Mount Carmel School

At first glance, Thacher presents itself as an amazing school—an idyllic campus, a tight-knit community, and a mission grounded in values like Honor, Fairness, Kindness, and Truth. It’s easy to believe in the story they tell. But once you look closer, that image begins to fall apart. Those values are often nothing more than words on a banner. Students are held to a strict code of conduct and expected to uphold the highest moral standards, while the administration routinely fails to lead by example. The hypocrisy is impossible to ignore.Since the release of the MTO report, instead of taking responsibility and committing to meaningful change, the school’s leadership has become increasingly focused on controlling the narrative. The administration is far more concerned with optics, reputation, and damage control than with building a safe, transparent, and supportive environment for students. Disciplinary decisions are not only harsh, but inconsistent and opaque—leaving students confused, demoralized, and often unfairly punished for minor or subjective infractions.The head of school, in particular, has proven to be a weak and ineffective leader. Lacking courage, vision, and moral clarity, they have failed to take a stand when it mattered most. Rather than protect students or stand up to entrenched power structures, they have chosen the path of least resistance—silence, inaction, and superficial gestures. Thacher needs a leader with strength, integrity, and the backbone to make hard, necessary changes. That’s not what the current leadership offers.The truth is, Thacher feels more like an institution obsessed with control and appearances than one grounded in compassion or justice. The values it claims to embody have become performative, and the cost of that is being paid by the students.Teenagers deserve a school where leadership practices what it preaches, where care is real, and where safety and fairness are more than buzzwords. Until those in charge find the courage to live up to their own mission, Thacher will remain a deeply unsafe and disheartening place for the very people it claims to nurture.

Consider this your warning to not send your child to Besant Hill School. They prey off of families in challenging situations with their children. Your child will be introduced to many negative and dangerous behaviors yet your child will be blamed. The school has NO mental health support on campus what so ever - not even a school counselor. This school survives off of promoting itself as an understanding and supportive boarding school that can nuture kids who have completed treatment. Instead, it accepts these kids, knowing everything about them, has zero support for them and they leave or are kicked, yet the school keeps 100% of the years tuition. This happens to about HALF THE STUDENTS, hence the extremely small size of kids who actutally graduate. Over half the children in who started as juniors with my child were kicked out in the fall after paying 70K plus in tuition and never got even a cent back. Ask them how many kids they enroll and how many graduate.