New lawsuits being filed against Baltimore County Catholic school for alleged child sex abuse

A group of Maryland-based attorneys said they were filing several lawsuits Monday on behalf of survivors of alleged child sex abuse. 

The lawsuits allege cases of sex abuse at Calvert Hall College High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Baltimore County. 

The group of attorneys formed the Calvert Hall Lawyers Working Group to file lawsuits that they say detail decades of abuse by staff and highlight the institution's failure to act.

Child sexual abuse allegations

During a news conference Monday, Patrick Wall, a former catholic priest who now advocates for survivors, said there were at least eight perpetrators at Calvert Hall since 1942.

Of the eight perpetrators, five are dead and three are still alive, Wall said. 

"I hope that the religious orders and the diocese know where they're at and that they are away from the target population," Wall said.

According to the lawsuits, leaders at Calver Hall ignored reports of sexual abuse and allowed known abusers to have continued access to students. The group of attorneys said students who tried to speak up were dismissed or intimidated, allowing the abuse to continue. 

"For too long, Calvert Hall prioritized its reputation over the safety of its students," the attorneys said. "Justice shouldn't have an expiration date. The survivors coming forward today are breaking decades of silence - and they deserve a full, fair chance at justice." 

Christopher Bateman, one of the survivors of alleged sexual abuse at Calvert Hall College High School, called for more transparency as he recalled his time at the school. 

"There was a lot of good intentions and a lot of great results, it is not the entire institution, there were some bad apples there, and then when the leadership doesn't want to do anything about it, that's a different story," Bateman said. 

Attorneys advocate for Maryland's Child Victims Act

In announcing the new lawsuits being filed Monday, the group of attorneys also advocated for the Child Victims Act in Maryland. 

The Child Victims Act was established in 2023 to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases. The law also allowed victims to receive $890,000 for each case of abuse. 

More than 4,000 victims have filed lawsuits since the law went into effect. 

However, Maryland lawmakers are trying to amend the law to limit the amount of settlement money that a victim can receive. 

The amendments would lower the payout to $400,000 for each victim who files a lawsuit.

Delegate CT Wilson introduced the amendments, which have since been passed by the Maryland General Assembly. 

"I wanted to make sure that whatever we do today, we don't so irreparably damage our state, that we must go to bankruptcy," Wilson said. "Because while the victims do need an opportunity to speak and they do need to come up in financial support, billions and billions of dollars is not what we can afford to do." 

On Monday, the group of attorneys urged Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to veto the amendments, saying the changes break the faith of thousands of survivors. 

According to attorney Rob Jenner, the changes to the bill limit survivors to a single payment even if they were abused multiple times by the same perpetrator. 

"This isn't about budget math, this is about moral clarity," Jenner said. "This is about a promise that the state of Maryland made and is now poised to break." 

WJZ has reached out to Calvert Hall College High School for a statement in response to the new lawsuits being filed.