Trinity School of Midland Responds to Arrest of 4 Administrators

MIDLAND,TX- Trinity School in Midland has responded to the arrest of 4 administrators last week.

A letter released to the public reads as follows:

Dear Trinity Community,

As many of you are aware, Midland police were on campus this morning to detain Head of School Shelby Hammer, Director of Admissions Adrianne Clifton, Head of Middle School Chrystal Myers, and Dean of Students Todd Freese in order to question them for failure to report abuse or neglect. I write this evening to let you know that the Board of Trustees and Administrative Leadership Team are aware of the situation and committed to navigating these difficult circumstances with the students’ best interest in mind.

As you may know, Shelby Hammer wrote to you recently to share information about Trinity’s child protection policies and protocols, including mandatory reporting. Mandatory reporting and student safety is taken very seriously at our school. While we cannot provide specific details given the active investigation, we can share that to the best of our knowledge, the matters in question occurred years ago and were reported to Child Protective Services. Please rest assured that we are continuing to cooperate with the authorities.

Tim Jones has been asked to serve as Acting Head of School. We are grateful to him, administrators, and the faculty and staff who continue to hold the welfare and safety of your children as their highest priority and who stepped up today to care for your children and ensure that their learning was uninterrupted.

We will continue to share information with you as best we can.

Trinity School administrators Todd Freese, Dean of Students, Shelby Hammer, Head of the School, Chrystal Myers, Head of the Middle School, and Adrianne Clifton, Director of Admissions, were booked into the Midland County Jail on Friday for failure to report with intent to conceal abuse.

According to documents, the victim alleges she was sexually assaulted at Trinity School from September 2019 until December 2019. The victim’s friend told Todd Freese what happened the day the last incident occurred. Freese did not report the sexual assault to a state agency.

Texas state law requires that all school employees report abuse to law enforcement, CPS, or another state agency with 2 days of the incident.

When the victim’s parents learned of the assault, they set up a meeting with administrators at the school, but no one reported the event. The parents withdrew the fictim from the school in 2020 and Shelby Hammer sent the family a confidential waiver and a release of all claims. A portion of tuition paid would be refunded to the family if the signed the forms.

In exchange, the family would not pursue any litigation with Trinity School and there would be no admission of wrongdoing.

The investigation is still ongoing, and this story will be updated as more information becomes available.