Students protest at a Nashville private school after responding to alleged sexual assault by a teacher

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Dozens of students walked out of a Nashville private school Wednesday morning to demand the resignation of two top school leaders.

The strike came after a former student reported that a teacher allegedly sexually abused her last spring. She said they failed her and tried to bury what happened.

Students crowded the front steps of the University School of Nashville with signs and chants, calling on Principal Amani Reed and Assistant Principal Quinton Walker to resign.

The USN graduate spoke to her former classmates on Tuesday, saying she felt unheard by leadership when she reported the alleged sexual assault by former teacher Dean Masullo.

“Over the last few months, since I reported to the school what happened to me with English teacher Dean Masullo, they have violated a lot of policies and broken trust time and time again,” the victim said.

The school said Masullo was fired in July. But the victim said afterwards that she and her family were not informed about the investigation in a timely manner as they should have been.

“It seems to me that every decision they have made is a bad decision and has not helped foster a strong community that USN is known to have in the past,” said a USN parent WSMV4 spoke to Tuesday after the protest.

He said he felt like school administrators were keeping him in the dark.

“This has been an ongoing topic, but it is a message from Amani Reed,” the parent said. “He is the principal of the school for now and there was evidence that his communication was poor.”

The USN said in a letter to the school that it had opened a new investigation. They also said since the report they have alerted the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, established a new task force and a school safety committee.

However, the parent company WSMV4 spoke to said the action had been delayed.

“Had they taken good steps early on to navigate a strong community and made the decision to help build the community, they would not have had a protest on their front lawn,” the father added.

USN is also suing Marullo in a new lawsuit. It said he wasn’t cooperating with the new investigation they launched this fall, but Masullo wasn’t participating because of “an alleged pending criminal investigation.”

“They should have done that initial investigation the way they were supposed to,” the victim said. “But I’m glad they’re doing this new project so they can get a better look at what actually happened.”

The victim said she was not the only one who was allegedly sexually abused by Masullo and that she wanted the school to be a safe place in the future.

“I have no way of putting this behind me,” she said. “My sisters still go to school there. My friends go to school here.”

USN said students who participated in the strike will receive an unexcused absence for one class period. They also said teachers could participate if they wanted to.

WSMV4 attempted to reach Masullo and received no response.

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