An investigation into allegations at Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts revealed rampant sexual abuse by leadership, including late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
An external investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the Interlochen Center for the Arts n Michigan revealed a massive sexual exploitation ring that led to the abuse of over 70 alumni who reported misconduct from the school’s leadership. Among those are at least two accounts of alleged abuse and misconduct related to the late and notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was a major donor to the center between 1990 and 2003, and attended the center’s summer camp himself in his youth in 1967. A building at the camp was named after him: Epstein Lodge, which was renamed after his criminal conviction in 2008. This past May, it was announced that the building itself would be razed.
Interlochen previously said it conducted an internal review of its records following Epstein’s conviction in 2008 and again after new charges were filed in 2019. In both cases, Interlochen said it found no reports of misconduct at the school involving Epstein. But the external investigation reveals that this is inaccurate.
Notably, the majority of the cases in the report involve administrators, faculty members, and resident life staff members ranging between the 1960s and the 2010s. Most of the alleged abuse took place between the ‘70s and the ‘90s. Four instances were reported as starting after 2000. 47 adults were implicated in total, but the report also asserts that comments directed at students of a sexual nature were prevalent at the school across staff, trustees, and guest artists.
One alum who attended in the ‘70s said in the report that “romantic, sexually intimate relationships between faculty and students were well-known, tolerated, and/or ‘certainly obvious to Interlochen staff, […] who had the responsibility of approving/signing out students to spend time with faculty after curfew or overnight.”
“She wrote that these staff members ‘did not act in a vacuum, but represented a lax environment that allowed a number of male faculty and instructors to act on their basest instincts with impunity,’” the report states.
Accompanying the report was a letter from President Trey Devey and Chair of the Board Barrett Rollins, who expressed gratitude to alumni who came forward to share their stories with investigators. The investigation was led by a team from Sanghavi Law Office.
“On behalf of Interlochen, we are deeply sorry for the harm experienced by members of our community and extend our apologies to those impacted by abuse at Interlochen,” wrote Devey and Rollins. “We also want to say clearly: Interlochen will not tolerate predators or those who enable them. Our campus exists to protect, educate, and empower every student.”
