Editor's note: This story contains details of sexual abuse.
When popular band director John Stanley Ross left Interlochen Arts Academy in 2000, he wrote a letter attributing his departure to personal reasons. Until recently, Ross's true reason for leaving has been unknown to the public.
Ross went on to teach at University of Minnesota-Morris, Cameron University, and most recently Appalachian State — where he resigned earlier this summer while the school investigated sexual harassment allegations against him.
For transparency
Interlochen Arts Group, a subsidiary of Interlochen Center for the Arts, is the parent institution of IPR. Our newsroom is editorially independent, and no senior Interlochen officials reviewed this story prior to its publication. More about IPR's commitment to editorial independence.
IPR has independently identified Ross as "Respondent 42" in Interlochen's external investigation into historic abuse at the school. The discovery came through an IPR interview with an alum alleging sexual abuse from Ross — testimony that is also found in the report attributed to "Alum 68". Independent conversations with two other sources confirmed Ross as Respondent 42.
Ross has also been identified in other news reports as a former Interlochen staffer now facing investigation for allegations of misconduct at Appalachian State.
IPR is not identifying Alum 68 publicly in keeping with our practice of not naming victims of sexual abuse.
Contrary to the claim of leaving for personal reasons, Ross left Interlochen under a cloud of abuse allegations. In the Interlochen report, one administrator recalled a meeting, after allegations surfaced, where Ross was told that "he was done at Interlochen."
While a separate administrator stated that Ross was later terminated, the school also retained a letter from Ross in which he claimed to leave the academy for personal reasons.
In reality, Ross's career shows a trail of alleged sexual misconduct.
In 2015, a group of Appalachian State students made allegations of sexual harassment that were not substantiated at the time. In 2018, a former Interlochen student told the university Ross sexually harassed them while he was employed by the arts school.
In February 2026, an allegation of misconduct was made against Ross by an Appalachian State student, sparking the investigation during which Ross later resigned.
IPR contacted Ross for comment for this article, but Ross hung up the phone after a reporter identified himself. IPR subsequently left a voicemail soliciting his response, but none was received.
IPR reached out to Interlochen with questions about Ross's career when the news broke in August that he'd left Appalachian State University.
Interlochen said in a statement that it had taken "steps to ensure that Appalachian State University had access to information relevant to their review," and the names of individuals accused of sexual misconduct in the ICA report have been sent to law enforcement.
IPR reached out again when we learned Ross was Respondent 42, but Interlochen in a statement said it could not comment on individual allegations. The school also noted that it has had "rigorous hiring and screening practices in place for many years" and that its "student safety practices continue to evolve and strengthen over time."
That Ross was able to get hired at other educational institutions after facing allegations at Interlochen isn't unusual. Some in education have a term for it: "pass the harasser."
Alum 68
"For the most part, [Interlochen] was awesome," Alum 68 told IPR. "I just felt like they were nourishing a kid who had already been kind of neglected… Everything improved — my character, my behavior, everything changed completely. It's just what I needed. But then we'll get into the ugly part."
Alum 68 attended the school from 1997-2000. Currently, the alum is the client of the Fierberg National Law Group. Along with providing legal counsel, the firm is pushing the Michigan legislature for changes to the statute of limitations for sexual abuse so more cases can pursue legal claims.
By his own account, Alum 68 had had an "unstable childhood" in southeast Michigan. He had recently failed his sophomore year of high school and was unsure what to do next, when he spent a weekend with family friends in Interlochen.
Shortly after that, he decided to stay in the area and apply to the Interlochen Arts Academy creative writing program.
"I'd never heard of Interlochen, [but] I did a lot of writing, and so I was like, 'What the heck?'" said Alum 68. "I still have my portfolio that I turned in… When you read it, you're like, 'Gosh, this is a really troubled kid,' and I think that's why Interlochen kind of took me in."
It was not until his last year at Interlochen that he met Ross.
