Two former Lawrenceville School housemasters accused of sexual abuse with underage victims
One of New Jersey’s most prestigious private boarding schools is exploring decades-old allegations about a former dormitory leader at the institution accused of forcing students to do naked exercises following showers.
The Lawrenceville School hired an investigative firm after allegations surfaced against former teacher and housemaster Bruce Presley.
The school also disclosed sexual-misconduct claims against other former teachers, including previously unknown teacher-sex accusations involving the husband of a former Pennington School teacher charged last year with having sex with a student.
The Lawrenceville School released a statement to The Trentonian acknowledging the probe into Presley following an explosive report that appeared in the South Florida Gay News (SFGN), an alternative weekly newspaper in the Sunshine State.
“Mr. Presley’s conduct towards our former students is abhorrent, unacceptable, and contrary to all the values of Lawrenceville,” the school said. “We offer our heartfelt sympathy and apologies to those affected by his behavior. We are in contact with several victims, and are committed to working with them (and any others who may come forward) to address their mistreatment by Mr. Presley.”
Presley, now a philanthropist and entrepreneur in South Florida who had been featured in a major U.S. newspaper over his real-estate interests, was employed by the school from 1960 to 1984, during which he repeatedly ordered students to perform naked pushups while he watched as some form of twisted punishment for them acting out in school.
The New York Times reported Presley once ran the Lawrenceville Press, which was part of the New Jersey boarding school where he taught. Presley now runs a company that produces videos for the LGBT community.
Presley, a former board member of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives and board member of the South Florida Symphony Orchestra, did not respond to a message left for him at a listed number.
The Stonewall National Museum & Archives said Presley hasn’t served on the board since 2016 and the organization was “shocked and saddened” to learn about the allegations against him.
The South Florida Symphony Orchestra has since cut ties with Presley, citing repeated absences from meetings due to an illness. A representative from the orchestra wouldn’t say whether his removal was tied to the sexual misconduct allegations.
The former Lawrenceville School housemaster’s alleged conduct came to light after the school “proactively sought information” in 2016 about “inappropriate behavior between adults and students, past or present.”
“Reports of behavior by Mr. Presley surfaced from that review and were shared in a December 2017 letter to our community,” the statement said. “Based on this new information, we have retained independent investigators who are experienced in working with victims in matters like these, to learn the extent of Mr. Presley’s misconduct and examine the school administration’s response to his behavior.”
School spokeswoman Jennifer Szwalek said none of the accusers alleged physical abuse. She declined to name the firm conducting the probe but said that once it’s complete the school will share the findings. She acknowledged the school hasn’t reported the allegations involving Presley to the authorities while its investigation is underway.
“We will make that determination once our investigators have completed their work,” Szwalek said.
It’s unclear if a criminal investigation has been launched into Presley’s alleged sexual misconduct. A spokeswoman from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The SFGN report, which resulted from a tip from a reader, detailed abuse allegations against Presley from six accusers, all of whom were 17 or 18 at the time they claimed they were violated by Presley while they attended the school in the 1970s.
Victims told the publication they felt empowered to come forward with the allegations, buried for more than four decades, because of the #MeToo movement which has led to a social reckoning over sexual misconduct by powerful people. Many high-profile men from politics to entertainment have lost jobs.
“I just have to get through this to get my weekend back,” Guy Dorgan, of Robbinsville, told SFGN about Presley. “I justified it in my head. He’s getting his rocks
off and that’s fine, he’s not touching me and I get my weekends back.”
The Trentonian was unable to reach any of the victims mentioned in the story.
The prestigious private boarding school was founded in 1810 and distinguishes itself as one of the best in the nation for shaping some of the most successful and high-thinking minds in the U.S. and beyond. It charges as much as $64,430 a year for tuition and board and boasts of a star-studded list of alumni, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Thorton Wilder, former press secretary Jay Carney, former U.S. Solicitor General Charles Fried, former President of Honduras Ricardo Maduro, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, college basketball star and NBA player Joakim Noah, international online marketplace Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai and former publisher Malcolm Ford among many others.
Presley and Reddy Allegations
School headmaster Stephen Murray sent letters to the school community in June 2016 and December 2017, the latter of which addressed sexual misconduct allegations against Presley and other former staffers.
The six-page December missive, which was provided by the school, didn’t mention Presley’s name and referred to him as “housemaster.”
Murray said one alumnus told the school Presley “engaged in an ‘abuse of power’ and ‘sexual harassment.’”
“According to the reports, students who had broken a school rule could avoid detention or other discipline by agreeing to perform pushups fully unclothed, while the teacher in question watched,” the letter stated. “At the time, the administration conducted some level of review but it is not known whether any follow-up action was taken. The housemaster left Lawrenceville to pursue a second career and does not appear to have returned to teaching. As part of our due diligence process, counsel attempted to contact the former faculty member for comment, but received no reply.”
The letter also mentioned allegations against other former teachers, three of which involved inappropriate physical touching “deemed to constitute serious misconduct.”
The most significant centered on a teaching couple roiled by a teacher-sex scandal.
Former Lawrenceville School faculty member Michael Reddy lived on campus in the Hamill House from 2013 to 2017 with wife Alyssia, who was charged
late last year after police said she had sex with one of her students at the Pennington School.
Like his wife, Michael Reddy is also accused of having sex with a minor.
The letter stated he “allegedly had sexual relations with a minor more than a decade ago before his time at Lawrenceville,” where he also served as an assistant housemaster overseeing 35 boys, according to his LinkedIn page.
