The Thacher School

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The Thacher School
ThacherSeal.png
Location
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Ojai
,
California

United States
Coordinates34°27′54″N 119°10′57″W / 34.46500°N 119.18250°W / 34.46500; -119.18250Coordinates: 34°27′54″N 119°10′57″W / 34.46500°N 119.18250°W / 34.46500; -119.18250
Information
TypePrivate, independent, boarding
Established1889
Head of SchoolBlossom B. Pidduck
Faculty60
Grades9-12
Enrollment260
Average class size11 students
Student to teacher ratio6:1
Campus427 acres (1.73 km2)
Color(s)Green and orange
Athletics36 teams; 10 interscholastic sports
MascotToad
NicknameCasa de Piedra
Websitehttps://www.thacher.org/

The Thacher School is an elite[1] private co-educational boarding school in Ojai, California. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-educational boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The first co-ed graduating class was the class of 1978.

Notable programs[]

All students are required to ride and care for a horse during their first year. An annual gymkhana event gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their horsemanship in competition with each other. Throughout the year, students are encouraged to take weekend camping trips into the local mountains. And each fall and spring the whole school breaks into small groups for week-long trips that may include backpacking, rock climbing, cycling, sailing, horse camping, canyoneering, backcountry skiing and kayaking.

On November 8, 2004, the San Jose Mercury News reported that the school received its largest alumni donation ever from Owen Jameson. The $10 million gift was part of the $82 million Campaign For Thacher,[2] concluded in 2007, that sought to improve Thacher's financial aid program and facilities, and raise its faculty salaries and endowment. Jameson's donation was specifically directed towards expanding Thacher's scholarship opportunities for youths from minority or low-income families.[3]

History and culture[]

Sherman Day Thacher did not arrive on the Casa de Piedra ranch with the intent of creating a school.[4] The son of Yale professor Thomas Anthony Thacher and the former Elizabeth Baldwin Sherman (a granddaughter of Founding Father Roger Sherman), he elected to move to California to care for his brother who needed the "fresh air" cure for his tuberculosis. While spending time on the ranch, Thacher was contacted by an old Yale colleague who had a son who desperately wanted to go to Yale but needed tutoring before he would be prepared to attend. Thacher accepted the offer and tutored his colleague's son in both academics and maturity with his unique method of blending studies with outdoor living and horsemanship. Soon other friends were sending their sons out to California to receive Thacher's instruction and a school was born. Though it began as a feeder school to Yale, students were also attracted by the "emphasis on the lessons of the outdoors, hiking and rafting and riding on horseback"[5] and "nearly every boy has a horse of his own and takes full care of it".[6]

Disclosure of sexual abuse, retaliation, and cover-ups[]

In a report[7] posted on the Thacher website on June 16, 2021 the school publicly acknowledged decades of student sexual misconduct, harassment and “boundary crossing” (including violent rapes) by faculty members.[8] The 91-page report compiled by attorneys hired by Thacher "laid out episodes of alleged rape, groping, unwanted touching and inappropriate comments dating back 40 years in a level of detail surprising for a private institution,"[9] according to the Los Angeles Times. The document identified six alleged perpetrators by name, recounted accusations of misconduct and alleged efforts by former school administrators to cover up complaints and blame teenage victims. Thacher's board of trustees concluded, among other findings, that many students "suffered lasting harm not just from the sexual misconduct itself but also from the School’s handling of the misconduct." The board also concluded that the school "tolerated and at times fostered a culture that valued the experiences and voices of boys and men over those of girls and women and that allowed sexual misconduct to be minimized, ignored, and dismissed."[10]

The allegations, per further reporting in the Times, "sparked a broad criminal inquiry" by the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. "Investigators were examining potential sex crimes as well as whether Thacher administrators committed crimes by not alerting police to suspected child abuse, according to the Sheriff’s Office."[11]

On July 28, 2021 the Thacher Board of Trustees unanimously voted to remove the name of its former head of school from the campus dining hall and athletic field.[12] In a letter to the school community, board chair Dan Yih wrote that, “the high honor associated with a name on a building is fundamentally inconsistent with the gravity and serious consequences of Michael Mulligan’s failure to protect Thacher students from harm.” The Trustees also voted to remove former headmaster Bill Wyman’s name from a hiking trail named for him. Wyman, who served as headmaster at the school from 1975 to 1992 and died in 2014, had engaged in “a pattern of offensive verbal conduct and improper touching” toward female students and staff.[13] Wyman resigned after the discovery.

