Horror in California: A prestigious school has been engaged in cases of sexual abuse of its students for 40 years | the Chronicle

The Thacher School, a prestigious boarding school in the city of Ojai (California), has been in the eye of the storm for a series of cases of sexual abuse that have been perpetrated in this establishment for almost 40 years. The college tuition fee is almost $ 65,000 per year.

The report detailing these abuses has 91 pages and was prepared by the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson. This paper details cases and inappropriate comments that began decades ago, in 1980. Six perpetrators have been identified.

After the report was released, the Thacher school board issued a statement in which they self-criticized what happened. They claimed that the school “It has failed to protect its students and alumni, and also in some cases to address student concerns about reports of sexual misconduct.”

Among several cases, that of a student who accused her English teacher of having raped her several times in the 1980s stands out. The first of these attacks happened when she was 16 and when she consulted the deputy principal of the school about what had happened, he asked her if she had “Amused” the act.

The law firm also examined more than 40,000 emails, texts, personal documents, directories, magazines, disciplinary letters, board documents and directors’ notes, as well as three Instagram accounts reporting some of the allegations. ‘abuse.

Daniel W. Yih, chairman of Thacher’s board of directors, wrote a letter apologizing for the institution’s actions. “To survivors of sexual abuse and their families in our community, we say we are deeply sorry. We have learned a lot about our history over the past few months, much of which has been difficult to manage. ” Express.

For its part, Blossom Beatty Pidduck, principal of the school, also commented on the matter. “I deeply regret the way we – your school – have failed you and the pain and damage our failure has caused”, commented.

Thacher School was founded in 1889 as an exclusive boarding school for men, but since 1977 it has started admitting women. It is located in Ojai, a Ventura community in California. According to its website, its students are from 24 states and 51% of them are minorities. Raul pacheco, singer of the group Ozomatli; and the actor Noah wyle, are some of its exceptional graduates.