Administrator misled parents about firing of indicted Trinity Valley teacher: investigation
A third-party investigation into allegations of indecent conduct with children by a Trinity Valley piano teacher found administrators misled parents and failed to share crucial information with them.
In a Wednesday, Dec. 18, letter to parents, the Trinity Valley School Board of Trustees called the findings of the investigation by T&M USA “unnerving and eye-opening.”
Trent Muse was arrested June 24 and charged with five counts of indecency with a child. The 28-year-old man was indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury on Dec. 13, according to court records.
Muse was employed by the Fort Worth K-12 private school for the 2022-23 school year. He was fired after a family reported that he’d exposed himself to their child during a one-on-one piano lesson at the school on April 26, 2023, according to the letter that summarized the investigative report.
Muse told administrators that the exposure was accidental following a trip to the bathroom. Then Head of School Blair Lowry chose to fire Muse over his failure to self-report the incident, according to the letter.
Lowry believed “after such a lapse in judgment, he could not be trusted around students,” the letter states.
School administrators also contacted Child Protective Services and notified law enforcement about the alleged incident.
The investigation found the school followed proper protocol when it hired Muse, including criminal background and reference checks, according to the letter.
“Importantly, T&M did not find information to suggest the School received any reports of concerning behavior by Mr. Muse prior to April 26, 2023, when the School first received such a report,” the letter states.
Even though the investigation found that Lowry “took prompt responsive action” to the initial report of Muse’s alleged exposure, she “refused to share information about the reason for Mr. Muse’s termination with other TVS employees or TVS piano families,” the letter states. CPS had not yet closed its investigation, but Lowry and other administrators told parents that Muse left the school for “personal reasons” and there was no cause for concern
According to the letter, Lowry and other administrators chose to keep the information about Muse’s alleged exposure to themselves in case it was accidental. They reviewed the piano teacher’s employment file and school-issued laptop, but didn’t initiate any internal inquiries to find out whether he had engaged in inappropriate conduct with other TVS students, the investigation found.
In May 2024, the school received a report that Muse had exposed himself to additional piano students during the time he was employed at TVS.
When the new allegations came to light, Lowry “provided a misleading narrative” to parents about Muse’s firing, the letter states. She omitted the crucial detail about Muse allegedly exposing himself. Lowry also informed parents that CPS, which closed its initial investigation around two months after the April 2023 incident, told administrators there was nothing else for the school to investigate or pursue, according to the report.
The investigation by T&M USA couldn’t find anything to support Lowry’s suggestion that CPS had communicated that to school leaders, officials said in the letter.
“This delay in clear communication may have delayed not only justice for families, but also the healing they need,” the letter states. “Such obfuscation was hurtful to our community, undermined the trust necessary for collaborative and productive relationships with families and fell short of the standards and mission we uphold.”
Lowry resigned from the school June 5 to pursue “her passion for entrepreneurship,” according to a letter sent to parents at that time. She left behind documents for review, but declined to be interviewed for the T&M USA investigation, the report states.
To increase Trinity Valley student safety, the school has added cameras to the one-on-one instruction areas. Faculty and staff also received adult-student boundary training this fall, and will continue to do so on a yearly basis, the letter states.
A search committee is working to find the next head of school, according to the Trinity Valley website. George N. King Jr. is serving as the interim head during the 2024-25 school year.
