According to WСРО Cincinnati, two former teachers at Cincinnati Country Day School — one now dead, one living outside of Ohio — have been accused of sexual misconduct, the school announced in a Friday letter to parents and alumni.
The letter named only one of the pair: Peter Blanchard, who worked at Country Day’s Lower School from 1966-81 and whom two former students accused of “engaging in physical contact of a sexual nature.”
Those students first reported the allegations in 2018, according to Country Day. An external investigative firm determined they were credible enough to publicly name Blanchard as the alleged abuser and contact other schools at which he once worked.
Archived yearbooks from Blanchard’s time at the school list him as a teacher of fourth and fifth grade as well as boys’ sports. He left in 1981 for another elementary teaching position at the Dexter School in Brookline, MA, according to a short blurb about his retirement.
Country Day’s letter noted that as of 2019, he no longer lives in Ohio and does not work with children.
The other teacher, who was not named because the claims against them did not satisfy the school’s criteria to do so, worked at Country Day from 1967-87.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the faculty and staff of Cincinnati Country Day School, we extend our profound apologies to the alumni affected by the actions uncovered in the course of our investigation,” board president Joel Brant and school head Anthony Jaccaci wrote in Friday’s letter. “… (s)uch conduct is intolerable, and children should never have to endure such unconscionable acts.”
