Minneapolis charter school facing another sexual abuse lawsuit
Charter school faces new sex abuse lawsuit
A former student is suing Best Academy alongside a youth development program known as Hospitality House after he was sexually assaulted and videotaped by a former teacher, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A former student is suing Best Academy alongside a youth development program known as Hospitality House after he was sexually assaulted and videotaped by a former teacher, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
Hjermstad recorded ‘thousands of videos’ of sexual abuse
What we know:
A former Best Academy student says he was 8-years-old when he was first introduced to Aaron Hjermstad in 2016.
Hjermstad was a teacher at the Minneapolis-based charter school and also coached the student and his brothers on the Hospitality House basketball team.
Video recordings of the child were among thousands of videos Hjermstad recorded that show him assaulting children predominantly during sleepovers at his house, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
In November 2025, Hjermstad was sentenced to 12 life sentences after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing and recording videos of 12 children. He was previously convicted in 2020 of abusing four young boys.
Video evidence recovered from Hjermstad suggests he sexually abused at least 127 children over the course of several decades. The trove of videos was highly-organized with child victims labeled and categorized.
"I don’t know of any other cases in other counties in Minnesota that have reached this number," Hennepin County prosecutor Dan Allard recently told the FOX 9 Investigators.
"It’s a shocking number of kids that he victimized that are going to have to deal with the trauma of what they went through at the hands of this guy."
Hjermstad’s path of abuse spans multiple schools dating back to 1998, including Excell Academy in Brooklyn Park, where he also worked as a teacher and basketball coach.
The backstory:
In May 2015, the first Excell student reported Hjermstad sexually assaulted him during a sleepover at his house. Hjermstad was suspended by Hospitality House at the time but was reinstated by Hospitality House in November 2015.
The FOX 9 Investigators previously found Hjermstad’s teaching contract with Excell was not renewed but he was later hired by the Mastery School (now known as Best Academy) in July 2016, where he continued to sexually abuse children.
"Had Mastery School and Hospitality House taken prior reports of Hjermstad’s sexual misconduct and exploitation seriously or exercised reasonable diligence in screening and vetting him before hire, these victims could have been protected from harm," said Attorney Tyler Cottrill, who represents the victim in the new lawsuit.
The charter school removed its founder and longtime CEO last year, as more allegations of the school's response to Hjermstad came to light.
What they're saying:
Harvest Best Academy previously issued a statement saying the charges against Aaron Hjermstad were "deeply disturbing." A spokesperson for the school said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Hospitality House has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Dig deeper:
The most recent lawsuit was filed a year after the Minnesota State Supreme Court ruled that Best Academy was not immune from liability in a separate lawsuit that accused the school of negligently hiring Hjermstad.
That lawsuit has since been settled.