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The Thacher School, one of California’s most elite private schools, on Wednesday admitted decades of allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and boundary crossing by faculty members at Ojai’s boarding school, which costs $ 64,700 per year.
In an extraordinary public disclosure, the allegations at the exclusive school were compiled into a report posted on its website. In it, the attorneys Thacher hired exposed episodes of alleged rape, trial and error, unwanted touching and inappropriate commentary dating back 40 years in surprising level of detail for a private institution. The 90-page document identified six alleged perpetrators by name and recounted in lengthy passages the accusations of misconduct and the alleged efforts of former school administrators to cover up the complaints and blame the teenage victims.
In the most serious episode described, a former student in the 1980s accused her high school English teacher of repeatedly raping her, starting at the age of 16. The school did not call the police, but sent a deputy principal who allegedly asked the girl if she liked sex, according to the report. The advisor later included her unfortunate involvement with a faculty member in a letter of recommendation for the college.
The report was completed by Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, which directors hired in August to conduct an investigation spurred by an alumni social media campaign that included the @rpecultureatthacher Instagram account. The account described itself as a safe space for victimized people at school and led to the law firm survey, which included interviews with more than 120 former students, parents, faculty and current staff. and old.
No defendants in the report were charged, although Ventura County authorities told The Times they were reviewing the specific incidents. Thacher officials last week shared with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office a summary of around 20 incidents describing a myriad of alleged misconduct, according to the staff sergeant. Hector Macias, who heads the department’s sexual assault unit. The school didn’t provide detectives with the 90-page report until Wednesday, the same day it was released to the public.
We’ll look at them on a case-by-case basis, Macias said of the allegations. We will continue to work with the school and their law firm to verify some of this information and see if the victims are willing to cooperate.
According to Captain Eric Buschow, investigators were examining whether the incidents constituted crimes and whether teachers and school officials had complied with their obligation to inform law enforcement about suspected child abuse. Given the extent of the allegations over four decades, authorities expect many incidents to fall outside the statute of limitations.
If this law has expired, you have cases that cannot be continued regardless of the outcome. So that’s a concern, Buschow added.
The allegations in the report dated back to the 1980s and included a case involving an English teacher at the boarding school. One student alleged that while she felt lost and homesick in her first year, the teacher befriended her and then kissed and touched her body without her consent. She alleged numerous cases of rape which began in her second year and lasted until her first year.
Students and faculty members appeared aware and even concerned about the association of English teachers with the young girl, according to the report. Administrators also seemed to be aware: Between the girls’ first and second years, the teacher received a performance appraisal from the then-faculty dean, who urged: you need to put some distance between her and you next year.
During the students’ first year, she shared information with her mother, who in turn contacted the school. In the report, the student recounted being interviewed by the dean and said he insisted on getting specific details about teachers’ sexual conduct and asked her about specific sexual acts and if she did. appreciated. The dean denied asking if she appreciated, according to the report. He could not immediately be contacted for comment by The Times.
After being confronted with the administrators, the teacher resigned and left the campus. The authors of the reports found no written evidence that anyone in Thacher ever reported the teacher to the police, although the school’s college recommendation letter to the student mentions his unfortunate involvement with a faculty member.
A psychologist who spoke with the student and who was not affiliated with Thacher reported possible child abuse to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office three weeks after the teacher’s resignation.
The sheriff’s office closed the case, noting at the time that the complainant refused to participate. The psychologist then wrote to then-principal Willard Bill Wyman, stating that he and the school administration had convinced the student’s mother that it would be in the best interests of her daughters. not to file a complaint, because that would isolate him more from her. peers.
Wyman, who ran the school from 1975 to 1992, was also charged with improper conduct. The school hired outside lawyers in 1992 after a group of faculty and students approached an administrator with complaints. These lawyers discovered that the former principal of the school had engaged in offensive verbal behavior and inappropriate touching towards students and staff and uncovered 17 incidents, including one where Wyman asked two girls to wear tight clothes and sexy at a dinner at his house and placing his hand on a student’s buttocks.
