CLEVELAND, Ohio – Five former students sued the Cleveland Board of Education on Friday, alleging that they were sexually abused for years by a dance instructor at the Cleveland School of the Arts.
The five John Does, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, say the school’s administrators and the school board failed to protect them from Terence Greene.
The suit alleged that Greene “groomed” his victims by manipulating them and building a relationship based on trust.
“[The board and the school] allowed a perverse culture of abuse to fester in its dance department unabated for over 15 years, despite rampant rumors and allegations of sexual abuse through the student and staff population,” the lawsuit says.
Roseann Canfora, a spokeswoman for the schools, said the district does not comment on pending litigation. She said Greene was never an employee of the district, but a contract teacher.
The lawsuit comes a week after Cleveland police issued a warrant for Greene’s arrest on charges of sexual battery involving a student in 2008. Repeated attempts to reach Greene, of Garfield Heights, were unsuccessful.
Greene is well-known locally and nationally for his work. Many of his former students have entered prestigious dance schools, while some have gone on to Broadway.
“The students knew that Terence Greene held the keys to their future,” said Ryan Fisher, the attorney who filed the lawsuit. “He could make them or break them.”
The lawsuit alleges that Greene sexually abused the five in the dancers’ dressing room at the school, his car and his homes. The incidents cited in the lawsuit took place from about 2008 through 2012, the suit says.
Greene preyed on youths who were emotionally vulnerable, according to the lawsuit. One of the five was sexually abused about 20 times over two years, the suit says.
The lawsuit says Greene worked as a contract instructor in 1999 until about 2014, when he resigned amid allegations made by students.
In 2003, Cuyahoga County prosecutors charged Greene with four counts of having unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. A 14-year-old student said Greene abused him between April 2002 and June 2003. Then-Common Pleas Judge Ann Mannen found him not guilty during a bench trial in 2004.
After the trial, Greene returned to the school and continued teaching, according to the lawsuit.
After leaving the Cleveland School of the Arts, Greene later worked at Cuyahoga Community College, where he led the school’s Dance Academy. The Dance Academy trains students ages 6 to 18.
Besides the school board, the lawsuit also named administrators Andrew Koonce, Barbara Walton, Kendra Holloway and Jeffrey Mazo.
“Greene’s modus operandi with all of the plaintiffs was very similar,” the lawsuit says.
“As their main dance instructor, he would gain their trust by building a mentor-mentee relationship, whereby Greene would inject himself into his victim’s lives and make it known that he could assist their education and professional careers as dancers and in the arts.
“Then, using his position of trust and his reputation, he would begin a sexual relationship with his victim students.”
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