Jeffrey Epstein attended Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts as a camper in 1967, later donated over $400,000 to the school, got a lodge named after him, and allegedly used that same institution to access young women. A 97-page investigation released this week makes clear that Epstein was the least of Interlochen's problems — which is saying something truly dark.
The Report Nobody at Interlochen Wanted to Read
Interlochen Center for the Arts is one of those places that sounds like a dream on a brochure. A prestigious performing arts school and summer camp in northern Michigan, it draws talented young students from around the world. In 2024, facing mounting pressure, Interlochen hired the Sanghavi law office to investigate reports of sexual abuse by faculty and staff. What came back was, in the report's own words, "simply, devastating."
The investigation collected 70 accounts from alumni alleging physical conduct of a sexual nature by 47 faculty and staff members affiliated with the school, covering a span from the 1950s through the 2010s, with most incidents occurring before 2000. According to the Guardian, that's 47 different people. Not 47 incidents. Forty-seven individuals. Grooming, flirting, sexual touching, and outright sex were all described. The school has since handed those names to Grand Traverse County authorities. More than a third of the accused are already dead.
The Bassoon Player Who Kept Coming Back
Epstein, who apparently played the bassoon, attended Interlochen as a camper in 1967. Decades later, between 1990 and 2003, he donated more than $400,000 to the school. The school thanked him the way institutions thank wealthy donors: they put his name on a building. The Epstein lodge stood on campus until Interlochen removed his name after his 2008 Florida sex offenses conviction, renaming it the Green Lake Lodge. The Guardian reports that the building was recently demolished entirely, shortly after the Justice Department released millions of pages of documents about Epstein.
So the man got a lodge. The lodge got renamed. The lodge got bulldozed. And now there's a formal investigation documenting what he allegedly did in the meantime. This is the full lifecycle of an Epstein institutional relationship, compressed into one Michigan campus.
What the Two Women Told Investigators
Two women told the Sanghavi investigators that Epstein engaged in sexual conduct with them. The Guardian reports that one encounter took place at the Interlochen lodge that bore his name. According to the report, Epstein brushed against her body over her clothes in a manner he framed as accidental. He also paid for her to travel to visit him in New York while she was still a student. She told investigators that every time he was "handsy" with her, she would freeze until he stopped.
The second woman described giving Epstein a massage at his home, with the report noting he may have asked her to remove her top. She said she had no further contact with Epstein or with Ghislaine Maxwell afterward. Outside of this investigation, the Guardian notes that at least two other Interlochen alumnae made allegations of grooming and abuse against Epstein and Maxwell in federal records and media reports. One of them testified against Maxwell at her 2021 sex trafficking trial, where Maxwell was convicted.
The School's Response, Which Followed the Standard Script
Interlochen president Trey Davey and board chair Barrett Rollins issued a letter to the community this week. "We are deeply sorry for the harm experienced by members of our community," they wrote, according to the Guardian. They acknowledged that the passage of time does not diminish what survivors experienced, and stated that sexual abuse committed by an adult in a position of power against a student is wrong, "then and now."
They also noted that Interlochen today is "fundamentally different" from the institution described in the report, pointing to comprehensive safety policies and a changed culture. The school reports that incidents of abuse have significantly decreased over the past 25 years. Whether you find that reassuring or just the minimum bar for an institution that let 47 people allegedly victimize students across multiple decades is, honestly, up to you.
Where This Fits in the Ongoing Epstein Reckoning
The Justice Department's release of millions of pages of Epstein documents has set off a new wave of investigations, lawsuits, and institutional reckonings across the country. Interlochen is one of them. It won't be the last.
What keeps emerging from this reckoning is a consistent structural picture: Epstein moved through elite institutions as a donor, a benefactor, a man whose money bought access and cover. Schools, hospitals, universities, and research centers all took the cash and looked elsewhere. The lodge with his name on it was not an accident. It was the point. Money bought proximity, and proximity bought opportunity. The people running these institutions knew, or should have known, what kind of man they were letting through the door.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to look at this story and see Epstein as the headline. And fine, he's in the headline. But the 47 other people accused of abuse at a single performing arts school across six decades is the actual scandal hiding in plain sight inside this report. Epstein is the famous name. Those 47 are the structural rot. Both things are true simultaneously, and only one of them is going to get the cable news chyron.
Interlochen took Epstein's $400,000. They put his name on a building. They only took the name down after a criminal conviction, which is itself a low bar. This is not a story about one bad actor who slipped through the cracks. This is a story about what happens when money functions as a character reference, when donors get deference, and when young people at the mercy of trusted adults have nowhere safe to turn. That story has been repeating itself in American institutions since before anyone reading this was born.
The lodge is demolished. The report is out. The county is reviewing the names. And somewhere, institutions very similar to Interlochen are watching this news cycle, quietly hoping their version of this report never gets commissioned. That's the part that should keep you up at night.
Comments