“They should not have allowed him to resign for personal reasons. He should have been terminated. It should have been put in his record that ... he's to stay away from kids.”
"I had heard that he was taking kids to the [off-campus] gym," Alum 68 said. "Just the idea of getting off campus and working out [was appealing]. I'll admit, on my part, I was attracted to one of the kids that was going to the gym."
But after going to the gym just once, the alum said, Ross's behavior changed.
"The second time, when we went to sign out [of the academy], he's like, 'Oh, it's just going to be you and I today,'" said Alum 68. On the way to the gym, Ross changed plans again and said that he needed to stop at his house on a nearby lake.
Once they arrived, Ross suggested they go out on his boat.
"He was driving around for a while and he stopped the engine and sat next to my left," said Alum 68. "[Then] he started groping me through my shorts, and pulled my shorts down, and performed oral sex."
When Alum 68 spoke with investigators for the Interlochen report, he said he felt disgusted afterward and jumped into the water to get away and to "feel clean."
"Being of legal age [18], I should have been able to say no. And since I didn't say no, he didn't do anything wrong. That's the way I felt," said Alum 68 told IPR.
Later, Alum 68 said, he sat down with administrators and recounted his experience with Ross. Alum 68 said Ross was "gone that day."
School administrators interviewed for the Interlochen external investigation said they had received a report that Ross (identified throughout the external report as Respondent 42) had taken a male student on a boat and that "something of a sexual nature" was alleged to have happened there.
In the Interlochen report, Alum 68 is one of four previous students who made allegations toward Ross. One alleged brief grooming behavior, another said Ross exposed himself and touched his penis while being massaged, and the last alleged Ross gave him alcohol and later sexually assaulted the student on his boat, jacuzzi and later his bed.
While those three allegations — aside from Alum 68's — were not reported to Interlochen at the time, the alum who reported the sexual assault said a faculty member told them years later at a reunion that "I knew about you and Ross."
The Interlochen report noted the alum then asked why the teacher did not say anything. "You were having fun," the alum remembered the teacher saying.
"They should not have allowed him to resign for personal reasons," said Alum 68. "He should have been terminated. It should have been put in his record that... he's to stay away from kids."
'Pass the Harasser'
Of the 47 alleged abusers in the Interlochen report, Ross is one of many who departed the school and went on to have teaching careers elsewhere.
In this way, he exemplifies what's systemically known in education circles as "passing the harasser." Facing accusations of misconduct, these teachers are forced to leave an institution but allowed to continue teaching.
IPR made a Freedom of Information Act request to the Grand Traverse County Prosecutor's Office and received 22 unredacted names of alleged abusers identified in the Interlochen report.
Ten names in the report remained redacted — including "Respondent 42." Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg has said her office is still deciding which allegations can be prosecuted within the statute of limitations.
Of those teachers and staff named, about half in their post-allegation careers stayed in northwest Michigan, teaching private lessons, directing church music programs and working at local schools.
The other half left the area and went on to teach and perform at places like the Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Opera, University of Michigan, and Florida State.
At this time, IPR is choosing not to publicly reveal those unredacted names, because these people have not been charged with a crime. We are making an exception for individuals who have admitted to sexual misconduct during ICA's external investigation or whose identities have already been revealed through other news reports.
Eric Kamischke ("Respondent 32" in the report) was an Interlochen math instructor from 1981 to 2004, when he resigned. That was about a month and a half after an alum from the 1980s wrote to the school about the teacher's sexual conduct toward her. Just a few years prior, in the 1990s, another student alleged Kamischke touched her inappropriately at a dinner party at his house.
When the student reported her allegation to Interlochen at the time, an administrator told her she no longer had to go to Kamischke's class and promised her an "A" in the class.
In the Interlochen report, Kamischke denied that he had sexual intercourse with students, but admitted "there was touching" that was sexual in nature.
