KBA’s Clients Sue Concordia Preparatory School in Federal Court
KBA is representing a sex assault and sex harassment survivor in a lawsuit against Concordia Preparatory School. The school is in Towson (Baltimore County) Maryland. Its former name is Baltimore Lutheran School.
KBA’s sexual assault practice group, routinely takes on these kinds of cases. Our attorneys litigate Catholic Church sex abuse, other religious order sex abuse, Boy Scout, and other institutional sex abuse cases. The media has covered KBA’s work fighting for survivors in the recent past.
KBA attorney Christina Graziano is litigating this case, Hartsoe v. Concordia Preparatory School, in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, federal court. The case is pending in the Northern District in Baltimore City.
As Baltimore Sun journalist Lillian Reed reported, the survivor and relative filed a lawsuit alleging that the private Towson school ignored reports that she was repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted on campus.
The lawsuit alleges Concordia Preparatory School ignored harassment and assault complaints, and failed to report them
KBA’s clients allege that Concordia Preparatory School failed to investigate and address several events. First, students circulated an unauthorized sexually explicit video of the underage girl around the school. Plaintiffs’ Complaint in federal court alleges Concordia Preparatory School’s agents became aware of it, but failed to act. Then, male students began harassing the girl. Some male students sexually assaulted her in a religion class and later in a locker room. Despite being informed, Concordia Preparatory School failed to address these events.
As Fox45News summarized the Complaint, “male students ‘had escalated the Locker Room tradition by using that space as a venue for forced sexual encounters with female students. CPS knew or should have known that students used the Locker Room as a venue for sexual harassment and/or statutory rape and secured CPS facilities that students used as ‘hook-up’ spots or venues for sexual behavior. CPS took no significant action to investigate this allegation or any other instances of alleged aggressive sexual behavior by its male students.'” The lawsuit alleges Concordia Preparatory School was aware of the event, but failed to protect Plaintiff and report the events.
Baltimore County Police are re-investigating the events at Concordia Preparatory School
The survivor reached out to the police in real time. Some police investigated, but were unaware of specific information. Now that they have it, they are re-opening the investigation.
KBA expects this lawsuit to not be the last
Since the aforementioned and other reports of the lawsuit, many people have come forward. KBA’s investigation found not only support for this survivor’s claims, but also other disturbing allegations regarding others at the school. As Ms. Reed of the Sun reported, “The student’s family believes the Concordia officials’ inaction was ‘in keeping with the culture there,’ (quoting KBA attorney Christina Graziano). This culture persisted allegedly for years and distressed several people. KBA’s client “wants to be the last girl that this happens to,” as Attorney Graziano explained to the Baltimore Sun.