Brentwood Academy Accused Of Covering Up Sexual Assaults

BRENTWOOD, TN — A 12-year-old Brentwood Academy student was repeatedly raped by older classmates and the tony private school refused to report it, according to a lawsuit filed late last week.

According to the lawsuit filed by the mother of the then-12-year-old male victim — the boy is identified as John Doe in the suit, his mother as Jane Done — four then-eighth-graders raped, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed her son in the 2014-15 academic year. When Jane Doe broached the topic with BA administrators, she was told by her son's counselor "this isn't how Christian institutions handle these things" and the school's headmaster Curtis G. Masters told John Doe " "everything in God's kingdom happens for a reason" and "turn the other cheek."

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In addition to Brentwood Academy itself, defendants in the suit are Masters, middle school athletic director Buddy Alexander, middle school director Nancy Brasher, assistant basketball coach Lyle Husband and sixth-grade basketball coach Mike Vazquez.

The details of five assaults are laid out in the lawsuit filed with the Williamson County Circuit Court.

It began at a party following a football game, where students are accused of restraining John Doe, placing their buttocks on his face and their scrotums on or in his mouth.

The other four incidents all occurred in an unsupervised locker room, according to the lawsuit, with two boys holding the locker room door closed during the attacks. The lawsuit says one boy would force his penis into John Doe's mouth saying "eat it, eat it, eat it, open your mouth, accept it." The same boy allegedly placed his penis into the buttocks of John Doe and later bragged about the sexual assault, telling members of the basketball team he "f----- that boy up the ass and stuck a Gatorade bottle in him."

Jane Doe learned of the assaults from another parent, who had been told about them by her child.

Jane Doe then approached counselor Chris Roberts, an employee of Christian counseling ministry Daystar Counseling and a former BA employee. He is accused of not reporting the assault accusations to law enforcement or state children's services officials and telling Jane Doe "this isn't how a Christian institution handles these things." Roberts did not disclose the assaults to the Department of Children's Services. Does parents did report the incidents to DCS in Roberts' presence, according to the complaint.

Later, Brasher claimed that the attacks were fictional because the four students accused in them were banned from the locker room in January 2015, according to the suit. She also allegedly said John Doe was culpable because he did not properly report the attacks which Brasher said could not have happened.

Jane Doe claims that during an April 20 meeting with Brasher and Masters, the headmaster called the assault claims "boys being boys" and said he could not investigate them and run a school simultaneously. Later, one of the boys admitted to some of the attacks to Masters, who then told Jane Doe two of the boys were “separated from the BA community,” according to the lawsuit. Masters gave one of the other students in-school suspension, according to the suit. A fourth student had retained a lawyer, Masters told the Does, and said "we can't touch him."

In a statement emailed to The Tennessean, Masters said BA's "highest priority is the safety and protection of our students."

"We take any allegation involving our students very seriously. We responded immediately and fully cooperated with authorities when we became aware of concerns in 2015. We are obligated to maintain confidentiality in any legal matter. Out of respect for all parties involved, and based on the advice of our legal counsel, we are unable to discuss details at this time," the statement continues.

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