The board of trustees of an elite preschool in Washington, D.C., told parents they were “shocked and deeply unsettled” by the allegations against the institution’s leader, James Stewart Carroll, who was arrested this week on a child enticement charge.
In a letter sent to National Child Research Center families and shared Tuesday evening with The Independent, board chair Megan Ortiz described the news, which was first revealed by The Independent, as “devastating.”
“Earlier today, NCRC’s Head of School James Carroll was arrested and charged with Attempted Enticement and Coercion of a Minor,” the missive began. “While we do not have reason to believe Mr. Carroll’s conduct involves NCRC students or families, we do understand the arrest and charging follows an FBI investigation into Mr. Carroll’s online activity on social media channels and message boards.”
The British-born Carroll is accused of having encouraged an undercover FBI agent posing online as the father of a 9-year-old boy to molest his “son” in various ways, according to the complaint. It says Carroll told the agent he preferred to see boys between the ages of 8 and 12 being abused with “no mercy,” and that he got “more turned on” when the victims are crying. Carroll, who previously served as head of outplacement at the Beauvoir School, a primary school affiliated with the Washington National Cathedral, also discussed his interest in “circumcision of teenage boys, [and] urinating on teenage boys and adults,” the complaint states.
He was caught thanks to an employee at instant-messaging app Discord, who flagged child sex abuse material uploaded to an account the FBI traced back to Carroll’s home and workplace, after which it ensnared him in an undercover sting, according to the complaint.
NCRC’s letter said that the school “immediately” placed Carroll on administrative leave upon learning of his arrest, and that Associate Head of School Francesca Gallozzi would be stepping into Carroll’s role on an interim basis, “effective immediately.”
“Mr. Carroll has been instructed that he is not permitted to return to campus for any reason and is not to contact any member of the NCRC community,” the letter continued. “His access to his email, the school’s networks, and all school owned technology has been cut off. We are fully cooperating with the authorities and will continue to do so.”
In the letter, Ortiz said she and her board colleagues were “shocked and deeply unsettled by [the] news, and that “Mr. Carroll’s reported conduct — if true — represents a grave betrayal of your trust and ours.”
According to the complaint against Carroll, the undercover FBI agent told him that he would record his son’s sexual abuse and would share footage that had to stay strictly “between me and you.”
“Of course!!!” Carroll allegedly replied.
NCRC is “committed to fostering a safe learning community for each of our students, and we expect each employee to embody these values in and out of the workplace,” the letter said, promising that classes would “continue as normal,” so as to “avoid disruption to the learning of the students that we serve.”
“We ask that you take care when discussing this matter with others as adult conversations may not be appropriate for children to hear,” it said.
Ortiz’s letter said school officials still “have much to learn in the hours and days ahead,” but that the administration would share more information as soon as it obtained further particulars.
“In difficult moments such as these, we draw on the strength of our community and our shared drive toward fulfilling our mission,” the letter concluded. “We remain, as always, deeply grateful for your trust and partnership.”
Tuition at NCRC runs almost $42,000 a year, and is “the oldest continuously operating preschool in the District of Columbia,” according to Carroll’s page on the NCRC website, which was removed a few hours after his arrest on one federal count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.
The investigation, which remains ongoing, is being led by the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Carroll, who made his first court appearance on Tuesday and remains detained, does not have a lawyer listed in court records and was unable to be reached for comment.
If convicted, Carroll faces up to 10 years in prison.
