Message to the Tower Hill Community - Nov. 4, 2013

Earl J. Ball, Chair, Board of Trustees
Dear Tower Hill community member,

Recently, several communications were shared with the Tower Hill School community about the investigation and arrest of former Tower Hill School Headmaster Dr. Wheeler. This was a surprise and shock to everyone at this School. The purpose of this letter is to ensure that our valued community is fully updated.

Tower Hill continues to fully cooperate with the authorities. As we have indicated before, the state prosecutor has advised the state has no information at this time that any current Tower Hill student is part of the investigation. Since the criminal investigation is still pending, the authorities are not able to share any additional information that has not already been reported in the news media. As events have unfolded, we have unfortunately received information after it was shared with the media. We will continue to inform you about any new information as it is made available to us.

The authorities have asked Tower Hill not to proceed with our own internal investigation at this time. Once we are advised that we can proceed, we fully intend to do our own comprehensive investigation. We will find out all we can and pass on all that we know to faculty and staff, parents and our alumni.

We can tell you that Dr. Wheeler was retained in 2004 following an extensive nationwide search. An outside consultant was hired and Dr. Wheeler was thoroughly vetted. We can also report to you that we are not aware of complaints about Dr. Wheeler’s conduct while he was at Tower Hill.

We understand how much distress this has caused to all members of our community. These recent events have been devastating, and I do not know that there is a good way to respond to such a disturbing scenario. But please know that we are working diligently to help our current families cope with any challenges presented by this ordeal. We also continue to consider ways to provide resources for support and methods of communication that will allow our community to begin to heal and move forward. Finally, we want to express our sincere thanks to so many of you for your passionate and active support of the students, faculty, staff and administration.

Sincerely,

Dr. Earl J. Ball III
Chair, Board of Trustees
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