A Milwaukee woman has filed a lawsuit in Milwaukee County, accusing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and St. Matthias Catholic Parish and School of looking the other way while a former teacher kept working with children even after parents raised red flags.
The complaint, filed June 30, alleges that abuse at St. Matthias took place between 2010 and 2012 and that the way school leaders responded left the plaintiff with long-lasting emotional and psychological damage.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the lawsuit says then-principal Susan Booth did not pass along a report from a parent that teacher Kevin Buelow had inappropriately touched a child, and that no meaningful investigation followed. The filing further claims school leaders did not limit Buelow's unsupervised access to students even after warning signs emerged.
Local coverage identifies the former teacher as Kevin Buelow, who was convicted in Milwaukee County and sentenced in March 2024 to 20 years in prison for first-degree sexual assault of a child. FOX6 reported on that sentence, while CBS58 noted that Buelow had earlier received about 6½ years in Waukesha County for related convictions tied to Holy Apostles School in New Berlin.
Archdiocese and school response
The Archdiocese has said it notified families when criminal charges surfaced and that routine background checks and safe-environment training had not turned up any prior problems with Buelow. Reporting by TMJ4 quoted an Archdiocese spokeswoman saying the Archdiocese notified both schools and that background checks cannot predict future misconduct.
What the complaint alleges
The lawsuit accuses school officials, including Booth, of choosing not to investigate or report Buelow and of allowing him to meet with students in secluded areas, including the church's bridal ready room. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the complaint describes a parish director seeing Buelow sitting on a couch with the plaintiff, with the door partially closed, and later telling Booth about it.
The plaintiff, who is not named in the filing, later reported the abuse to police as a teenager and lists diagnoses including PTSD, OCD and depression. The lawsuit was filed by attorneys with the Fierberg National Law Group and Pitman, Kalkhoff, Sicula & Dentice and seeks damages to be determined at trial.
Legal implications and context
The complaint also claims the parish and Archdiocese did not follow the Archdiocese's own child-protection policies, tying this case into broader scrutiny of how the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has handled abuse allegations over the years.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee publishes its "Promise to Protect" safeguarding materials online, outlining those policies. Watchdog site BishopAccountability.org has documented past litigation and bankruptcy disputes involving the Archdiocese.
The new case is in its early stages in Milwaukee County court and could take months to move through pretrial proceedings, with upcoming court filings likely to set the pace and timing for any future hearings.
