A lawsuit filed Tuesday against the McDonogh School alleges that the Baltimore County boarding school enabled its dean of students to sexually abuse a young student in the late 1960s.

The plaintiff, who attended McDonogh from 1966 to 1970 and is now an attorney, alleges in legal filings that he was raped by the school’s former dean on multiple weekends when he was otherwise alone at the school’s Finney Hall. The suit seeks damages for psychological harm inflicted on the man, who the complaint states attempted suicide and struggled with substance abuse because of the attacks.

This is the fourth lawsuit filed against McDonogh under Maryland’s Child Victims Act, which became law in 2023 and removed the statute of limitations on child sex abuse claims. The lawsuits allege that McDonogh failed to protect the students despite being aware of a pattern of sexual abuse at the boarding school.

A spokesperson for the boarding school said that the institution was aware of the latest lawsuit.

The Owings Mills private school “remains committed to fostering a community where students and adults feel comfortable identifying and reporting sexual abuse,” the school said in a statement. “We take all allegations very seriously and remain steadfast in our support for survivors while complying with applicable laws.”

The allegations in multiple lawsuits against McDonogh mostly involve the school’s former dean, Alvin J. Levy, who was indicted in 1992 on sexual abuse charges brought by a McDonogh graduate. Levy died before his scheduled trial.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday notes that the plaintiff was in contact with Baltimore County prosecutors at the time, and had “agreed to serve as a potential witness” before Levy’s death.

Two other lawsuits filed against McDonogh under the Child Victims Act allege abuse by Levy, while another alleges abuse by a Spanish teacher named Robert Creed. One filed in October alleges abuse by both men.

Creed, who has since died, pleaded guilty in 1985 to a fourth-degree sexual offense and abuse of a minor.

The private school eventually commissioned a 2019 investigation that found evidence that five former faculty members, including Levy and Creed, sexually assaulted about two dozen students from the 1940s to the mid-1980s. The report notes that former school administrators and then-members of the board of trustees failed to take appropriate action with allegations that were reported to the school at the time.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Maryland argues that McDonogh officials knew of Levy’s potential for harm, but “did not do the most obvious thing it could have and should have done: remove him from the school.”

“Instead of cutting the cancer out, the school, board members, administrators, and teachers, chose — and it was a choice — silence and inaction,” the lawsuit says.

Baltimore attorney Ari Casper, who is representing the plaintiff in the latest case, said that his client and others “now have a clear path to justice” after the Maryland Supreme Court upheld the Child Victims Act last month.

“We expect additional victims to come forward and hold the school accountable for allowing and hiding decades of sexual abuse,” Casper said. He noted that the alleged abuse took place earlier than his previous cases — and that the victim was younger at the time of the alleged abuse.

The man, who was 10 years old when he started at McDonogh, was the school’s youngest boarding student, the lawsuit says. At the time, the private school was an all-male semi-military academy. He was assigned to Finney Hall, where fifth and sixth grade students lived alongside administrators and faculty — including Levy, who shared a floor with the boy, the lawsuit says. The abuse started in his first year, according to the filing.

Tuesday’s lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff was often the only student at Finney Hall on weekends and remained there with “no supervision,” though Levy had access to his room. It states that the student was awakened on multiple weekends by Levy, who “held plaintiff down while he sodomized and raped” him.

“Plaintiff experienced terrible pain,” the lawsuit says, noting that he suffered physical injuries. “Plaintiff’s resistance was futile.”

The man suffered four years of “shame, horror, fear, abuse and intimidation” at McDonogh and his experience at the boarding school continues to haunt him, the lawsuit states. The emotional distress led the former student down a path that included “countless” personal and professional challenges, it added.

“He was overwhelmed and scared by the totally unchecked and unpredictable power Levy had over him,” the lawsuit states.

The other three lawsuits against the school were put on hold as the state’s highest court weighed the constitutionality of the Child Victims Act. That stay was lifted last month after the court’s 4-3 decision upholding the law. Lawyers for the school are now due to respond to the allegations in two of the cases later this week, and next month in the third case.

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