The expanded reviews were conducted to satisfy a new state provision requiring such checks of vendors by institutions largely serving children, she said.
However, the school did not check Peter E. Benjamin, 68, a videographer who had been doing freelance work at the conservatory for at least a decade, a lapse that could have legal repercussions for the conservatory should a child have been harmed as a result.
“He was not checked,’’ Schwartzman said.
The check would have revealed Benjamin’s five-year prison term in the 1990s after pleading guilty to charges of rape and sex abuse and his status as a Level 2 registered sex offender. His case included allegations of predatory behavior toward adolescent boys, and that he secretly videotaped himself having sex with three teenage boys.
On Thursday, the school sent e-mails to some 6,500 current and former students and their families, informing them they learned in mid-December that a videographer on campus was a convicted sex offender.
When asked yesterday if the school knows of any attempt by Benjamin, in person or electronically, to contact a student, Schwartzman declined to directly answer the question.
She said only that someone, who asked for anonymity, had contacted the school last December about Benjamin’s past, prompting officials immediately to terminate the videographer’s services and hire a Boston law firm to conduct an investigation.
Last week, the school also ended the employment of Benjamin Zander, 72, a marquee faculty member for more than 45 years and longtime conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, one of numerous faculty members who used the videographer’s services, though the only one to admit knowing about his past crimes.
Last night, Zander issued a letter to his youth orchestra giving his view of why he was fired, and how much he wanted to stay in the job he loved. He said he knew Benjamin’s crimes were of a “sexual nature,’’ but that he did not know details.
After Benjamin’s incarceration, Zander said, he got to know the videographer better and became persuaded that “he was profoundly remorseful and determined to turn his life around.’’