A background check on Michael Reddy, who now lists himself as a freelance writer at Peripetia Consulting in Baltimore, turned up nothing, Szwalek said.
The Lawrenceville School became aware of the allegations against Michael Reddy after being contacted by McDonogh School.
Michael Reddy accepted a job at the private coed school in Owings Mills, Maryland, after leaving the New Jersey prep school, Szwalek said.
In December, McDonogh School sent a letter home to parents informing them that Michael Reddy, an English teacher at the school, “had sexual relations with a minor more than a decade ago.”
Michael Reddy worked at McDonogh from August 2008 until June 2013 and then was rehired last fall before the school received the “disturbing information.”
“The minor was not a McDonogh student, nor was Mr. Reddy teaching at McDonogh at the time,” the letter from Headmaster Charles Britton states. “I immediately reported this information to the authorities, and Mr. Reddy is no longer employed by McDonogh.”
A McDonogh spokeswoman did not respond to questions seeking comment about who alerted the school of Michael Reddy’s sexual abuse allegations, and when and where the alleged misconduct occurred.
McDonogh did not inform The Trentonian which authority it reached out to after receiving the sexual misconduct allegations.
Baltimore County Police is the law enforcement agency based in the county where McDonogh School is located. The department did not respond to a request for comment on whether it’s investigating Michael Reddy, whose previous teaching stops include St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, from 2006 to 2008, the Maret School in Washington D.C. from 2004 to 2005, and the Sanford School in Hockessin, Delaware, from 1999 to 2004. All are coed prep schools.
A spokesman at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School declined to comment while a spokeswoman at Maret School didn’t call back after saying she needed to speak with the head of the school before commenting.
A message left at Sanford School went unreturned.
Due to the ambiguity of McDonogh’s letter and the lack of transparency of the other three schools, it is unknown if the sexual abuse occurred during Michael Reddy’s tenure at St. Andrew’s, Maret, Sanford or prior to that.
Michael Reddy’s departure from McDonogh School came within a week of news of the arrest of his wife, who had served as a substitute teacher at McDonogh for six days between December 2010 and June 2011, the letter reads.
“As is the case with Mr. Reddy, we have no reason to suspect that Ms. Reddy committed acts of sexual misconduct at McDonogh,” Britton wrote.
Alyssia Marie Reddy, of Baltimore, was charged late last year with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student in spring 2017 at a park on River Road in Solebury Township in Bucks County, Pa.
The alleged sexual encounter happened while Alyssia Reddy was a teacher at Pennington School.
She previously taught an essay-crafting course during the summer scholars program at Lawrenceville School in 2015, Szwalek said.
After leaving Pennington School in New Jersey, she joined the St. Paul’s School for Girls in Brooklandville, Maryland, as a history teacher.
Lawrenceville School headmaster Murray “wrote to parents to advise them of the development” and addressed students at a school meeting upon learning about the allegations against the couple. Since no Lawrenceville community member made allegations against either teacher, the school did not notify authorities “because there was nothing to tell,” Szwalek said.
Across the Delaware River, police had begun investigating Alyssia Reddy when it received a report on Nov. 20. Police determined the teacher had sex with the minor at the Pennsylvania park, police said.
According to news reports, in December 2016 Alyssia Reddy gave the student her cell phone number and later added him on Snapchat, an app allowing users to send pictures and messages to each other.
The student told police he received a message from Alyssia Reddy in February 2017 that said, “I want your hands on me.”
A spokesperson from the Bucks County District Attorney’s office didn’t respond to an emailed request for an update on the status of Alyssia Reddy’s case.
More Misconduct
Other alleged instances of misconduct at Lawrenceville School involved a now-deceased former teacher from the 1960s who was fired because of inappropriate contact with a student.
The school admitted the teacher’s file offered “few details” and a departure letter didn’t specify he was fired or why he left the school.
A letter of support recommended the former teacher for “a graduate program for further study,” but the school found “no evidence” he worked at another school before he dying in the 1980s.
Another teacher was forced to resign after being accused of groping a student in the 1980s. It didn’t appear school officials at the time told authorities about the allegations as required. He had been reprimanded before for “failing to maintain appropriate boundaries with students” over alcohol usage, but that allegation didn’t “involve physical contact with a student or activity of a sexual nature,” the Lawrenceville School said.
Despite that, his departure letter from the headmaster stated the teacher left the Lawrenceville School midway through the year for reasons he “can explain himself,” the school said. The letter did not indicate he was fired or the reason he left.
“While it is at best a very cold sort of recommendation with scant endorsement, it is still not a letter that would be provided under similar circumstances today,” Murray wrote.
The school tried to contact the former teacher and found “no evidence” he worked at another school.
Another instance in 1992 “reported by the local press” involved a long-time administrator and coach who several students claimed had “inappropriately touched and kissed them.”
The coach’s alleged actions were investigated by child welfare officials and the school conducted a separate investigation that led to his resignation. He “retired from professional life” and later died, the school said.
The school refused The Trentonian’s request to name the former staffers mentioned in the letter, none of whom appear to have been criminally charged. It said in the letter it “gave considerable thought” to disclosing the names of the four former faculty members but decided to only release names in the Reddy matter.
“Our primary consideration was whether we had any reason to believe that the individual posed an ongoing risk to students in our community, to students in another school or program, or to the public, where disclosure might mitigate that risk,” the letter said. “We also took into account whether we possessed credible and corroborated evidence, a legal finding, or an admission of guilt; whether the disclosure might encourage a survivor to come forward; and whether the allegations had been made public already. In the context of our review so far, none of the information we received and looked into met this criteria.”