Another elite institution, another child harmed, another alleged cover-up. A mother is suing Interlochen Center for the Arts, claiming the prestigious Michigan boarding school expelled her 14-year-old daughter for reporting repeated sexual harassment by an astronomy teacher — rather than investigate the complaints.
This matters because the pattern is unmistakable. A July investigation already uncovered accounts from 70 alumni who say they were sexually assaulted at Interlochen's camp or school dating back to the 1960s. Forty-seven alleged abusers were named in that report — including Jeffrey Epstein. Now a new lawsuit says the school's culture hasn't changed. The institution still protects itself first.
The lawsuit, filed September 16 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan by attorneys Todd Flood and Michael Weaver, names astronomy teacher David Heldreth, Provost Camille Colatosti, Vice Provost Kristina Nichols, and the school's Title IX coordinator as defendants. The harassment allegedly occurred during the 2024-25 school year, when the plaintiff's daughter was a freshman.
According to the complaint, Heldreth physically encroached on the student multiple times, kicking her backpack under her desk and brushing his leg and thigh against her as he passed. He threatened her with failing grades if she did not meet with him alone in his office.
Then came the assignments. Heldreth allegedly gave the girl an extra-credit makeup assignment requiring her to use a protractor to record herself in her bathroom mirror and email the video directly to his personal address — not through school-approved channels. After reviewing the video, he told her she was holding the protractor wrong and needed to attend private office hours alone to review her "hand position and stance."
Another assignment: write a poem titled "Gravity Does Not Ask for Consent." A third required drawing a telescope. When she completed it, Heldreth gave her a zero and told her she would need to meet with him privately to make up the points.
The suit states that instead of protecting the student, the school threatened and then expelled her for making the complaints. The defendants are accused of violating Title IX, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, and Michigan Child Protection Law.
An Interlochen spokesperson called the allegations "baseless." That is the same institution that publicly proclaims its commitment to "providing an environment that is safe, respectful, and enjoyable for all" — while, according to the lawsuit, cultivating "a campus culture that exposes minor children to an alarming and unreasonable risk of sexual assault and sexual harassment that dates back to the 1950s."
M Live covered the lawsuit's specifics in detail. The New York Post, for its part, did not cover this story at all — its feed provided a completely unrelated piece about a Texas shooting. No national outlet appears to have picked up the new Interlochen lawsuit at time of writing.
Seventy alumni. Forty-seven alleged abusers. Epstein's name on the list. And now a 14-year-old girl reportedly expelled for speaking up. The question isn't whether Interlochen has a problem. The question is how long the institution will be allowed to investigate itself — and how many children will be sacrificed before someone with authority steps in.
