The elite Brearley School in Manhattan, known for sending its students to the top universities in the country, said it was looking into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The school said no students or families had raised concerns about sexual misconduct, but that Brearley was “recently made aware of possible sexual misconduct not related to current faculty or staff that occurred in the distance past.”
“It hurts, saddens me, makes me angry, but does it surprise me? No,” said Chris Thompson.
Founded in 1884, the all-girls school on the Upper East Side has about 700 students enrolled between kindergarten and 12th grade. Among its notable alumni are Caroline Kennedy, actress Téa Leoni and Katharine Weymouth, a past publisher of The Washington Post.
“I went to a boarding school, and they had a number of incidents, and it’s just too bad,” Charlie Strout, of the Upper East Side, said.
“The schools are really good schools and you hear these things about these isolated people, and it sort of reflects badly on the whole school,” he said.
In the letter sent home to parents, the school says that “regardless of the time that has elapsed, it is our absolute responsibility to care for all of our alumnae.”
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The school said attorneys “have been engaged to conduct an investigation of any reports of such misconduct at Brearley.”
The letter comes about a month after an elite boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, released a report detailing decades of alleged sexual abuse of students that went unreported or was handled quietly.
The school said students were made aware of the investigation in class, in an age-appropriate manner.
It’s asking anyone from the Brearley community, current and former students and parents, to come forward with any information as they investigate the allegations.
