It’s July 7, 2020, and you pull up the KHS Alumni Facebook page. Swiping through the usual nostalgic photos and updates about various class reunions, you come across a lengthy statement posted that day, bringing your scroll to a complete halt.
“My name is Katie Pappageorge, I graduated from Kirkwood High School in 1999, I was sexually abused by Chris Stephens, the drama teacher and sponsor of KH Players. No one spoke to me about sexual abuse. The most I heard were rumors of him behaving ‘inappropriately’ with female students. I now understand it as highly coercive, controlling, and abusive.”
Just hours later, several former students took to Facebook to report their own stories of their friends or themselves sharing similar experiences with Stephens. According to a KSDK interview released on Aug. 13, 2020, Kate Hurster, a former KHS student, said she had similar incidents with Stephens. She said her experiences with Stephens included him kissing her on the lips on school grounds during his time at KHS.
Two months after Pappageorge’s post, Stephens was arrested and indicted in court on several counts of statutory rape and sodomy. Pappageorge said in her July 7, 2020 post on Facebook the abuse began when she was 13 years old while she was a member of KH Players.
“I was a child,” Pappageorge said on Facebook. “He acted out sexual scenes from plays while alone with me. He isolated me from other students, prevented me from participating in school plays, making friends with other actors and he took nude photographs of me at school and at his house.”
Pappageorge reported these instances of abuse to the Principal Franklin McCallie. Shortly afterward, Stephens resigned from teaching at the school. Pappageorge said in her July 7 Facebook post she was not treated seriously by the principal when she reported the abuse.
“[Principal] McCallie became aware that Mr. Stephens was meeting privately with me,” Pappageorge said on Facebook. “I sat in the principal’s office and we talked about how I could still participate in drama after Mr. Stephens left. Nobody spoke to me about sexual abuse.”
At the time of Pappageorge’s Facebook post, McCallie said he was a target amidst these allegations. McCallie shared a Facebook post on July 12, 2020 to the Alumni page, saying he was unfairly targeted.
“[Recently,] I have been called a ‘coward’ and accused of ‘sweeping under the rug’ sexual abuse by teachers against students,” McCallie said on Facebook. “Anyone who knows me knows these two quotes do not describe me…I must point out that my administration did not turn our heads when students brought to us instances of sexual abuse by a teacher.”
After Stephens left, it was found in KSD school board records obtained by KSDK that he made a deal with the school to resign from his position in exchange for the school to not look into the abuse allegations in order to save his career. It was later discovered through independent investigation by Encompass Resolution in June 2021 that Stephens’ behavior was not an isolated incident.
“Information relating to 30 accused staff members was examined [in all],” the report said. “Alleged conduct ranged from verbal comments, to texting, to hugging, to sexual assault spanned five decades.”
Students were questioned in the report about sexual abuse reporting at the district, with some saying that there was simply a lack of information about reporting cases of sexual abuse. Furthermore, KSD staff members interviewed in the report said they were discouraged to report fellow staff members acting inappropriately toward students because of “The Kirkwood Way.”
“Some expressed concerns that protection of the reputation of the district as a whole or specific individuals in the district factored into decision making,” the report said. “‘The Kirkwood Way’ was cited, and described as a predisposed belief that nothing bad could happen in our school community.”
In light of the report, a sexual assault lawsuit in 2024 against the school forced KSD to pay $375,000 to the victims according to St. Louis Post Dispatch. Meanwhile, Stephens entered a plea deal in late 2024 with the victims according to KSDK. He was sentenced to five years of probation and barred from teaching anyone under the age of 18 according to KSDK. In an interview with TKC last month, Pappageorge told TKC about the final conviction of Stephens.
“I hope Kirkwood School District never again covers up sexual abuse by staff members the way that it did when we were students,” Pappageorge said. “I hope the culture of the district shifts to value all students fully and to address abuse proactively and publicly.”
