In the quiet morning hours before class on Thursday, Sept. 19, more than 100 University School of Nashville faculty and staff members cast anonymous ballots in the Payne Library, a sunny multipurpose space on the school’s second floor. Joel Bezaire, a longtime middle school math teacher, stood in the doorway to greet colleagues.
“What was necessary to support transparency, inclusion, fairness, and neutrality in this vote was an announcement email on our @usn.org accounts from a party that has not expressed a public opinion on this matter, has a strong reputation in the school community, and is far enough removed from the events in question to have some semblance of impartiality,” Bezaire wrote later that day in an email to USN's board of trustees. “I was asked to play this role. I don’t believe I was the first administrator asked to play this role, but I was the first who agreed.”
20 teachers co-sign letter contesting administration’s response to a former student who said a teacher groomed her
Then Bezaire let the results speak for themselves. With 15 abstentions and five in support, ballots returned 95 votes of "no confidence" in Amani Reed, the embattled USN director seen by some as the most culpable in the school’s mishandling of a sexual misconduct investigation into former teacher Dean Masullo. Quinton Walker, Reed’s No. 2 administrator and the previous head of the high school, lost his vote of confidence 78 to 12, with 22 abstentions. Bezaire then informed the board that its chair — Eric Kopstain, a USN parent and vice chancellor at Vanderbilt — was underwater 78 to 6, with 28 abstentions.
The USN board of trustees, led by a four-person executive committee, continues to stand behind Reed and Walker. Kopstain has continued in his role leading the 28-person body, which met Monday for its annual retreat and also includes Vanderbilt surgeon Alex Jahangir and Scene contributor Chris Chamberlain. (The full list of trustees can be found at this link.) Kopstain, restaurateur Benjamin Goldberg, banker Jim Rienets and Kristin Wilson, chief of operations and performance in the mayor’s office, are officers of the board. Wealthy Nashville families have traditionally favored the private school as a more relaxed, left-leaning alternative to Montgomery Bell Academy, Harpeth Hall or Ensworth High School.
In August, a 2024 alumna of USN shared with the board her thorough, disturbing narrative enduring sexual advances from former English teacher Dean Masullo, setting off a sequence of events that has fractured USN. The extensive account detailed years of behavior from Masullo that gradually wore down professional boundaries between student and teacher and moved quickly toward sexual contact once the student turned 18. Connor Daryani originally reported on the account for the Nashville Banner.
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Since then, the situation has intensified as parents, faculty and students call for new school leadership. Faculty say they are embarrassed and disturbed by how Reed, Walker and Kopstain seem to have scrambled to protect the school’s reputation and legal liability rather than explain the situation to the school community. After initial meetings with Reed and Walker, the affected student was cut out of the investigation into Masullo, which USN considers an employment matter rather than an investigation into sexual misconduct, according to multiple accounts.
On Tuesday, Sept. 24, selected board members — including Kopstain — met with the student’s family. The Scene reviewed a summary of the meeting written by the student’s father, John Bass. He criticizes the members for refusing to describe the situation as "sexual misconduct" and denying that board members, as well as Reed and Walker, knew the extent of Masullo’s behavior before firing him.
Other parents have co-signed multiple letters criticizing Reed, Walker and Kopstain and petitioning the school for information. Currently, parents are adding signatures to a letter protesting the school’s latest plan to investigate Masullo’s tenure at USN. On Friday, Sept. 20, USN announced a new entity — the Ad Hoc Committee for School Safety — and a new Community Support Task Force in an email titled “We are truly sorry.”
Parents have protested the continued involvement of Reed, who will be consulted throughout new investigations, and Kopstain, who serves on the new school safety committee.
“We are especially concerned about any involvement by the Board Executive Committee and Head of School Amani Reed in the new investigation,” reads the latest statement from parents. “Because they were involved in the previous investigation, this looks very much like a conflict of interest. It is likely that all members of the current Board of Trustees will be subjects of the new investigation, to some extent. Because of this, the only way to promote confidence in the full independence of the new investigation is through an oversight committee entirely independent of the Board and the current administration.”
More than 250 students, alumni and parents sign letter agreeing to withhold monetary donations to the school
Last week, more than 200 parents sent another letter to the board expressing no confidence in Reed and Walker. The mother of one 11th-grade student describes the current atmosphere at the school, which commands an annual tuition close to $30,000, as a "civil war."
One current high school student, speaking with the Scene on the condition of anonymity, says USN is barely still functioning as a school; assignment deadlines have been extended indefinitely, faculty are pulled into meetings, and teachers have been seen crying at school. Current students, organizing under a school-sanctioned USN student union, wear handmade buttons that read “Listen Protect Act” and “JUSTICE NOW” in support of their former classmate’s public stance: they believe USN can only survive the current crisis of mistrust after the resignations — or removal — of Reed, Walker and Kopstain. Students jokingly trade the hashtag #WheresAmani to highlight the top administrator’s scarce public appearances.
Hired just two years ago, Reed looked like the ideal successor to longtime director Vince Durnan. Reed had led several peer schools, including Seattle’s Lakeside Academy and The School at Columbia University. For the first time, USN hired a person of color to lead the predominantly white prep school. Reed serves on the board of the National Association of Independent Schools, a body that has extensive guidelines for how to properly handle sexual misconduct investigations.
Update, Oct. 1: After publication, the school shared a statement with the Scene that reads, in part:
“The USN Board of Trustees deeply regrets that the school’s handling of the investigation into the behavior of former teacher Dean Masullo has caused extensive pain within our community. USN is pursuing a new investigation to achieve a comprehensive and transparent assessment of what we did well, what we did poorly, and what we failed to do in our response to this crisis. This investigation is led by an independent law firm with a broad mandate to fully review the previous investigation findings including the actions of leadership at both the school and Board level. The scope of the engagement has been shared on USN’s website.”
Disclosure: Motycka is a 2013 graduate of the University School of Nashville.
