To: Cate School Board of Trustees

This group of concerned Cate students, alums, parents, and former faculty formed out of a growing concern for the safety and well-being of current students on the Mesa, as well as the alums who have suffered lasting  trauma at the hands of adult abusers at Cate. Some of us are survivors of sexual abuse; others are moved to act by hearing the heartbreaking stories of our friends and fellow alums. However, we all share these common concerns for our alma mater and its community and we look to rally more support to raise awareness of this critically important cause.

Our shared position is fairly simple: We are advocates for survivors, both among current students and alumni, and we are also advocates for transparency and accountability from the leadership and administration at Cate in responding to, and ending, school sexual abuse in this community.

Cate School was a significant part of all of our lives.  Many of us became educators ourselves. None of us wishes to see the School’s reputation tarnished further. But we also can no longer deny that student abuse at the hands of faculty and staff has been a longstanding and intractable issue for Cate – one that has not been sufficiently confronted over multiple decades and administrations.

We seek to work with the School’s leadership, if possible, and to provide support and advocacy for current students and families, as well as alumni survivors.

The people who make up the Cate Organizing Team are determined to see this situation change for the better, starting now. As the School’s motto, “Servons” wills all of us to serve one another and our communities, we owe this community our ardent and dedicated service to end school sexual abuse here and now.

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We, the undersigned, ask the Cate Board of Trustees and Cate School to:

1. Protect students who report sexual misconduct: Clarify student grievance and public complaint policies and procedures that are reasonable, fairly administered, and well publicized.
2. Clarify and publicize which accrediting standards govern Cate’s policies and the ways in which the School is adhering to those.
3. Prioritize funding and launching the independently-managed free therapy fund for survivors of sexual abuse at Cate School; announce availability of this resource no later than 11/1/2021.
4. Share results of Oppenheimer Group’s investigation with the entire Cate community no later than 1/1/2022.
5. Inform all current and future employers of perpetrators named in Oppenheimer’s report of those staff members’ histories of student sexual abuse at Cate.
6. Terminate the employment and on campus faculty housing of all perpetrators and enablers of sexual abuse at Cate. (Enablers are those who are aware of colleagues’ sexual misconduct but take ineffective or no action to protect the student(s).)
7. To the extent that the law permits, press charges against all School employees who perpetrated sexual abuse of Cate students.
8. Upon completion of Oppenheimer Group’s investigation, conduct community outreach to honor alumni responses and discuss next steps for the School.
9. As Thacher has done, request a third party independent investigation of Cate’s school leaders’ role in campus sexual abuse. 
10. Set up a mechanism for the Cate community of alumni and families to communicate directly with the Board. Invite Cate community to know when the Board meets and how to provide input on their agendas.