North Carolina teachers quit after student claims of sexual misconduct - North Carolina School of the Arts

Dance Magazine, Nov, 1995 by Susan Broili

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina--An assistant dean and another longtime dance teacher at North Carolina School of the Arts resigned in August after being charged with misconduct by the school following a civil suit by a former student accusing the two teachers of sexual misconduct.

Richard Kuch, assistant dean of the dance department, and Richard Gain, a dance teacher, resigned August 17, nearly a month after Christopher Soderlund, twenty-seven, filed a suit in North Carolina Superior Court charging that as a sixteen-year-old high school student at NCSA in 1984 he was seduced by Gain and sexually harassed and humiliated by Kuch. Kuch had taught at the school since 1972, and Gain since 1973; both were former principal dancers with the Martha Graham Company. They resigned after being suspended by the school and charged with misconduct, choosing not to exercise their right to a hearing before a faculty committee.

The suit describes an atmosphere at the school in which sexual relationships between teachers and students were commonplace, and where other teachers and at least one administrator were aware of Soderlund's alleged harassment but did nothing to stop it. Soderlund is also suing the school and the state-run University of North Carolina system, which operates NCSA.

Kuch and Gain, the suit alleges, "taught students, including the plaintiff, and even boys and girls as young as thirteen, that dancing was sexual expression and that they would be better dancers if they were sexually active." The suit claims the two teachers "graphically described to the plaintiff many other occasions on which they had sexual relations with other male dance students," and that, prior to Easter 1984, "defendant Gain took the impressionable young aspiring dancer to the defendants Kuch and Gain's house, where he served him alcohol and then engaged in sexual relations with him."

Soderlund is seeking compensatory damages of over $10,000, and additional punitive damages to be decided in court.

Kuch and Gain have declined to comment, but their attorney, Susan Gray, says they deny the allegations. "The support I have received for them has been overwhelming," Gray says.

Eric Hoisington, who studied at NCSA from 1982 to 1985, says he has filed an affidavit in support of the teachers. "Kuch and Gain always respected their students and were very professional, and kept their sex lives totally separate from their jobs as professors of dance," says Hoisington, who is now a soloist with San Francisco Ballet. "They have given so much to the world of dance in the past twenty-five years, that it would be a crime if they were punished for misunderstandings."

Both the school and attorney Gray have filed motions to have the suit dismissed. NCSA chancellor Alex Ewing responded to the charges in a news conference in August, saying, "The North Carolina School of the Arts does not, and will not ever condone sexual misconduct between faculty and students. We will not tolerate it and we will protect our students from it." Ewing conceded, however, that despite the school's long-standing written policy against sexual harassment, reporting procedures had been ineffective. He promised to establish a "totally accessible and safe procedure" for students seeking help, such as a campus hotline or an ombudsman.

Sam Neill, chair of the University of North Carolina board of governors, ordered the creation of a commission to look into any further reports of sexual misconduct at the school.

While it is too early to gauge the long-term effects of the allegations on the school's reputation, at least one parent says she has no qualms about sending her daughter to the school. "Chancellor Ewing was very straightforward about what had transpired and what they were doing," says Marjorie Busby, whose daughter is in her first year at NCSA's high school. "I don't think students are at any greater risk because it's a school of the arts. It could happen anywhere."

Also expressing confidence in the school was former student Jack Arnold. "I cannot defend the alleged abuse of power, but I can defend the excellence of the school and faculty and their ability to turn out excellent dancers," said Arnold, who studied with Kuch and Gain and went on to dance with Pilobolus Dance Theatre.

Others worried about the impact the controversy could have on the already fragile public support for the arts. "There are people waiting for this kind of thing to happen," says Lisa Yount, who attended the school as a college student from 1982 to 1985. "Time and time again, the arts have to prove to the world, to the politicians, that we are worth supporting."