Three lawsuits filed against the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners accuse the system of retaining and protecting a known sexual predator in the 1970s and 1980s.

“BCPS knew. The administration knew. And the teachers knew … This egregious behavior was accepted,” attorney Janai Woodhouse said in a news conference Monday.

The claims were filed Friday on behalf of three former students at Calverton Junior High School who say they were attacked, repeatedly and sometimes publicly, by Alvin Hunt, a former special education teacher and athletic coach. Calverton, located in the Bridgeview/Greenlawn neighborhood of West Baltimore, is now known as Katherine Johnson Global Academy.

They are among more than 1,250 cases that have been filed under the Maryland Child Victims Act. The “unprecedented influx of cases” led Baltimore City Circuit Court Administrative Judge Audrey J.S. Carrión to issue an order Monday afternoon temporarily pausing all such sexual abuse cases. The order does not terminate any of the cases or prevent new cases from being filed.

“In reaching the decision to temporarily stay these cases, the Court has weighed the understandable desire of parties to proceed with litigating these cases as well as the need for consistency, efficiency, and fairness,” Carrión wrote, noting that a judiciary committee was looking into establishing a “clear process for the circuit courts to efficiently manage the high volume of similarly situated CVA cases.”

According to the complaint filed against City Schools, Hunt was known in the community as one of the “four monsters in the school house,” a group of male teachers who “preyed” on Calverton students. Though students and their families had been making complaints , the lawsuit states that Baltimore City Schools “did nothing to stop the abuse.” No other male teachers were named in the lawsuit.

Hunt, attorneys said, was then allowed “to retire after a long and profitable career.”

“This lawsuit is about the failure of the public school system as it existed long ago, to hold them accountable as predators (and) to bring them to justice,” attorney Billy Murphy Jr. said Monday. “And in fact, that system enabled these men, including Alvin Hunt, to keep doing what they were doing, even after they were discovered.”

Hunt, who is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuits, did not immediately return a request for comment Monday on a publicly listed phone number. An attempt on Monday to reach him at his home was also unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for Baltimore City Schools was not immediately available to comment.

Unlike many child sex abuse cases, including dozens if not hundreds filed since the beginning of April, the new claims fully name the accusers and plaintiffs. Two of them, Pamela Coleman and Colette Lee, spoke to reporters Monday at the Murphy, Falcon & Murphy Law Firm in downtown Baltimore. A third was named in the lawsuit but was not at Monday’s news conference.

The Baltimore Sun does not name victims of abuse unless they want to be named.

Coleman said she gave birth to Hunt’s daughter after an attack in 1980, when she was 14 years old. According to the lawsuit, Hunt offered to drive Coleman home one day after school but went to his house instead. “In an attempt to get Pamela to relax,” the teacher allegedly gave her a drug-laced cigarette, assaulting her when she became unconscious, the lawsuit states.

When she realized she was pregnant, Coleman was transferred to a school with other young parents and mothers-to-be, she said. According to her complaint, after her daughter was born, Hunt used their child “as leverage to threaten and manipulate” Coleman.

On Monday, Coleman said her daughter was a “constant reminder” of her trauma.

“But I shake it off,” she said. “I love my daughter. My daughter is beautiful. She is successful. She’s married, and I have grandbabies, and I love her. I just would’ve wanted to have a love of my life and walk down the aisle and get married and have a baby, not be traumatized for the rest of my life because of someone that I trusted.”

According to Coleman’s lawsuit, unnamed administrators at Calverton knew she had been abused. At one point, after giving birth and returning to the school, Calverton’s principal “apologized for the sexual abuse that occurred,” the suit states.

“The school system failed me as a child who trusted in their care,” Coleman said. “They failed me.”

Lee, according to her lawsuit, was also 14 years old when she was assigned to Hunt in the special education unit.

Attorneys said Hunt had “fondled” her in front of other people, including teachers, before bringing her and another student to his house in 1979. According to the complaint, Hunt cornered Lee, but she managed to escape his home alone.

“I was able to run,” Lee said Monday. “I’ve been running for a long time. I’m tired. I want justice.”

The three claims were submitted to the Baltimore City Circuit Court at the tail end of a months-long legal crunch. Since a controversial bill passed in April, law firms and survivor advocates have encouraged victims — in news conferences, television and social media ads — to come forward before June, when the amount of money that can come from a claim would be significantly reduced.

The change will affect cases against state institutions, including public school systems, as well as private entities, including religious organizations.

Starting Sunday, new lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act, which ended the statute of limitations on youth sex abuse claims in 2023, will cap at $400,000 against public institutions and $700,000 for private.

Until now, the state’s liability was $890,000, and private organizations faced a $1.15 million ceiling.

Attorneys and advocates have expressed concern that the new caps will limit survivors’ ability to seek legal counsel and justice, arguing that the lower amount of money will make cases not worth pursuing.

On Monday, however, Murphy said he hopes other survivors from Calverton will come forward.

“I’m certain there’s more victims,” Lee said shortly after.

Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at lparker@baltsun.com, 410-725-6214 and x.com/@lparkernews.