Paul’s School has an unhealthy culture,” the school said in a statement last summer. “We categorically reject any allegations that St. The findings in the independent report conflict with previous statements made by the school in response to the Prouts’ lawsuit, which was filed in spring 2016. “Rather, Labrie embodied the warped culture of sexual misconduct and deviant moral norms at SPS.” “Owen Labrie was far from a lone bad apple who failed to accustom himself to SPS culture and abide by school norms,” the complaint says, using an abbreviation for the school. The report, released Monday, focuses solely on claims of sexual abuse students made against faculty and staff during that time.Ĭhessy Prout’s parents, Alex and Susan Prout, claim in their lawsuit that life at the boarding school had become dangerously unhealthy, particularly with the advent of the now-infamous “Senior Salute,” a game of sexual conquest in which upperclassmen solicit intimate encounters from younger pupils.Ĭhessy Prout was sexually assaulted as a freshman by 2014 graduate Owen Labrie, who is now appealing his conviction to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The new independent report – commissioned by the elite boarding school and carried out by a former Massachusetts attorney general – substantiates claims against at least 13 faculty members between 19. Paul’s mirror some of the claims the Prout family made in a pending civil lawsuit filed against the school last year. While the school said it has taken steps to improve student safety, the Prout family said the school has for too long turned a blind eye to a systemic problem, caring more about its public reputation than its students.Ĭonclusions drawn from an independent investigation into sexual abuse at St. Paul’s administrators acknowledged a long-standing history of sexual misconduct at the prep school. I was a 15-year-old rape victim looking for help, longing for support, and instead was treated like a publicity problem that needed to be managed,” Chessy Prout, now 18, said in a statement Tuesday to the Monitor. “In no way was I treated or cared for as a survivor of sexual assault. Paul’s School did nothing to support her after she reported her assault on the school’s Concord campus. She said she thinks this can be the next rallying call for this movement.A teenage survivor of sexual assault said St. Through her work with PAVE, Prout introduced the hashtag #IHaveTheRightTo in 2016. “I went through that wave of emotions and hoped this was going to be the time that our culture changed.” “I felt helpless, but seeing the positive response on social media, seeing this become a larger movement and seeing the culture begin to shift in support of survivors inspired me,” Prout said. But seeing the faces of accused sexual abusers on television and reading about other victims’ stories was overwhelming, she said. Prout has found inspiration and encouragement in all the women who have come forward to tell their own experiences during the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. “To see her become herself again with that puppy has been so amazing.” “Chessy was incredibly nurturing before this happened,” said Susan Prout, her mother. has shown her she can not only take care of herself, she is capable of caring for a “really adorable, beautiful, wonderful little thing.” “I got to read all her journals, her college application essays, her high school essays, text messages, emails, Facebook messages, photos.” “As a reporter, I was really impressed with all the documentation she’d kept of her journey,” Abelson said. Readers hear Prout’s voice and read her words throughout the book, which includes some of the text messages, emails and letters Chessy sent and received after the assault. In the book, Prout discusses her life before and after the assault. They spent the summer of 2017 writing in Naples. Prout and Abelson partnered on the book, which was released March 6. That struck me, because for a long time, nobody cared.” Somebody was willing to listen to me and hear all the trauma my family had gone through. "It showed me that somebody finally cared. “She was spending a snowy October day in New Haven with us on her birthday. “We learned it was her birthday,” Prout said. Abelson, Prout and her family talked over lunch after the lecture. The two met at a lecture Prout gave at Yale University in October 2016.
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