Anonymous letter from Latin School of Chicago Faculty to Bronstein family regarding Nate Bronstein cyberbullying and suicide
Court-filed letter from a Latin School of Chicago faculty member alleging that Head of School Randall Dunn ignored warnings about bullying, sexual assault, student safety, contributing to the death of Nate Bronstein and endangering other students. Cites prior unreported sexual assault, culture of silencing parents, and alleged conflicts of interest involving Board Chair David Koo and other board members. The letter urges Rose and Robert Bronstein to pursue accountability to prevent further harm.
“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Bronstein,
I am contacting you because I feel terrible about what happened to your son and because I believe it was totally preventable if the Latin School of Chicago were not so badly managed. I am also contacting you because I believe another similar tragedy could happen again if Mr. Dunn is allowed to be the head of another school. Because I have been a faculty member of the Latin School for a number of years, I am taking great personal risk in reaching out to you as I have witnessed Mr. Dunn’s tendency toward vindictive behavior on several occasions and I really need my job to support my family. However, it is worth the risk because I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t “do something” and try to help and another great kid like Nate lost his life. I also hear that you are good people and would keep my offer to help in strict confidence as I am simply trying to bring some daylight to this situation and help a good family in need. So, I am going to try to provide some suggestions for you that I believe will be helpful and I would encourage you in the strongest of terms to follow up on what I am about to tell you.
As an aside, while I would love for you to get the largest monetary award possible, I am concerned this will not result in needed real change at Latin as our insurance company will write the check and Mr. Dunn will move on (literally) and get away with it and the motivation is in protecting future boys like Nate and from keeping Mr. Dunn from ever hurting another child again. To strengthen your case and win, here are some suggestions:
First, about a half dozen years ago, there was a rape of a girl (whose identity I will protect out of my respect for her) in the Latin upper school. School leadership approached Mr. Dunn on multiple occasions insisting that he contact the police for further investigation as well as to contact the girl’s parents. He refused, as he stated to us on numerous occasions that the school was under no obligation to do so and that counselors would handle it within the school. This has always been Mr. Dunn’s modus operandi. This girl has suffered tremendously (and I believe has hid this from her parents out of embarrassment), and I fear that she might one day harm herself based on what I have been hearing from fellow colleagues. I strongly suggest that you reach out to former Upper School Director Ms. Monica Rodriquez. Please note that Ms. Rodriquez left Latin precisely because she did not see eye-to-eye on a variety of issues with Mr. Dunn including most importantly how best to protect children (the sexual assault, numerous bullying incidents, appropriateness of classroom material, etc. were frequent areas of disagreement). She is currently the head of a school in North Carolina and with Mr. Dunn being the Chairman of NAIS (the organization that holds accreditation over all private schools like ours), she might be apprehensive in “getting involved” or might worry that she might have some personal exposure (in my opinion she does not, as I have heard from numerous people directly involved that she did everything right and pushed her superior, Mr. Dunn, to do the right thing but he refused). I would simply suggest that you call her, appeal to her on a very human and personal level, and plead for her help. She was always an extremely good person to me and my colleagues and my hunch is that she will help you as I have witnessed her do the right thing on several occasions even when she put herself at risk with Mr. Dunn to do so. She was very involved in trying to get Mr. Dunn to do something about the rape and is a very thorough person. I would plead for her help and ask her to tell you what happened and what information she might still have about the case. Her cell phone number is []. I pray this is a smoking gun for you in your case.
Second, if you do not know already, you should be aware of the many conflicts of interest involving board Chairman Mr. David Koo and other board members in this tragedy. As you surely know, not only are other Board members’ children involved in this incident, what you may not know is that Mr. Koo and these same board members are reportedly close family friends themselves outside of Latin. Mr. and Mrs. Koo are also reportedly very close with the Student 8 family. I would depose Mr. Koo and ask about his relationship with these other families and ask him why he has not recused himself from this case as a result. I would depose Mrs. Koo and ask her if she believes her husband can act without conflicts given her relationship with Student 8’s mother. I would ask him when was the last time his family vacationed with one of these families, hosted them at one of their several homes or had dinners or traveled with them in order to establish their close relationship before the court. I would ask Mr. Koo and his friend/board members how much information about this case (and your attempts to engage with the school) has been shared with the full board. I would attempt to communicate directly with as many board members as possible and copy them on all future correspondence. Many of us at the school believe Mr. Koo is shielding Mr. Dunn and his friends.
Third, you should be aware that it is Mr. Dunn’s fundamental belief that “parents should stay out of it” and should have no say on what happens at Latin. He has a long history of blocking out parents from important decisions involving their children, believing that many Latin parents are “privileged” and “entitled”. We have been told at numerous times and on numerous occasions to not communicate with parents about matters which many of us believed should involve families. When challenged by members of the community, he simply gives lip service to their concerns and keeps on doing what he was doing. Nate is the tragedy of this situation and I wish someone would have intervened to stop the harassing and bullying. But Mr. Dunn had the final say like he always does and he will have the final say at Rye Country Day School too and another child could die. Please, please don’t let this happen!! Please do whatever you can to educate the Rye people about what they are getting and educate them on the facts of this case. You do not need to take any risk. Just stick to the facts of what happened. Make sure they have a copy of your complaint and encourage them to do their due diligence which clearly they have not done! Tell them to call former division directors that have left under Mr. Dunn’s watch, teachers, etc.. As stated previously, this is my hope in reaching out to you and why I feel I am putting my job at risk in reaching out to you. But saving another kid’s life is worth it! Please help!
I continue to pray for you and your family. I pray that progress in this case, both financially and most importantly by securing protections for future children, will offer your family some solace during this very hard time. I pray that Mr. Dunn is stopped from doing this again.
God bless you and the entire Bronstein family.”