Utah State University’s president announced Wednesday that a piano professor’s classes have been reassigned amid a new investigation after a former student alleged she was sexually assaulted by the teacher in 1994.
The announcement comes a week after the former student, Jaime Aikele Caliendo, filed a civil lawsuit lodging allegations against professor Dennis Hirst. In the lawsuit, Caliendo says she was 17 and Hirst was 23 when he assaulted her in his apartment. Hirst was then a teacher in USU’s Youth Conservatory.
USU President Noelle Cockett emailed students and employees in the music department on Wednesday, announcing that Hirst’s classes will be reassigned to other professors this fall while a four- to six-week investigation by outside lawyers take place.