A lawsuit filed against Asheville Christian Academy alleges that the private Christian school failed to stop other students from bullying and hazing a 13-year-old boy. The academy issued a statement Tuesday, Oct. 27, denying the allegations.
The lawsuit alleges acts of bullying included creating AI-generated, sexually explicit imagery of the student and sending the boy’s personal information to a known pedophile.
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The lawsuit, filed Sept. 9 in Buncombe County Superior Court, states that the boy, identified only as “John Doe,” started school at ACA in August 2023, when he was 11.
The bullying started two years later, in fall of 2025, the lawsuit states.
On multiple occasions, students would “ritualistically” subject the boy to sexually abusive and exploitative hazing while the boy was in the shower after gym class, according to the lawsuit.
The boy would come home with ripped clothes and missing shoes because of what the other students had done to him, the court filing alleges.
Other ACA students created AI images and sexually explicit videos of the boy and circulated them among the student body, the lawsuit states. When administrators learned of this behavior, they did nothing to discipline the students involved, the lawsuit states.
The boy, who suffers from medical issues, would often be targeted after gym class, when he was too weak to respond, according to the lawsuit.
The students would at times take the boy’s emergency medication away from him, according to the lawsuit.
In one instance, the boy was in the locker room trying to escape physically and sexually abusive students who were assaulting him in the shower. While the boy was in a stall, another student kicked open the stall door and multiple students then assaulted him, punching him and beating him with a belt, according to the lawsuit.
One particular ACA student was the ringleader, and he contacted a convicted pedophile in the area and tried to set up a relationship with the pedophile in the boy’s name, even sending him the victim’s home address, the lawsuit states.
In response, ACA tried to minimize and cover-up the alleged abuse, even telling the victim’s mother that “boys will be boys,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses ACA of negligence and asks for an unspecified amount of damages.
In an emailed statement Oct. 27, ACA denied the allegations.
“Asheville Christian Academy is aware of the civil Complaint filed against it in Buncombe County. Based upon our investigation, we believe the claims are without merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously through the legal process,” the statement read. “Out of respect for the students and families involved, we will not comment further at this time.”
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Matt Marshall told the Citizen Times Oct. 27 that the Sheriff’s Office received a report of hazing at ACA, but that report did not pertain to AI-generated sexually explicit images. Marshall said an investigation into possible hazing at the school is ongoing.
Attorney Bobby Jenkins, who represents the plaintiff in the lawsuit, told the Citizen Times Oct. 27 that the majority of the litigation his office gets involved in relates to people who have been sexually abused or exploited.
“It’s very much what we do and the focus of our practice. The bottom line is, this stuff shouldn’t happen,” he said. He said that the child described in the lawsuit no longer attends ACA.
“In my view, this is not a ‘boys will be boys’ situation. This is much more serious than that,” he said. “We are always interested in talking with anyone who might be a witness who could share additional information that might relate to anything that’s alleged in the complaint.”
Reporting by Kara Fohner, Asheville Citizen Times / Asheville Citizen Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
