<p>Yes, Princess, your devotion to the idea of sex, drugs, rock and roll (and motorcycle gangs) permeating the West Coast environs of Thacher and Cate is impressively dogged, however misplaced. I cannot speak with authority about Cate, although TOK or CateParent could chime in. </p>
<p>Thacher has an incredibly healthy environment. I have not heard of a single instance of drugs or drinking on campus during my association with the school beginning in 2004. Certainly there are trysts, romantic or otherwise, but in no greater or smaller number than you’d see anywhere adolescents congregate. Every two years, The Independent School Gender Project (ISGP) conducts a survey of student perceptions of health- and wellness-related issues on boarding school campuses. A cohort of 21 schools, including Thacher, took part in the research this past cycle; among them were: Cate School, Deerfield Academy, Groton, St. Paul’s School, The Taft School, and The Webb Schools etc. In the 2009 version of this study, the data showed Thacher as the best of all 23 schools surveyed. When the 2011 numbers came in, the news only got better.</p>
<p>After collecting and collating the data, the ISGP divides the responses into subset categories and grades schools on a scale of A to C. In the 2009 study, Thacher received six As and no Cs. The most recent transcript reports 18 As and still no Cs. The new reporting system no longer ranks schools individually, but instead places them into quartiles. These latest results not only put Thacher in the top quarter of all schools surveyed, but suggest quite powerfully that it continues to be the healthiest boarding school in the country.</p>