An arts school where Epstein allegedly preyed on students reveals decades of abuse
August 10, 20265:00 AM ET, Heard on All Things Considered
By Ava Berger, 5-Minute Listen, Transcript
Paul Busch was 16 years old when he was sexually abused by his ballet teacher at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in 2005. At the time, Busch told NPR, he was living away from his parents, wanted more than anything to be a professional dancer and revered the teacher who harmed him.
Busch is sharing his experience publicly for the first time after spending 21 years reckoning with what happened to him at the Michigan boarding school.
“A lot of my desire was to prove that I was enough,” Busch said. “That I was good enough and that I was worthy of love.” He said that “this was the perfect condition” for someone to prey on him.
His story reflects the larger themes of a sweeping independent report, released last month, that details decades of sexual abuse allegations on the campus of the prestigious arts boarding school and summer camp.
In the report, former Interlochen students recount some 70 allegations of sexual abuse by nearly 50 adults who were employed or affiliated with the school from the 1950s to the 2010s. It’s a stark contrast to the longtime idyllic image of Interlochen, which helped launch the careers of performers such as Josh Groban, Norah Jones, Chappell Roan, Felicity Huffman and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The report offers a window into the conditions that contributed to the abuse. In many cases, it says, adults were able to have one-on-one interactions with students, while the children at the school had limited communication with their families and were vulnerable due to age, sexual identity and lack of experience. And, it says, some were scared to report what happened to them.
The report includes allegations of sexual abuse by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an alumni and benefactor, and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. NPR reported in February that Epstein met and recruited two young teenagers on the campus. But the allegations go far beyond the disgraced financier, who died in prison in 2019.
National
How Epstein and Maxwell used an elite Midwest arts school to prey on girls
Interlochen hired Sanghavi Law Office in 2024 to investigate abuse at the school after an alumna came forward about her experience in the 1970s regarding a longtime faculty member and administrator.
In a letter to the community released alongside the report, Interlochen said that today it is “fundamentally different from the institution described in this report.” In a statement to NPR, the school described safety measures it has put in place to protect students and a network of resources, including a team of school counselors, social workers and a psychologist.
But for Busch, the response from Interlochen is not enough.
“They get to say, ‘Case closed,'” he said. “That is completely unacceptable because — guess what? — my life is still open.”
Together, Busch’s perspective and the report’s observations shed light on a decades-long history of sexual abuse at a school that was built for children and teenagers who aspire to be artists but were often unprotected, due to what the report called “gaps in oversight” and a “permissive environment.”
Read more: An arts school where Epstein allegedly preyed on students reveals decades of abuse – NPR
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