Wyman, who has since died, resigned in 1992, although his resignation letter does not detail the allegations made against him.
Thachers school board chairman Daniel W. Yih wrote in a letter accompanying the report that none of the defendants remained employed by the school.
To the survivors of sexual misconduct and their families in our community, we are deeply sorry, Yih wrote, adding: We have learned a lot about our history over the past few months which has been difficult to cope with.
In a statement, Thachers’ board of directors acknowledged the consequences of its failure to exercise proper oversight and enforce mandatory reporting of allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement.
The impact on the students has been profound. Many have suffered lasting harm not only from the sexual misconduct itself, but also from the schools’ handling of the misconduct, the administrators said in a statement posted on a school website. .
The report detailed numerous cases of default by faculty members and administrators.
Faculty member Michael Mulligan, the dean of students in the 1980s who later succeeded Wyman as the school principal, had previously worked with a teacher at a New England boarding school who had a relationship inappropriate relationship with a female soccer player, according to the report. Mulligan reported the misconduct of the teachers, who were then asked to leave at the end of the school year.
But a few years later, in 1987, that same teacher was hired at Thacher as a women’s college football coach, according to the report. Mulligan backed the hiring because he knew the man was a great football coach and didn’t think he would make the same mistake on Thacher, according to the report.
When a teacher later reported to Mulligan that the soccer coach spent a lot of time alone with a student, including in the coaches’ house and car, Mulligan asked the teacher to advise the coach on this. .
According to the report, Mulligan said he regretted not facing the coach himself when the concern was raised. That same student then met Mulligan, according to the report, and detailed a party where the coach invited her over to his home and massaged her back and shoulders. Parents of the students said they contacted Mulligan as well, but the coach kept his job.
Mulligan told lawyers for the school that he did not recall being told about the unwanted back massage and added that if he had heard of inappropriate or unwanted physical contact with a student, he would have confronted the coach and allegedly kicked him off campus.
Once at college, this same student crossed paths with two others who shared their own experiences with the coach, which happened after hers. The three decided to speak to Mulligan together in mid-June 1997. At this meeting, according to the report, one of the students said Mulligan explained that the coach was alone and confused.
According to the report, Mulligan confirmed the meeting but said his memory of the details differed. After hearing the allegations from one of the students who said she was groped by the coach, Mulligan said he told the coach to quit and leave campus. Mulligan said the coaches’ conduct was reported to law enforcement although he does not recall making the report himself. The law firm noted that it could not find a record of when a report was made or to which agency, and the coach continued to work at other schools.
In a June 12 letter to alumni, faculty, staff and parents, Mulligan said during the investigation, several alleged sexual assault victims came forward to share their experiences, prompting him to apologize for his conduct.
I particularly regret situations where certain decisions I have made have contributed to this suffering, and I fully accept this criticism, he wrote.
My fervent hope is that the conclusions the Council has reached and the corrective actions they and the current administration are taking as a result will go a long way in doing the best job … that we can, with and for their students.
Releasing the findings, Thacher officials announced that the school will take corrective action to address and prevent sexual misconduct. Future recommendations on decisions and policies would include input from a working group created by the head of the school.
The school said it would establish a comprehensive protocol for reports of sexual misconduct between adults and students, which would include the intervention of a third-party investigator and a response team trained to deal with such allegations; it will adopt policies to inform the school community and other institutions regarding outgoing employees; and tighten restrictions on the hiring of people with a reported history of sexual misconduct.
He also said he would increase resources for students to report sexual misconduct and improve counseling services.
Paul Mones, a sexual abuse attorney who represents a victim interviewed for the report, described the report’s findings as sadly typical of private boarding schools.
Because these are closed environments, where teachers generally live on campus, and students live there, the lines of appropriate behavior, even grooming behaviors, are blurred, Mones said, adding, it appears here that the teachers there were really able to operate or lead their lives with these students with impunity.
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