Rape case points to sordid tradition at elite prep school

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Rape case points to sordid tradition at elite prep school
Lynne Tuohy, Associated Press
Updated 12:24 pm, Sunday, August 16, 2015

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — St. Paul's School boasts a glittering roster of alumni that includes senators, congressmen, a Nobel laureate and the current secretary of state. The elite prep school also allegedly has a sordid tradition of sexual conquest where graduating boys try to take the virginity of younger girls before getting their diplomas.

Details of a practice authorities say was called the "Senior Salute" were spelled out in stark terms by a former prefect at the New Hampshire school who is charged with raping a 15-year-old girl on the roof of a campus building in May 2014.

Owen Labrie, now 19, has pleaded not guilty to several felonies. When his trial begins Monday, prosecutors are expected to call current and former students to testify about the sexual culture at one of the country's most selective boarding schools.

Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, talked openly about the tradition when he was interviewed by Concord police. On a campus where upperclassmen studiously avoid their younger peers in most settings, Labrie told a detective some students "take great pride" in having sex with younger students before they leave school.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Rape-case-sheds-light-on-elite-prep-school-s-6447260.php

[pnwmom]

1. Why do parents send their kids to these schools that cost as much as Harvard?

These schools can no longer guarantee their students a spot in the Ivies; and wealthy neighborhoods tend to have excellent public schools. So what is the attraction? Ensuring their kids will know lots of other rich kids?

[jalan48]

2. So they can become our nation's leaders. Pretty messed up.

[Lucky Luciano]

3. Knowing other rich kids...

Yup. That's the reason. It does increase the probability for the future success of their progeny at the expense of diversity.

[CTyankee]

15. Yes, indeed. As a former fundraiser I knew that prep schools outnumber colleges in giving by alums..

definitely pass the genes on to other well positioned families and they want to be sure they get favorable attention to their own
kids in getting the kid admitted...prep schools need legacies...

[No Vested Interest]

7. Likely one of the parents is an alumni/a. nt

[bluestateguy]

10. My guess

Even excellent public schools in affluent neighborhoods still have to play by the many bullshit rules imposed by states.

For one, private schools can opt out of standardized tests.

[cali]

11. tradition is part of it.

At least that was true in my family, but also most of the grads certainly do get into elite colleges.

[brooklynite]

13. I went to one...

...while they may not "guarantee" an Ivy League slot today, they have some of the highest academic standards of all prep schools, so if Ivy League is your goal, you'll certainly have a leg up.

(nb - while the academics were first-rate, the prep school cultural was something I was completely unable to integrate with; I escaped to Rome for my Senior Year).

[Brickbat]

14. Networking, and the fact that some people don't feel like something has value unless it's expensive.

[Chan790]

17. Having gone to an elite prep school, I can answer that. You'll just be disgusted though.

I didn't go to an Ivy or a near-Ivy but that was purely because I didn't want to. (I'm smart but I never wanted to be (*that* kind of "baron of society." I wasn't so keen on it when I was in it.) The worst student in my graduating class...his name was Kevin (and he was an upper-middle-class kid whose parents worked to get him there. (I suspect that sexual favors were garnered to get him in...he wasn't smart enough and he wasn't rich enough and he wasn't connected))...will always be better off in life than the valedictorian Ivy-attending graduate of the best public school in the US for the same reason I will be.

I went to school with the children of US Senators and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies many of whom are alumni themselves...and I could pick up the phone right now and call those parents and alumni and say "I need a job" and get an offer of a position paying enough to be solidly in the 1% that didn't exist until I asked. (In case you're wondering...it's not because they like me, it's to "protect the value of the crest on the jacket&quot That position would never exist for anybody who wasn't "us" no matter how smart or talented they are. It's all about the networking...and that's specifically because it's elitist and exclusive. There's an "us and them" mentality...and I'll always be viewed as one of "us" and your kids will always be "them" and trust me when I say as much as they deny it "us" hates "them" and takes glee in your supposed inferiority. If you suddenly became rich...like Mark Zuckerburg rich...you'd still be "them" to these people.

Never let anybody tell you there isn't an American aristocracy.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. So, anyone want to dig up an alumni list

so we know who the rapists are?

[trillion]

5. Rape is a problem at colleges across the country, state and private.

[pnwmom]

8. This is a high school -- a preparatory school where there is supposed to be supervision.

But you're right that rape is a problem at colleges and universities everywhere.

[cali]

12. there isn't much supervision at schools like St. Paul's and there hasn't been for decades

[pnwmom]

18. There should be and there IS at some of those schools.

I was just talking to a friend back east whose daughter recently graduated from one, where they really keep tabs on the students and their emotional well being. It can be done -- in an unobtrusive way.

[trillion]

23. Good point. I didn't realize it was High School.

[mackerel]

6. This is the actual quote from the SF Chronicle:

Asked why the girl would lie about having sex with him, Labrie said it's a "great source of pride for younger students" to have sex with seniors.

***************

Little sociopath

[smirkymonkey]

20. Someone needs to smack the shit out of him.

You just know he's never going to learn anything from this or ever stop abusing women.

[rocktivity]

9. I suspect this "tradition" has been around for decades if not centuries

the admittance of female students -- and feminism -- in the Seventies not withstanding.

Labrie also told the detective of a contest where boys compete to "score" with the most girls, keeping a running tally written in indelible marker on a wall behind washing machines. The school kept painting over the scoreboard so it eventually was moved online. He acknowledged to the detective he was "trying to be number one..."

Labrie denied having intercourse with the girl, telling police that they partially disrobed, kissed and touched. He also acknowledged putting on a condom. Labrie said the freshman girl was eager to have sex, but the aspiring divinity student said he had a "moment of self-restraint" and stopped...Labrie's lawyer...who recently represented convicted mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, is at least the third lawyer retained by Labrie.

If the school did nothing more than wash away the evidence, they're certainly ripe for civil action. And while Labrie may have stopped himself THEN, but what about his PREVIOUS and/or subesquent conquests, if any? Tread carefully, aspiring divinity student -- if you get "Bill Cosby-ed" with more victims coming forward, not even Pontius Pilate would be able to help you!


rocktivity

[niyad]

16. sadly, this isn't in the least bit surprising. sickening, but not surprising.

[cigsandcoffee]

19. I think this is a "tradition" at pretty much every high school in the country.

A lot of kids this age are after sex. Where's the surprise in that?

[rocktivity]

21. But in schools like this, you're also dealing with elitism, entitlement, privilege

and the disregard for accountability they can generate.

Those guys are there because they're richer, not smarter, than the rest of the great unwashed.


rocktivity

[Dont call me Shirley]

22. I hope he goes to prison and has to register as a sex offender.