Campus Safety

June 18, 2020

Dear Punahou Community,

When families enroll their children at Punahou, they are entrusting their care to us, and we must do everything we can to be worthy of that sacred trust. As I wrote to you on April 28, the searing and horrific claims of sexual abuse that have been filed by several of our fellow alumni are a clear call to action. I regret that I cannot discuss the pending litigation, but as Punahou’s president I want you to know that our School is committed to pursuing the highest standards possible to ensure the safety of all who learn, play and grow here.

To that end, today, I am announcing the creation of the Advisory Council for Student Safety, a group of alumni, parents, and friends of the School, who will review Punahou’s work, identify best practices and discuss strategies for our continuous improvement. Most critically, this group will provide valuable feedback, perspectives and experience as Punahou develops and implements a fully integrated, publicly shared plan to promote student safety. The idea for this body was first brought to me by the alumni who organized the Na Pua o Punahou Facebook group, and I wish to thank them for it. In recruiting the initial members of the Advisory Council, I sought individuals with extensive professional experience and training in survivor advocacy, public health and organizational change, pediatrics, and independent school leadership and I am very grateful for their willingness to serve in this role. 

Each of these members will serve a two- or three-year voluntary term, lending their considerable talent and expertise to the betterment of our community. We will also create a structure to allow for the nomination of new members in the future and I look forward to talking with and recruiting those who may wish to serve. The group will meet four to six times per year, working directly with administrative leadership and our Community Care Response Team (CCRT), to discuss best practices and provide an external perspective to the School as we develop and implement our plan.

Punahou has taken important steps in the areas of student safety over the past two years. These include required sexual misconduct training for all faculty and staff; a mandatory reporting policy for allegations of abuse; the creation of a CCRT to ensure that allegations are reported to the police or Child Protective Services; and the establishment of trained positions for Community Care Liaisons within the CCRT who provide direct support to survivors and connect them with vital counseling resources. As I wrote to you in late April, I have also engaged the Freeh Group, a leading consultancy in school safety and security, to conduct a full audit of our work, and we will make those results available publicly.

Those efforts are an essential start, but now we must build on them to promote a wider culture which fosters healthy behaviors and work to create an environment in which we do everything we can to protect our students and to respond quickly and effectively to incidents if and when they should occur. This will require that we pursue a set of shared values and implement a fully integrated and publicly released plan to ensure accountability and promote student safety across our entire School. We will work toward implementing meaningful cultural shifts that further protect our students and that give them agency over their bodies and minds. Vital elements of this additional, systemic work will include:

Our work, moreover, will need to be continuous and perpetual. A one-off effort will not suffice.

Thank you very much for your continued engagement on this vital issue. With your support, I am confident that Punahou will meet this challenge and that we will emerge together as a stronger and better school for the benefit of all our children. Nothing, in my view, could be more important.

With aloha,

Michael E. Latham, Ph.D. ’86
President, Punahou School

April 28, 2020

Dear Punahou Community,

Over the past several days many of you have written to me to express your thoughts, perspectives, and emotions regarding the sexual abuse cases that have been filed by several of our fellow alumni. Some of you have offered support and encouragement, and others have expressed anger, frustration, and deep disappointment. I have endeavored to respond personally to as many of you as I can, but to reach all of you I have also decided to send this letter.

As Punahou’s new president, I share the feelings that many of you have so clearly conveyed. I am deeply saddened and depressed by the stories told by the survivors. As a father of two teenage daughters, these accounts also leave me at once incensed and horrified. As an alumnus and a former Punahou student athlete, I placed great trust in my teachers and coaches and was fortunate to experience priceless care, guidance, and support. The pain that the survivors have experienced is by contrast searing and awful, and I greatly admire their courage in coming forward now.

Last summer, I left my career as a college history professor, dean, and vice president and returned to Punahou because I love our school. More than any other institution I have ever been a part of, Punahou has shaped me into the adult that I am, and I am profoundly grateful for that. The steps that Punahou has taken over the past few years, including the implementation of mandatory sexual misconduct training, a mandatory reporting policy for abuse, and the creation of a Student Safety and Security Committee are necessary, but they are not sufficient. Punahou must now define the highest standards possible and hold all of our faculty and staff fully accountable as we fulfill our mission to educate our students in an environment of support, care, and trust.

The novelist William Faulkner once wrote that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” As a lifelong educator and professional historian, those words have often echoed through my mind. I believe they apply to Punahou’s current challenge as well. Many of you have asked why Punahou cannot be more transparent at this time, and you have described your disappointment with communications that leave fundamental questions unanswered. I fully understand that. The fact that we are currently in litigation necessarily constrains us in what we can say, but it doesn’t limit the degree to which I will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of this investigation. To that end, I have engaged the Freeh Group, the nation’s leading consultancy in the areas of school safety and security, whom we have worked with closely over the past two years, to conduct a comprehensive, independent audit of all our policies and practices in student and school safety. We will make the full results public and share them with this community. I also promise you that I will not rest until Punahou has reckoned fully and fearlessly with its past and its responsibilities. Nothing, I believe, will be more important for our future.

I still believe in a Punahou that educates young women and men who learn how to learn, who become leaders, and who make great contributions to the world acting with compassion, conscience, and commitment. I hope you will join me in the work required to make that Punahou a reality for all our children, and for everyone in our community.

With aloha,

Michael E. Latham, Ph.D. ’86
President, Punahou School