97-Page Review Names Jeffrey Epstein Among Dozens Accused Of Abusing Students At Interlochen Center For The Arts

An independent 97-page review commissioned by the Interlochen Center for the Arts has identified roughly 70 people who reported they were sexually abused at the school over several decades and names more than 40 former faculty and staff as alleged perpetrators, including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

What the Review Found

The external investigation, launched after a 2024 complaint by a former student, documents allegations spanning the 1950s through the 2010s. The school says none of the accused remain employed at Interlochen and that more than one-third of those named are deceased. To protect survivor privacy, the report does not publish the identities of the roughly 70 alleged victims.

Allegations Involving Jeffrey Epstein

The report adds previously undisclosed details about allegations involving Jeffrey Epstein, who attended an Interlochen summer program as a teenager in 1967 and later became a donor. Epstein previously funded a campus facility that bore his name; the school removed his name from the Jeffrey E. Epstein Scholarship Lodge in 2019 and demolished the building last month.

According to the report, one former student said Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell paid her Interlochen tuition but later withdrew support after she did not comply with their requests. She said Epstein and Maxwell invited her to Epstein’s lodge, where Epstein "engaged in sexual conduct with her, brushing against her body over her clothes." Another alum said Epstein paid for a flight to New York after graduation, that she gave him a massage on a table inside his home and may have been asked to remove her top; she said she cut off contact afterward.

Other Notable Findings

Investigators identified a longtime arts faculty member and administrator — employed at Interlochen for more than five decades and deceased in 2021 — as central to the 2024 complaint that prompted the review. The investigation found seven former students from the 1960s and 1970s who alleged sexual misconduct by that staff member.

The review also references testimony from a former student who, under the pseudonym "Jane," testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2021 trial, saying that Epstein and Maxwell began grooming her at Interlochen in the early 1990s. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on several counts tied to her role in facilitating Epstein’s abuse and is serving a 20-year sentence; she is pursuing post-conviction relief. Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking and conspiracy charges; his death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Institutional Response

Interlochen’s president, Trey Devey, and board chair, Barrett Rollins, issued an apology to survivors and pledged that the school "will not tolerate predators or those who enable them." The institution said it has referred the names of those accused to the local prosecutor’s office to determine whether criminal charges are possible and has established a fund to provide counseling to affected former students.

"The abuse described in the report is heartbreaking and is contrary to everything Interlochen stands for," Devey and Rollins wrote. "We cannot change the past, but we can be unequivocal in stating that this behavior has no place at the Interlochen we care for, not then, not now, and not in the future."

The review is intended to document survivor accounts and identify institutional failures so the school can take steps to prevent future abuse. Interlochen, founded in 1928, is an internationally known music and arts education center that runs year-round programs and summer camps and counts many award-winning artists among its alumni.