds the names of most accused adults. Interlochen said it identified some deceased individuals publicly when investigators received multiple firsthand accounts of repeated conduct and naming them would not impact any law enforcement action.
The report’s initial focus was Byron Hanson, a faculty member and administrator from 1960 to 2015. Investigators received seven independent direct reports of sexual misconduct involving Hanson in the 1960s and 1970s, along with corroborating accounts from other alumni, according to the report.
The report also cites four independent direct reports involving John “Jack” Hood, a faculty member and administrator from 1963 to 1979 who later returned in seasonal roles until 2004, and two independent direct reports involving Charlie McWhorter, a former trustee from 1970 to 1999, along with corroborating accounts from alumni.
In another case, the report names Thomas Clower, an arts faculty member from 2003 to 2005, noting he was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in 2005 after Interlochen reported his conduct to law enforcement and terminated his employment.
Investigators contacted living accused adults, the report says. Some did not respond; some denied claims, and a small number admitted wrongdoing. One accused adult told investigators he became “obsessed” with a former student.
The report also references Epstein. Two former students say Epstein paid for their flights and was frequently inappropriate with them physically. Interlochen said all adults named in the report had ties to the school, and none are currently employed there, and that because the incidents date back to the 1950s, more than one-third of the adults identified are deceased.
Interlochen President Trey Devey responded in a written statement, calling the findings “heartbreaking,” apologizing to those harmed and thanking those who have come forward.
‘This could lead to hundreds of us’
For the anonymous survivor speaking with Local 4, the report raised new concerns about what may not be known—and how many more survivors exist.
“This is 70 people -- recorded, documented. I was never reached out to,” he told Local 4. “This could lead to hundreds of us. What this camp has done is disgusting, and I’d like it to stop.”
Local 4 reached out again to Interlochen Center for the Arts regarding this survivor’s allegations, but has not heard back yet.
Meanwhile, Denhollander and Curtis are both urging the Michigan Legislature to change state law, saying the statute of limitations blocks many survivors from pursuing justice.
Denhollander said research shows that the average age of disclosure for child sexual abuse is between ages 45 and 54, depending on the studies that you look at. She said the gap has been known for years and said it is “long past time to fix it.”
The full 97-page report is available on Interlochen’s website.