An Update from Curtis

November 7, 2019

To the Curtis Community:

I am writing today to update you about additional steps that the Curtis Institute is taking in response to the troubling news stories that appeared in late July regarding allegations of sexual misconduct on our campus during the 1980s.

As you may recall, in August we announced the establishment of a third-party hotline as an important way to reaffirm Curtis’s commitment to creating “a healthy school culture in which our community members feel safe, supported, and heard when they voice concerns” about misconduct.

In conjunction with the establishment of the hotline, Curtis also retained Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez to undertake a comprehensive review of all reports of such misconduct past and present at Curtis, as well as to examine the Institute’s policies for ensuring the safety and security of its students in the future. This work has been underway since August, and we will make the results of this review public upon completion of the review process. Ms. Smith and Ms. Gomez are nationally-renowned former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutors who founded the nation’s first practice dedicated to institutional responses to sexual and gender-based harassment, violence, and other forms of abuse, discrimination, or harassment, and they have extensive experience working with music conservatories.

We encourage interested community members to contact Ms. Smith or Ms. Gomez directly at gmsmith@cozen.com or (215) 665-5540, or lgomez@cozen.com or (215) 665-5546, respectively.

I also want to share with you a draft of the Institute’s updated Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Interpersonal Violence Policy, which sets forth detailed procedures to guide the reporting of prohibited conduct as well as the disciplinary processes that the school will follow in response to such allegations. The revised policy, available here, is extraordinarily detailed, and we encourage you to review it and provide any feedback to Kimberly Gould, Title IX Coordinator and Director of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity.

Please feel free to contact Kimberly or me if you have any other questions about today’s update.

Sincerely,