More alleged victims of sexual assault at the Key School in Annapolis are suing the institution under Maryland’s new Child Victims Act.

A total of six women now claim that male members of the faculty groomed and assaulted them during the 1970s when they were students at the school.

“This sort of culture persisted where teachers were having adult sexual relationships with students and the administration, instead of protecting the students, really perpetuated this idea that that was cool,” said Elisha Hawk, a partner at Jenner Law, which represents some of the victims.

Two women originally filed lawsuits against the Key School under the CVA when the law went into effect on Oct. 1. The others came in over the last two months.

“What happened to us is permanently damaging. In a K-12 school, adults are responsible for students’ well-being as minors,” said Sally Fisher Benson, one of the alleged victims filing a lawsuit. “Instead, this level of abuse has instilled ongoing trauma, which is incomprehensible to anyone who did not experience it.”

The lawsuits are part of a larger trend showing abuse in some of Maryland’s most entrenched institutions since the Child Victims Act went into effect. Those institutions include the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Cheltenham Youth Detention Center and multiple schools.

The Key School hired a private law firm to investigate the environment. It found that 10 adult employees engaged in sexual misconduct with at least 16 students from the 1970s to the 1990s.

The Key School says it has taken action to support the victims and created a therapy fund for them.

The lawsuits are currently stayed as the courts decide on a constitutional challenge to the CVA brought by the Archdiocese of Washington D.C.

The church is using a 2017 law that may have granted some immunity to churches for sexual abuse cases after victims turned 38.

The Washington Archdiocese is facing a class action suit in Prince George’s County claiming that three boys were abused by clergy and employees.