The Interlochen Center for the Arts, which operates a summer camp and a performing arts school for international students, launched an investigation in 2024 after receiving reports of sexual abuse by faculty and staff.
Investigation Expansion and Findings
Subsequently, the inquiry was expanded to include information related to Jeffrey Epstein, the 66-year-old financier who committed suicide in prison in 2019. Interlochen had removed Epstein's name from a lodging facility after his conviction for sexual crimes in Florida in 2008. This building, renamed Green Lake Lodge, was recently demolished after the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of pages of documents concerning the financier accumulated over the years.
The law firm Sanghavi reported collecting 70 testimonies from former students who alleged they suffered 'sexual physical conduct' from 47 members of the Interlochen faculty and staff, spanning the period from 1950 to 2010, with the majority predating 2000. A 97-page report details that the former students reported situations of manipulation, flirting, sexual touching, and sexual acts.
Institutional Response and Measures Taken
Interlochen communicated that it provided the names of individuals accused of misconduct to the authorities of Grand Traverse County, located in northern Michigan, so that appropriate actions could be determined. It was found that none of these individuals still work at the institution, and more than one-third of them have since passed away.
In a letter to the community, President Trey Davey and Board President Barrett Rollins expressed deep regret for the suffering experienced by community members and apologized to those affected by the abuse at Interlochen. They emphasized that despite most incidents occurring decades ago and reports decreasing over the last 25 years, the passage of time does not diminish the former students' experiences. The leaders reinforced that sexual abuse committed by an adult in a position of power or trust against a student is unacceptable, regardless of the time.
Davey and Rollins stated that the current Interlochen is 'fundamentally different from the institution described in this report,' possessing robust safety policies and a transformed culture.
Specific Allegations Against Epstein
Epstein, who played bassoon, was at the Interlochen camp in 1967 and contributed over $400,000 to the school between 1990 and 2003. Two women reported to investigators that Epstein engaged in sexual conduct with them. According to one of their accounts, in the Interlochen lodging named after him, Epstein brushed his body against her clothes in a manner that appeared accidental, according to the report. Furthermore, Epstein financed a trip for her to New York while she was a student. The student reported that whenever he was 'tactile' with her, she would become paralyzed until he stopped the contact.
The second woman mentioned giving Epstein a massage at his residence, during which he requested that she remove the top part of her clothing. After this event, she ceased contact with both Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Additionally, outside the school's internal investigation, at least two former Interlochen students alleged being victims of grooming and abuse by Epstein and Maxwell, according to federal records and journalistic reports. The identities of these women were not publicly disclosed, but one of them testified against Maxwell in 2021 when she was convicted of sex trafficking. It was unclear whether these women participated in the investigation conducted by the law firm hired by Interlochen.
