Brentwood Academy Rape Lawsuit: School, Defendants Respond

BRENTWOOD, TN — Claims that top Brentwood Academy officials covered-up the alleged rape of a 12-year-old boy are "designed to harm the reputation of the school and its employees," the private school says.

The exclusive private school and six of its employees named as defendants officially filed responses late last week to a lawsuit that claims the school ignored allegations a 12-year-old was raped in a locker room during the 2014-15 academic year.

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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 Doe — 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."

In his response, Masters denied that Jane Doe ever told him that John Doe was raped. He said that in April 2015, a parent who had spoken to Jane Doe relayed concerns she had about "misconduct" in the locker room. Masters said he called Jane Doe, who did not report to him that her son had been raped.

Masters admitted he had not interviewed any students about the alleged incident when he met with Jane Doe and John Doe's father April 20, 2015, because of concerns an internal investigation might overlap with a concurrent Department of Children's Services investigation. Masters says interviews with students, however, began that day, but stopped April 22 under instructions from Brentwood Police, which began its own investigation.

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According to the Doe's suit, there were five instances of sexual assault or rape.

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."

In addition to Masters, middle school athletic director Buddy Alexander, middle school director Nancy Brasher, assistant basketball coach Lyle Husband and sixth-grade basketball coach Mike Vazquez are named as defendants.

"We are committed to addressing any allegation of sexual harassment and bullying, and it’s important for you to know that at no time before or during our investigation into misconduct did anyone report that a rape occurred," BA said in a statement issued Saturday. "In fact, no such accusation was ever made to us by the plaintiffs until this lawsuit seeking monetary damages was filed more than two years later."

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