KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Calls continue for the removal of a controversial administrator at a Kansas City-area Catholic high school who is now in his second year.
Concerns also come from at least one parent who complained about him to the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas because their daughter said a verbal interaction with him made her uncomfortable.
KSHB 41's Sarah Plake first reported in summer 2023 that Phil Baniewicz, Bishop Miege High School's newly hired president, was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing an Arizona teen in the '80s.
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Prosecutors never charged Baniewicz, and the diocese settled that lawsuit.
The concerned parents we've spoken with are not comfortable being on camera, but one woman from a well-known Miege family is.
Broken trust
Kelly Kincaid expressed concerns that, based on her experience as a student there, the school hasn’t changed its approach.
"I don't trust that Miege or the diocese is putting the safety of kids first," Kincaid said.
Kincaid hasn’t trusted Bishop Miege High School since she was a student there 25 years ago. Her track coach and longtime teacher Bill VanHecke sexually harassed and abused her on school grounds, and no one seemed to notice.
"I know what it's like to not be able to use my voice and be heard," Kincaid said.
Kincaid reported the abuse after she graduated, and VanHecke was found guilty of a misdemeanor crime related to the abuse in 2002.
More people came forward with allegations against VanHecke after Kincaid's case.
"[I] wrote a note to every administrator and teacher in the building, conveying how disappointed [I was] that they did not protect me or the other students in the school. And no one responded. No one said anything," Kincaid said.
So, when she learned about the allegations against Baniewicz, she said a wave of anger rushed over her.
"Help me understand how you're putting the safety and well-being of kids as top priority by having a man who has these accusations against him and putting him in the school environment?" Kincaid said.
The accusations
The KSHB 41 I-Team first reported Baniewicz and a former priest were accused in a 2005 civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1985. Another former priest Baniewicz was well-acquainted with was also named in that lawsuit, accused of knowing about and watching the abuse happen but failing to prevent it.
The abuse allegedly happened at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Mesa, Arizona.
The case was settled for $100,000 and was dismissed.
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While prosecutors never charged Baniewicz with a crime, they charged and reached plea deals with the two former priests named in the civil lawsuit, Dale Fushek and Mark Lehman, in separate cases involving crimes against children.
Court records we obtained from Maricopa County, Arizona, show Lehman was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1992 for molesting a young girl. He was indicted on 18 counts of child sexual abuse for molesting multiple children but took a plea deal and was sentenced to lifetime probation for two counts of attempted child sexual abuse.
According to the Diocese of Phoenix, Lehman was laicized from the church in 2006 and died in 2018.
The court documents in Fushek's case were destroyed in 2020 due to Arizona state retention statutes. We had to rely on Arizona news reports from the time and BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit online archive of Catholic Church clergy abuse.
Fushek was laicized from the church in 2010.
A few months after he was defrocked, Fushek pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor assault in a years-long court case related to charges of inappropriate sexual behavior involving students at St. Timothy's Parish.
He didn't serve any jail time and was sentenced to a year of probation.
Fushek and Baniewicz worked closely back then, having co-founded the popular global Catholic youth ministry group LifeTeen out of St. Timothy in the late '80s.
The victim in the 2005 lawsuit, William Cesolini, said Lehman, Baniewicz and Fushek threatened him and "used their position of power in St. Timothy's and The Diocese to keep Plaintiff 'quiet,' so that he would not report the abuse to his parents."
Cesolini has not responded to KSHB 41's request for comment.
Additionally, Cesolini's lawsuit said the defendants, which included the Diocese of Phoenix, created a "social culture which inappropriately focused upon sexual activity" which "fostered an environment that led to a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior at St. Timothy's Parish and within the Life Teen program."
Speaking out
Miege didn't tell families about any of this until the I-Team started asking questions.
Baniewicz’s hiring sent ripples throughout the community, which is why Kincaid and her twin sister, Katie, both Miege alumni, reached out to the I-Team.
"Bringing light to the concerns and the hundreds of people that we've heard from — from messages, emails and signatures," Kincaid said.
They started a petition, which has 825 signatures, including from parents and students.
"Questioning if they should even stay within the Miege community that they've established and built connections with," Kincaid said.
It’s against that backdrop that the I-Team learned at least one parent reported Baniewicz to the Kansas Archdiocese Office for Protection and Care in 2024.
The Office for Protection and Care is the branch of the archdiocese dedicated to abuse prevention and responding to abuse allegations.
The parent told KSHB 41 off-camera they reported that Baniewicz asked their daughter questions about school activities and her personal life that made her uncomfortable.
