TOWSON (MD)
WBALTV 11 [Baltimore, MD]
April 14, 2025
By Tommie Clark
Disturbing details —
New complaints were filed against Calvert Hall College High School on Monday.
Lawyers claim the school failed to protect children from “systemic sexual abuse” by priests, brothers and teachers. They’re accused of grooming and molesting children for decades.
Kit Bateman is one of the plaintiffs coming forward. He said the all-boys Catholic school helped shape him as a person, but that there’s also a dark, painful part of his experience.
“Look at me as a 15-year-old who had his innocence and his Christianity and his faith stolen away from him by a monster, who never has had any accountability — and the institution that allowed it to happen hasn’t either,” said Christopher “Kit” Bateman, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
| READ: Complaint filed against Calvert Hall College High School
Lawyers named five people who were either priests, brothers or teachers. Those named are the Rev. Laurence Brett, the Rev. Jerome Toohey, the Rev. Francis LeFevre, Brother Geoffrey Xavier Langan and Mr. Stephen Arnold.
The five are accused of various forms of rape and assault, with much of the accusations taking place in the 1970s.
Bateman said he was groomed and sexually abused by Brett, who transferred to the school following a report of “molestation of a minor” at another institution.
Examples given in the complaints include the men taking children into private spaces, such as the brothers’ residence, to assault them, among other incidents.
“Students swam naked and were observed through a window in an office that looked directly into the pool by clergy members with a history of abuse, by trusted adults,” said Steve Kelly, a lawyer with Grant & Eisenhofer.
According to the complaints, Calvert Hall ignored the reports, allowed known abusers continued access to students and failed to report the abuse to police. Survivors allege when they did try to speak up, they were dismissed, intimidated or even expelled.
“They knew when they sent you into that confessional what might happen to you, and it did,” Bateman said.
The lawsuits come as a bill heads to the governor’s desk to weaken the Child Victims act. Lawyers are calling on Gov. Wes Moore to veto those changes. The proposed amendments would limit survivors to filing one lawsuit and cap compensation.
“In other words, the legislature has declared that the claims of victims of child rape and abuse are worth less than the claims of those injured in car accidents or slip and falls in a grocery store,” Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin, LLC lawyer Emily Malarkey said.
The rollbacks would go into effect June 1.
In a statement, the governor’s office said:
“Gov. Moore acknowledges the trauma survivors of child sexual assault have endured and the difficult and unprecedented circumstances surrounding this legislation. The general assembly has carefully crafted legislation that will continue to allow the survivors to seek justice while preserving the long-term fiscal stability of the State. The governor will sign this legislation, and he will continue to work with the State Legislature, local leaders, and all partners as he reviews the hundreds of bills put forward this session that will make Maryland safer, more affordable, more competitive, and the state that serves.”
Exclusive: Legal group for victims of child sexual abuse says bill may delay justice for survivors