Thacher School in Ojai faces latest lawsuit tied to sexual misconduct allegations

Another sexual misconduct lawsuit was filed against the Thacher School in late May, adding to a list of legal problems for the Ojai boarding school.

The new complaint, filed in Ventura County Superior Court May 31, alleges that a previously unnamed administrator at an “expensive, elite boarding school in Ojai” sexually harassed, assaulted and raped a student on multiple occasions from 1984 to 1988.

Though the complaint does not identify the school by name, it includes copies of two reports Thacher published in 2021 and 2023, commissioned from law firm Munger, Tolles and Olson to document the flood of stories of sexual misconduct allegations that alumni began to share on social media in 2020.

Attorneys filed a request Friday for permission to amend their complaint and publicly name the school.

The new suit joins at least six similar cases and two wrongful termination suits that have ties to Thacher’s ongoing reckoning with its murky history of campus sexual misconduct allegations and alleged coverups.

Michelle Lamy, the lead attorney behind the suit, declined to name the school in the complaint is Thacher or to comment on the details of the case while it works through early hearings.

The complaint, however, says school leaders “failed to protect (the student)” and instead, protected the administrator.

Carly Rodriguez, a Thacher spokesperson, declined a request for comment on the list of cases against the school, citing the ongoing litigation.

The 250 pages of Munger, Tolles and Olson reports accused eight former Thacher staffers by name of sexual misconduct against students, including harassment, assault and rape.

Together the documents triggered a marathon 18-month investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, who jointly reviewed more than 100 cases of sexual abuse allegations pulled from the report and other school documents.

That investigation closed in December 2022, with officials announcing that they’d not been able to piece together charges from a case list that stretched back more than six decades.

The administrator named in the latest complaint was not named in either of the two Munger, Tolles and Olson reports. Senior Deputy District Attorney Brent Nibecker said by email that “no sexual assault case against (the administrator) was ever submitted to the DA’s Office for review following the release of MTO’s initial public report.”

The Star generally does not name people accused of crimes who have not been charged.

Other cases against Thacher School wear on

Of the remaining eight open cases against Thacher, filed between March 2021 and May 2023, six contain similar allegations that Thacher failed to prevent or properly respond to sexual abuse allegations.

One case has moved from county superior court to California's 2nd District Court of Appeal to the California Supreme Court, records show. Christina Cheung, an attorney representing a former student, said in an email that this case is hung up over a records dispute as attorneys contest whether Thacher should be required to disclose their communications with Munger, Tolles and Olson and other documents related to the firm's investigation.

Attorney Keith Davidson, who is representing plaintiffs on two other cases, said both of his filings are waiting on the courts' final decision on the dispute to move forward. He said Thacher denied his requests for similar records, citing attorney-client privilege.

"Everything is pretty much at a standstill," he said. "They're giving us almost no discovery."

Davidson took issue with Thacher's handling of the investigation. The school trumpeted the independent nature of the law firm's investigation early in the process, a move Davidson said should not have been made if Thacher eventually planned to use attorney-client privilege to withhold the records.

"My two clients had no idea that when they spoke to (Munger, Tolles and Olson) they were speaking to Thacher's lawyers," Davidson said. "They're not even giving us our client's statements (from the firm's investigation)."

Two wrongful termination cases also remain open in superior court. One, from a former executive assistant, alleged school leaders fired her because they were concerned she knew too much about sexual misconduct allegations at Thacher and, if she spoke to investigators, could expose the private school to civil and criminal liability.

Another former staffer, one of the individuals accused of misconduct in Munger, Tolles and Olson's report, also filed a wrongful termination suit. The complaint argues, among other claims, that school leaders forced him to resign in retaliation for a complaint he authored about hiring practices at the school.

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Thacher School faces new suit over sexual abuse allegations