Germantown Academy Fires Popular Spanish Teacher Amid Allegations of Sexual Abuse
Reed Skoug was fired by the prestigious private school on Monday morning.
Fired Germantown Academy Spanish teacher Reed Skoug (Image via YouTube)
On Monday morning, Germantown Academy fired high-school Spanish teacher Reed Skoug after a former student came forward with allegations that she sexually abused him while he was enrolled at the school.
Philly Mag has learned that a report was filed with the prestigious private school in 2020. But the school allegedly took no action until the accuser recently pressed the issue, according to a source familiar with the accusations and the school’s response to them. Skoug has not been charged with a crime. She is no longer permitted on school property.
Rich Schellhas, Germantown Academy’s head of school, is expected to send an email to Skoug’s students and their parents by Tuesday morning announcing her departure, but it is unclear what details, if any, the school will share about the reasons for her termination. (Schellhas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Skoug, a 56-year-old Montgomery County resident, was a “very popular” teacher at the school, according to another former student, who was shocked when we told her about the allegations against Skoug. The teacher’s name came up in a Germantown Academy alumni magazine interview with Hollywood stunt double Josh Fried, a 2006 Germantown Academy graduate who described her as “amazing” and “incredible.”
Reached on Monday morning, another teacher at the school, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, said word was just leaking out among the staff. “I just don’t know how to process any of this,” the teacher told Philly Mag.
Skoug wasn’t just a teacher at Germantown Academy. She was also the head of Galloway House, one of seven “houses” in the school’s house system. Each house contains 70 students; one adult — the “house head” — “oversee[s] a child’s progress for all four years of upper school,” according to a description on the Germantown Academy website.
As for the allegations against Skoug, the former student claims that she repeatedly sexually abused him when he was a teenager. It’s unclear how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. Skoug did not respond to emails or voicemails requesting comment.
The news of Skoug’s termination comes just seven months after the Montgomery County district attorney charged former Germantown Academy teacher Michael Cheatle with repeatedly sexually assaulting one of his high-school students over a one-year period. Cheatle pleaded not guilty. His case is ongoing.
