MARYLAND SCHOOL SEXUAL ABUSE LAWSUITS

Fighting for Survivors of Student Sexual Abuse in Maryland Schools

If you or someone you love was sexually abused at a school in Maryland, you may have grounds to pursue legal action and financial compensation for your damages.

Thanks to recently passed legislation, survivors of childhood sexual abuse now have unprecedented opportunities to seek justice. Maryland’s new law, which took effect on October 1, 2023, allows survivors who were sexually abused as minors at any time in the past to file civil lawsuits against responsible institutions. This includes public and private schools that failed to protect them.

Levy Konigsberg is a nationally recognized trial practice known for litigating sexual abuse lawsuits. Now, we’re helping a growing number of survivors explore their legal options for bringing Maryland child sexual abuse lawsuits under the state’s new law. If you have a potential case, we want to help.

Sex Abuse Scandals in Maryland Schools

In recent years, schools across Maryland have been embroiled in sex abuse scandals. Through investigations, public record releases, and legal filings, it is clear that these and other schools across the state have struggled with pervasive sexual abuse problems for years, and that school officials have routinely faced claims related to their negligence in protecting students, improper hiring and supervision of employees and teachers, and their failure to adequately respond to allegations.  Some examples include:

Calvert Hall College High School (Towson, Baltimore County)

• In April 2025, lawsuits were filed claiming that 19 people were sexually abused at Calvert Hall College High School, an all-boys Catholic school, between 1969 and 1990.  The lawsuits alleged that Calvert Hall staff ignored and covered up the abuse and failed to properly vet those they hired.

The accused perpetrators include:

• Rev. Laurence Brett
• Rev. Francis “Father Fran” LeFevre
• Rev. Jerome “Father Jeff” Toohey
• Brother Geoffrey Xavier Langan
• An unnamed science teacher

All of the accused were named in the 2023 Maryland Attorney General’s report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

• In April 2025, a woman sued Calvert Hall College High School over alleged abuse perpetrated by Brother Donald Dimitroff who lived and worked at the school from the early ’90s until 2002. Dimitroff allegedly abused the plaintiff when she was 11, turning 12, during tutoring sessions held on campus.  According to the lawsuit, on four occasions during “tutoring sessions,” Dimitroff abused the plaintiff under the purported guise of ensuring that she was not a boy.

Dimitroff was also named credibly accused by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The Talmudical Academy (Pikesville, Baltimore County)

• In April 2025, a former student at the Talmudical Academy, a Jewish Orthodox boarding school, filed a lawsuit over alleged sexual abuse perpetrated against him from 1971 to 1974 when he was 14 to 17 years old. Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro, a former dormitory counselor at the school, allegedly groomed, raped and sexually abused the victim for several years. The school allegedly rehired Shapiro in 1972, even though he had been accused of abusing minors during the 1960s.  The school also allegedly allowed the victim to leave campus unsupervised, where he was allegedly raped by a driver while hitchhiking to a store.

McDonogh School (Owings Mills, Baltimore County)

• In March 2025, over a dozen former students of the McDonogh School in Baltimore County accused former school leaders of sexual abuse dating back to the 1960s. Former Dean, Alvin Levy, former Spanish teacher, Robert Creed, and two other staff members allegedly sexually abused them between the 1960s and 1980s. The school allegedly was aware of the abuse but failed to protect students.

• In June 2019, officials at the McDonogh School sent students home with a letter detailing the results of an external investigation regarding sexual abuse claims. According to the letter, the investigation found evidence that at least five former faculty members sexually assaulted two dozen students over several decades, including Levy and Creed. According to the investigation, Levy and Creed allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with at least 19 male students over a period of four decades and three other male former faculty members allegedly sexually assaulted five female students between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s.

Northeast High School (Pasadena, Anne Arundel County)

• In July 2023, Karl Houston Walls, a former teacher at Northeast High School in Pasadena, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing two students. In addition to incidents that occurred on school property, Walls is also accused of holding a knife against one of the victims.

Gilman School (Roland Park, Baltimore County)

• In February 2023, Chris Bendann, a former teacher at Gilman School in Roland Park, was indicted on 16 counts of sexual abuse, rape, and other sexual offenses involving a minor. Bendann, who taught social studies at the private, all-boys school from 2007 to 2023, is accused of sexually harassing and molesting a student between 2016-2019 and engaging in inappropriate behavior with other students. Just two years prior, two other Gilman School employees were accused of sexually abusing students after an investigative report revealed instances dating back to the 1950s in which school officials failed to report abusive staff despite being aware of allegations. The report includes findings that former science teacher and baseball coach Dr. Martin Meloy abused at least 13 students during his tenure, and that Thomas Offutt, a Gilman employee from 1954 to 1956 and member of a prominent business family, abused at least seven students.

Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Montgomery County)

• In June 2022, Kirkland Shipley, a former teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, pleaded guilty to charges of sexually abusing a student and possessing sexually explicit material of a former student. According to the DOJ, evidence showed that between May 2014 and June 2018, Shipley sexually abused a female student on at least two occasions at his D.C. home while he was her teacher and rowing coach and exchanged explicit videos and pictures with the student beginning in 2013. Shipley had worked at Walt Whitman since 2001.

Key School (Annapolis, Anne Arundel County)

• In January 2019, an investigation into the Key School in Annapolis found that the private school fostered a “toxic culture” in which 10 teachers and school employees sexually abused female students in the 1970s. The investigation, which was launched after multiple former students stepped forward with claims that they were sexually abused by teachers in the 1970s, also found that faculty members, administrators, and board members who were aware of the abuse chose not to intervene and failed to protect students.

W.C. Moffett School (Barclay, Queen Anne’s County)

• In December 2018, Russell Isaac was arrested on multiple counts of rape and other sex offenses related to his sexual abuse of two female students at the W.C. Moffett School in Barclay in Queen Anne’s County in the late 1960s. Both students were assaulted by Moffett between 1966 and 1968 when he was principal of the school, and authorities suspect that there are other victims.

LK is Investigating Sexual Abuse Claims in Maryland Schools

Levy Konigsberg is investigating cases of sexual abuse and assault that occurred at Maryland Schools. 

You may have a potential claim if you were sexually abused in these or any other Maryland schools:

• Calvert Hall College High School (Towson, Baltimore County)
• The Talmudical Academy (Pikesville, Baltimore County)
• McDonogh School (Owings Mills, Baltimore County)
• Northeast High School (Pasadena, Anne Arundel County)
• Gilman School (Roland Park, Baltimore City)
• Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Montgomery County)
• Key School (Annapolis, Anne Arundel County)
• W.C. Moffett School (Barclay, Queen Anne’s County)

Do I Have a Case?

You may have grounds to file a civil legal action if:

• You were sexually abused by a teacher or staff at a school.
• The abuse occurred at any school.

Levy Konigsberg represents survivors in civil lawsuits that aim to hold schools accountable for their failures to stop abusive teachers and staff.

As civil claims, these cases are separate from any criminal proceedings that may arise from abuse and focus instead on holding institutions liable for damages. This means you may still have a claim even if:

• Your abuser is no longer alive.
• Your abuser was never charged with or convicted of a crime.

Recoverable Damages in Sexual Abuse Claims

In addition to providing accountability and a sense of justice, civil sex abuse lawsuits allow survivors to recover financial compensation for their damages, which may include:

• Past medical and mental health expenses
• Future mental health expenses, including therapy, medications, etc.
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional anguish and psychological harm
• Lost income
• Other economic and non-economic damages

Maryland Sexual Abuse Attorneys

Maryland has been a frontrunner in passing legislation that greatly expands the rights of sexual abuse survivors – and especially survivors of child sexual abuse.

Thanks to the Child Victims Act, which was signed into law in April 2023 by Governor Wes Moore, survivors who were sexually abused as minors in Maryland now have unprecedented opportunities to pursue justice against their abusers and any institutions that failed to protect them.

Here are some key details about Child Victims Act of 2023:

• The CVA eliminates the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits based on child sexual abuse, which means that there is no deadline by which survivors must initiate legal action.
• The CVA creates an unlimited lookback period that allows child sexual abuse survivors to file lawsuits over abuse that occurred at any time in the past, even if such claims were barred by the previous statute of limitations.

The Child Victims Act went into effect on October 1, 2023, and prison and juvenile detention systems with long histories of child sexual abuse are seeing a growing number claims brought by survivors abused years and decades ago.

While Maryland has significantly revised state laws regarding the statute of limitations for civil suits brought by child sexual abuse laws, it has not done so for claims brought by adult survivors.

Under Maryland state law, if the victim was an adult at the time of the abuse, the statute of limitations for filing a civil lawsuit is 3 years from the date of the abuse – no matter if the claim if brought against the alleged abuse or an institution.

Given the 3-year statute of limitations for adult sexual abuse lawsuits, it is advised that survivors with potential claims seek legal counsel as soon as possible.

Determining the statute of limitations that applies to your sexual abuse case against a Maryland school can be challenging, which is why it is best to bring your matter to the attention of an experienced lawyer.

We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our society and seeking justice for survivors of sexual abuse in schools. Our experienced team is dedicated to providing legal representation and support to survivors, and we are actively investigating allegations of abuse. We are working tirelessly to ensure that survivors have access to justice and that future generations of young people are safe from harm within these institutions.