Former UNC School of the Arts teacher sentenced for sexually abusing violin student

A former professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts was sentenced Thursday to 5 years in prison for transporting a minor to engage in sexual activity.

69-year-old Stephen Shipps plead guilty in 2021 to sexually abusing a violin student in 2002 when he taught at the University of Michigan School of Music. Shipps admitted to taking the then 16-year-old student out of state and engaging in sexual acts on at least two occasions.

Shipps was a professor at UNCSA from 1980 to 1988.

Four former UNCSA students provided accounts of similar abuse to prosecutors over the course of the trial.

Shipps is one of several former UNCSA faculty named in a civil lawsuit against the school alleging years of sex abuse.