After Kamischke resigned, he later went on to work teaching math at Northwestern Michigan College, in nearby Traverse City, and later Michigan Technological University.
He is not currently listed on Michigan Tech's faculty directory, and the university could not confirm whether he was currently employed.
Whether either school was aware of allegations against Kamishke is unknown. IPR reached out to Kamischke but he did not wish to comment.
Asked about Kamishke, Moeggenberg said her office ended up seeking more information, but ultimately could not pursue criminal prosecution due to events happening outside of the statute of limitations.
Moeggenberg said the 10 names which remain redacted are still potential cases — although her office is investigating whether the statute of limitations will allow those cases to move forward.
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't"
While there is little data on how often serial harassers move as faculty between educational institutions, a Utah Law Review study of over 300 cases alleging sexual harassment found that over 50% "involved allegations that accused professors engaged in patterns of serial sexual harassment with multiple targets/victims."
Researchers looked at a smaller group of 219 incidents documented by media reports and found 10 instances in which professors moved between institutions amid or following sexual-misconduct allegations.
"Given the high percentages of accused serial harassers and the significant percentage of accused faculty who resign prior to discipline, the 219 cases discussed here likely include many more than ten pass-the-harasser cases," the study's authors wrote.
"You can't get sued if you don't say anything bad about somebody."
One reason serial harassers may go undetected, said NavigationHR CEO Kevin Main, is because of a legal principle called tortious interference. This common law tort allows a person to sue third parties (including past employers) which intentionally and wrongfully disrupt their contractual or business relationships.
"Then comes the damages phase," said Main, whom IPR consulted as an independent expert on human resources. "Well, what are the damages? 'I can't get a job anymore. I was working this much and now I can only work at some menial job where I'm making a tenth of what I would have made if I could have continued in my profession.'"
Due to that liability, Main said, many employers limit what they say about past workers.
"You can't get sued if you don't say anything bad about somebody," Main said. "[Employers] do not have an affirmative obligation for allegations — and [it's] even questionable whether [employers] have it for something that was internally substantiated but not legally substantiated."
While Main acknowledged the important protections tortious interference brings to a person's right to work, he also said hiring practices need to find a balance to protect potential future victims.
"It's kind of a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario," Main said. "I don't want to destroy somebody for something that may not be true, but I certainly don't want to subject another child to harm. Where's that balance? How far does it have to be? Is it just a tipping of the scale?"
Changing policies
Since the sexual assault awareness movement #MeToo gained momentum in 2017, higher education has begun to require greater scrutiny in hiring practices.
In 2018, the University of Wisconsin System and University of California Davis became among the first universities to develop formal policies aimed at preventing "passing the harasser" practices.
UC Davis required candidates for tenured positions to authorize the university to contact all prior employers about substantiated misconduct. The UW System policy required its institutions to ask job candidates and references about sexual misconduct and to disclose documented violations when another employer requested a reference.
Similar hiring mechanisms were already in place for K-12 employers in Michigan in 1996, when state law began requiring schools to check applicants' current and former employers for records of "unprofessional conduct".
In an introduction to the Interlochen report, Interlochen President Trey Devey and Chair of the Board Barrett Rollins wrote that the school is strengthening reporting systems, developing a protocol for sharing relevant information with law enforcement, and establishing a counseling support fund for impacted alumni.
"Protecting students requires more than policies alone," wrote Devey and Rollins. "It requires a culture, systems, and practices that work together every day to create a safe and supportive environment."
RAINN, the largest anti-sexual violence group in the United States, offers a National Sexual Assault Hotline which you can contact online or at 800-656-HOPE (4673) if you or someone you know needs support.
Elizabeth Sanghavi, of the Sanghavi Law Office, which compiled the external investigation report into past abuses at Interlochen Center for the Arts, is available through October 30, 2026, to receive additional reports and can be reached at elizabeth@sanghavilawoffice.com or 617-505-3010.
Copyright 2026 IPR News
