SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SFGATE [San Francisco CA]
June 10, 2025
By Madilynne Medina
A former longtime teacher at one of San Francisco’s most prestigious private schools filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the school fired him for reporting another teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct.
The plaintiff, Ted Curry, worked at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in the drama department since 2000 before he was terminated on Feb. 11, the lawsuit states. He is seeking more than $10.5 million in damages, including for emotional and economical distress.
Curry told SFGATE it’s been difficult to grapple with the firing.
“My mornings are still melancholy,” Curry said. “I still struggle in the mornings to get up because I don’t have a job, and there’s no jobs rolling in, and there’s no sense of purpose, like, ‘Who am I?’”
Curry said he believes the school retaliated against him because his report of another teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct revealed that the school “covered up” the case. In 2006, Curry had reported drama teacher Peter Devine to the school’s principal, after hearing from another teacher that Devine allegedly trapped a male student against a wall, according to the lawsuit.
Curry’s report then resurfaced when another former St. Ignatius student alleged that he was sexually abused by Devine in 1996. As part of the school’s investigation, Curry informed the internal investigator about the 2006 incident, the lawsuit says.
Following his disclosure to the investigator, the suit says St. Ignatius began to retaliate against Curry “almost immediately.” The student alleging the 1996 sexual abuse subsequently filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in 2023. Curry is expected to testify in the trial on Sept. 9.
On Aug. 25, 2023, several days after the former student’s lawsuit made media headlines, Curry alleged he received a “threatening text message” from the school’s principal.
“Are you still on campus? Joe V heard that you were talking to ppl at lunch about news at 4:30 today. Can u come see us in Eddie [Fr. Eddie Reese SJ, president of St. Ignatius] office right now to let us know about this please,” the text message from the principal read, according to the lawsuit.
Curry told SFGATE that he initially believed he was helping the school by participating in the investigation, but after receiving the text message, that’s when he felt differently.
“At that moment, I knew, when I got that text, ‘Oh my god, I’m getting retaliated against,’” Curry said. “It became clear to me that I could be fired at any moment.”
The lawsuit described school administrators’ interactions with Curry following the text message as “hostile and retaliatory.” At one point, the school also issued a written warning for “unprofessional and unacceptable conduct” after Curry asked questions about work expectations during an Oct. 22 meeting, the lawsuit says.
Then in February, Curry was fired for “unsatisfactory and unacceptable performance,” the lawsuit states, and specifically for not attending an open house event while he was sick. Curry told SFGATE that he was fired mid-production while he was teaching students how to tap dance.
“I literally was led to my car by security. After 25 years, I handed in my computer, I handed in my keys, and I was escorted out with boxes in my hands of 20 years of stuff,” he said. “I don’t even know if I got everything, it was just a whirlwind.”
Curry described the experience as “humiliating.”
“It was hard to work there, but I miss my students,” he said. “I got ripped away from the school, and I couldn’t say goodbye.”
Thomas Murphy, a spokesperson for St. Ignatius, told SFGATE that as policy, administrators “do not comment on ongoing litigation.”
Devine did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:30 a.m., June 10, to correct Ted Curry’s connection to the lawsuit.