Campus and facilities[]

The campus, nestled in the foothills in the northeast corner of the Ojai Valley, about 85 miles north of Los Angeles, was originally the Casa de Piedra ranch. Buildings reflect a variety of architectural styles, including California Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival. An $82-million capital campaign that concluded in 2007 was responsible for adding a new performing arts center and a student commons, two new dormitories, faculty housing, and numerous other improvements. Residential areas are organized to support a tight-knit campus community where faculty members and their families live and work in close proximity to students. In addition to the normal boarding school mix of athletic facilities (gymnasium, tennis courts, track, three fields, fitness center, and pool, although the pool is not used for athletic events), the campus has extensive barns, pastures, arenas, and fields for equestrian use, including a network of trails that links campus to the adjacent Los Padres National Forest.

Despite the recent campus developments, Thacher still retains its casual ranch appearance with its unassuming style of architecture, choosing to defer to the Ojai Valley's natural beauty.[14]

The school also maintains base camps in the Sespe Wilderness and the Eastern Sierra's Golden Trout Wilderness, which it uses for back country trips, educational programs and alumni retreats.

Mascot and traditions[]

While The Thacher School's symbol has always been that of the Pegasus, its mascot is the toad.[15] In 1962 Nick Thacher, CdeP 1963, and grandson of Sherman Day Thacher, spearheaded the movement to name the school's athletic teams the Toads. He said that "unlike the insecure schools whose machismo necessitates their adopting hopelessly arrogant nomenclature such as 'Tigers' and 'Lions' and 'Spartans,' [we] felt no necessity to advertise arrogance or virility. Instead 'Toads' seemed appropriate because the nature of such beasts is one of humility and quiet persistence." In an older admissions video, a Thacher student was quoted as saying, "They may be toads, but they play like princes," in reference to the boys basketball team. The "Teacher on Active Duty"—whose job it is to stay on top of things each day—is also conveniently known as the "TOAD."

Notable alumni[]

Notable faculty[]

References[]

  1. ^ Martin, Emmie; Loudenback, Tanza (Feb 19, 2016). "The 16 most selective boarding schools in America". Business Insider.
  2. ^ http://campaign.thacher.org[dead link]
  3. ^ Hayasaki, Erika (2004-11-08). "Campus Takes a New Tack". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
  4. ^ Makepeace, LeRoy McKim, "Sherman Thacher and His School", Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1941, p. 2
  5. ^ Arax, Mark and Wartzman, Rick, "The King of California", Public Affairs, New York, 2003, p. 289
  6. ^ Thomas, Grace Powers (1898). Where to educate, 1898-1899. A guide to the best private schools, higher institutions of learning, etc., in the United States. Boston, MA: Brown and Company. p. 12. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  7. ^ "Special Committee Report". 16 June 2021.
  8. ^ Crump, James (June 17, 2021). "California's Elite Thacher School Reveals Sex Abuse Allegations Stretching Back 40 Years". Newsweek.
  9. ^ "Decades of sexual abuse, misconduct allegations roil exclusive Ojai boarding school". Los Angeles Times. June 16, 2021.
  10. ^ "CONCLUSIONS REACHED BY THE THACHER BOARD OF TRUSTEES FROM THE INVESTIGATION" (PDF).
  11. ^ "Behind elite boarding school's veneer of trust and family, sexual misconduct was 'ignored'". Los Angeles Times. June 22, 2021.
  12. ^ "Ojai boarding school strips former head's name from campus after sexual abuse report". The Los Angeles Times. July 29, 2021.
  13. ^ "Report to the Board of Trustees of The Thacher School" (PDF). June 2021.
  14. ^ San Jose Mercury News
  15. ^ www.thacher.org
  16. ^ "BA #069: Matt Shakman". Box Angeles podcast.

External links[]

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