Lawsuit alleges Hope Christian School ignored sexual abuse allegations against teacher

A lawsuit filed Tuesday against a Christian school in Albuquerque alleges it knowingly allowed a teacher with “decades-long allegations” of sexual abuse to continue teaching and interacting with students.

In July, 66-year-old Kelly McEachran, a former Hope Christian teacher, was indicted on criminal sexual penetration of a minor and seven counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.

The alleged victims are two girls, both under the age of 13, whom McEachran taught at Hope Christian School. The alleged abuse occurred at different periods, between 2016-2017 and 2024-2025.

The lawsuit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court, the second to be filed against Hope Christian in the past month, lists the school, McEachran, Head of School Terry Heisey and Principal Robyn Taylor as defendants. The plaintiff is listed as “A.D., as next friend to L.D., a minor.”

According to the lawsuit, administrators at Hope Christian School, which has campuses in Albuquerque from elementary to high school, knew about the teacher’s prior sexual misconduct allegations and continued to allow him to teach middle school students.

“Hope Christian was aware of numerous additional allegations of sexual impropriety against McEachran and his conduct with Hope Christian students dating back to at least 1996, yet it did nothing to address them,” the lawsuit states.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that McEachran would regularly demean his students, calling them names like “idiots, morons, homos and losers.”

A spokesperson for Hope Christian said they were saddened and concerned to learn about the allegations against McEachran, but they will fully cooperate with law enforcement.

“Any behavior that compromises the safety, dignity or wellbeing of a student stands in direct opposition to everything we believe in,” Megan Yocum, spokesperson for Hope Christian, wrote in a statement Friday.

The lawsuit states that the prosecutor handling McEachran’s criminal case said in open court that Hope Christian “hasn’t been necessarily transparent” with law enforcement investigations.

McEachran does not currently have an attorney for the pending lawsuit. Christopher Dodd, lawyer for McEachran in the criminal case, denied all allegations against his client.

Police were first dispatched to reports of child abuse at Hope Christian on April 7.

An 11-year-old told detectives the alleged abuse went on for several months during the past school year, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. The girl told police McEachran sexually abused her “multiple times a week.”

McEachran was put on administrative leave in April, the same day police arrived, but he was still allowed to “have a presence at the school,” according to the lawsuit. He continued to grade assignments, left gifts for students including candy and T-shirts and attended athletic events for the school.

The lawsuit alleges McEachran resigned rather than Hope Christian firing him.

Prosecutors filed a pretrial detention motion to keep McEachran behind bars until his trial. In his response, Dodd said there was no evidence McEachran posed a threat to anyone by being released from jail.

“These accusations are not supported by any evidence except for the statements of the two students,” Dodd wrote in his response. “And yet, McEachran sits in jail pursuant to a decision that is supposed to be ‘the carefully limited exception.’”

McEachran was arrested in Idaho by U.S. Marshals in June.

Dodd previously told the Journal he was on vacation and was in the process of turning himself in when he was arrested. Other students have also called the Albuquerque Police Department with information about more potential victims.

An indictment was filed after his arrest, charging him in the alleged abuse of the second girl during the 2016-2017 school year. In that indictment, McEachran was also charged with 11 charges for allegedly patronizing prostitutes from Oct. 2024 to April 2025.

Earlier this month, another lawsuit was filed from a former student — identified as B.L. — who alleged McEachran sexually harassed her in 1994 when he was her substitute teacher. That lawsuit alleges that “like other child predators, Defendant McEachran exhibited gradual grooming behaviors in an attempt to gain Plaintiff’s trust and desensitize her to boundaries.”

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Tuesday claim that Hope Christian continuously protected McEachran amid his sexual abuse allegations. The lawsuit alleges McEachran was friends with head of the school, Heisey, and he was not properly reprimanded because of the friendship.

When the student’s parents emailed Heisey to address the allegations, he deflected questions, the lawsuit alleges.

“Do you know if this will be public?” Heisey asked the victim’s parents, according to the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs of the lawsuit are seeking punitive damages as well as accountability from the school.

“Our client seeks accountability for Hope Christian and its administrators betraying their responsibility to protect students from sexual abuse and desires to create lasting change to prevent future harm,” Larissa Lozano, attorney for the plaintiffs, wrote in a statement.