This interaction, which wasn’t sexual in nature, allegedly happened last spring.
Multiple parents the I-Team spoke with said their families shouldn’t have to be in this position, second-guessing any interaction with a school administrator.
After the parent reported the interaction, the archdiocese investigator, Declan Lowney, called a couple of months later, saying he presented the complaint to the school board. He said the board met, reviewed the complaints and decided not to take further action.
The parent said they don’t have anything formal in writing, just a few phone calls and text messages, which the I-Team reviewed.
Archdiocese, school responses
We can’t get any records pertaining to this complaint because neither Miege nor the archdiocese are subject to open records requests.
Miege’s administration was not willing to do an on-camera interview with us. Principal Maureen Engen did not confirm or deny the complaint against Baniewicz but said in an email “any allegations that violate legal or ethical standards will be escalated to the school board” and/or the Office for Protection and Care. Engen said the two entities review allegations separately and objectively.
Archdiocese spokesperson Marissa Easter gave us a similar response, writing in an email that any suspicions rising to the level of abuse are immediately reported to authorities.
We asked the Kansas Department for Children and Families if they’ve received any calls or complaints about Baniewicz. The spokesperson said they can’t confirm or deny that because such information is confidential.
We reached out to archdiocese investigator Lowney, who has a law enforcement background. He referred us back to the diocese.
We asked Miege's school board chair, Holly Bentley, to confirm the meeting about the Baniewicz complaint.
"Given that this is a personnel matter, I cannot get into the specifics. I want you to know that our Board is very focused on the safety and academic success of our students," Bentley said in an email.
Bentley said when the board receives an allegation against staff at the school, board members "investigate and consult with" the archdiocese.
Meanwhile, the reporting parent told me they haven’t heard of any other “weird instances” involving Baniewicz since submitting their complaint. Still, they said the situation “doesn’t feel right.”
Where to go from here
It doesn't make Kincaid feel any better, either.
"I feel incredibly disappointed and confused by the lack of awareness and insight as to how their action and decision-making are affecting the community," Kincaid said.
The same goes for her parents, Don and Patty Kincaid, who were longtime Miege supporters and financial backers.
"Dad says they're done," Kincaid said.
They poured time and money into the school for years, even after Kincaid's abuse, hoping to rectify the environment that enabled it.
In October 2023, Don stepped down from his position on the Foundation Board, citing "philosophical differences" that he finds overly challenging.
"They debated for a while if it was the right thing to do," Kincaid said. "And my mom, to this day, is still very upset, hurt."
In prior statements to KSHB and on its website, the archdiocese, Miege and Baniewicz have emphatically said he was wrongly accused and was fully vetted. They said although false accusations are the minority, they made the right choice in hiring him. They also say they take victims seriously and are listening.
Kincaid believes, rather, they are sending a message to students.
"To not trust and believe their intuition or their gut that something might be off," Kincaid said.
Julie Donelon, president and CEO of MOCSA, Kansas City’s sexual abuse and assault advocacy organization, echoes that sentiment.
"You should center all the decisions based on who is best to fulfill that role that can meet the trust, that children feel like they can confide in and be supported by," Donelon said. "That's really important to have, especially in a community that's been harmed by sexual violence."
Engen told us students can report safety concerns in several ways, including a number circulated to families.
We asked how many allegations of misconduct involving school employees were taken to the school board within the past three years. Engen said she couldn’t answer that question to “protect confidentiality.”
The Miege administration and the archdiocese laud Baniewicz as a man of “high moral character," describing him as a great fundraiser who’s already increasing enrollment and who will draw even more students to the school.
Kincaid doubts it.
We asked if those assurances make her believe the system within Miege and the Archdiocese as a whole will ever change.
"It's hard to trust and believe that it will," she said.
Baniewicz has never responded to our requests for an interview or a comment.
Resources
In Kansas, if you believe a child is being abused, you can report it several ways:
- Kansas Protection Report Center;
- Your local police department or sheriff’s office;
- The Attorney General’s Office.
If you believe this abuse is happening within the Catholic Church in Kansas, the archdiocese has a confidential report line — (913) 276-8703 — or a form you can fill out on its website.
In Missouri, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has resources for reporting child abuse within the church. It has an Independent Ombudsman who investigates allegations against an employee, volunteer, priest or deacon within the Diocese of Kansas City.
You can also call the Missouri child abuse and neglect hotline at 1-800-392-3738.
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If you have a story you'd like Sarah Plake to investigate, email her at sarah.plake@kshb.com.