Small point of clarification @doschicos. He won’t be found innocent. The jury has a choice between guilty or not guilty. Members of the jury can be repulsed by what he did, yet still find him not guilty of a crime if the prosecution has failed to prove any one of the elements beyond a reasonable doubt. If the Concord Monitor is correct, he is being tried on 11 separate counts.
One of the questions that concerned me was her normal sounding communication with him after the alleged rape and her delay in reporting - both are explained here:
http://news.yahoo.com/victim-hampshire-prep-school-rape-trial-due-testify-110432159.html
I am assuming the line about the school was supposed to say did NOT reflect its true culture, lol.
I sure hope there is a “not” missing from that third paragraph.
Labrie’s parents are divorced but his father is actively in his life. The “raised by a single mother” is “poor me” spin from the defense. The divinity school thing is more of the same spin. Undergrads don’t do divinity school. Maybe he would have gone eventually, maybe not, but that’s like saying the kid wanted to get an MBA or be an astronaut. So, one could easily rephrase that without the spin: “Labries’ parents are divorced and had salaries low enough to qualify him for full financial aid. He eventually wanted to attend graduate school.” 
It is true that he is very capable academically.
My understanding of a victim’s response to rape is that they often will try to make things seem “normal”. Society has done a good job of teaching our girls not to make a fuss. Delaying 2 days to tell someone is actually pretty short. Many rape victims will repress the experience and not say anything for weeks, months, years. Not that that will help the prosecution or make their case easy to prove, but its not beyond understanding in the context of a rape. As an related aside, Jon Krakauer’s Missoula is very good reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Missoula-Rape-Justice-System-College/dp/0385538731
As my son is heading off to boarding school I felt compelled to make the St. Paul’s situation a teaching moment. So I sent him links to the news stories as well as the following message:
Dear X,
Please read the entire article in the New York Times about the rape at St. Paul’s that I sent to you and please read this message.
The boy who is on trial for rape seems like a bright, normal kid from a good family who made a very bad, life-altering mistake at a young age. He seems to have misplaced his moral compass and as you head off to school I want to make sure you never do the same. I know you might feel that you would never do anything like what he did, but before this happened I’m quite sure he felt the same way.
It is a sad truth that among young men girls can sometimes be seen as objects for conquest. And when several young men are gathered together in one place like a dorm or a locker room, things are often said that can create a toxic macho atmosphere that can even sweep up otherwise good kids like you and that boy at St. Paul’s.
I think the best way to avoid being swept up in that kind of thing is to be alert to it from the start and to walk away from it when it begins. You can do that in a subtle way by saying “I’ve got to go. See you later,” or you can be a moral leader by saying something like “Hey, guys! This conversation is going in a bad direction. I’m outta here.” The latter course might subject you to immediate ridicule, but in the long run it will earn you the admiration and respect of your peers and may help some of them avoid doing something harmful to others and themselves.
I’m pretty realistic about the prospects of your going to church very often once you leave home for school. I know you will probably choose to do something else more often than go to church. But I do hope that having gone to church all your life so far that you will remember the basic points. When he was asked what the basic rules are Jesus said there are really only two of them and they’re pretty simple: 1.) Love God with all your heart and mind; and 2.) Love your neighbor (i.e. everyone, no exceptions) as yourself. In our baptismal vows which we repeat whenever we witness a baptism we promise to “respect the dignity of every human being.”
If you think of or speak of or treat a girl only as the means for your own physical pleasure without regard for what she wants or her inner feelings (which, in the moment may not be entirely clear to you — or to her, for that matter), then you are not loving your neighbor as yourself or respecting her dignity. If you engage in a conversation that treats a girl as an object instead of a human being who is, just like you, a beloved child of God, then you are not loving your neighbor as yourself. So, this is not about sex — which is a good thing — it’s about respecting the dignity of another person.
The very same moral rule that always and in every case makes it wrong to lump all Muslims into the same category as a terrorist, or to use the “N word" when referring to a black person also makes it wrong to think, speak, or act as if a girl were simply a physical object. That is never OK. Never.
I know you know all this, but I think the boy at St. Paul’s knew this too. Yet he allegedly made a terribly wrong choice probably due to overwhelming pressure from peers. I hope and pray that you will always be on your guard so that you never make that mistake, because if you do it will break our hearts and it will diminish you in the eyes of others, whether they say so or not.
You are known among your friends and teachers as a leader and a really good kid. Be that kind of kid at school and all your life thereafter. Continue to make me and mom proud of you.
All my love,
Dad
^:)^ Well done, @johnnys. Especially meaningful to your son coming from his father, a male role model.
There’s been a lot of posting of messages of support amongst the SPS community in the past 2 days, especially form current students and young alums. Many are choosing to post all or parts of the school prayer, something that all community members state or are exposed to many times per week:
SPS School Prayer
Grant, O Lord, that in all the joys of life we may never forget to be kind. Help us
to be unselfish in friendship, thoughtful of those less happy than ourselves, and
eager to bear the burdens of others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
The boys partaking in their “contest” did not take this to heart.
I’ve been following this thread with fascination. I am from NH, and in fact, had to drive right past SPS to visit my sister while I lived there. I also participated in a NH resident only SPS summer program in the late 70’s. I believe the school still runs the program. I also know, as in a chance meeting and he’d have no idea who I am, the original defense atty. I have no current connection to the school and never knew any of the regular HS student body. The summer program is for public school students only-or it was back in my day. We were just normal kids who could never afford to actually go there.
CC poster doschicos seems to know a lot of inside information-as if he knows the defendant personally, and seems to be dismissive of the culture of the school written about in the VF article, which predates this incident by decades, back to when I was there for the summer. In fact, calling former students and staff will be part of the prosecution, according to the stories I’ve been reading. Also, I can’t easily dismiss the investigation of the former female student who discovered that many of them were victimized. Even IF this current incident ends up being a young girl who regretted a hook up with an unscrupulous older student, my reading is that there’s a lot of other incidents SPS needs to answer to.
Because there seems to be a history of issues going decades back, I can’t say "well, this girl maybe wanted it "and that boy was a rogue “bad kid” among diamonds. I don’t buy it. doschinos also seems to know about the tally in the laundry room, saying it’s not what it appears to be. it appears to be rather disgusting, actually, and I don’t understand why anyone would defend it. I think my guess is that this boy knew EXACTLY what he was doing, thought that because of what he knew of the tally and the traditions that he could get away with it, and that this girl was so far over her head that she had to process what happened before realizing she’d been victimized. It’s not uncommon. As a volunteer with a victim’s program years ago, I saw this often.
I had a great experience that summer way back when. I learned what I was capable of when stretched, and saw some of my HS classmates (there were a dozen or so) in a new light. I had no exposure to the culture of sexual misconduct I’ve been reading about, but I would not be shocked to learn that it’s all true. One of the most popular teachers at my public HS was popular because he smoked weed with students at their parties, and another popular teacher had more than one affair with students. We never told anyone. I’m assuming the parents so certain that this is all one bad kid and the culture of sex is a lie just may not have been told what many students and alumni actually already knew.
I don’t buy for one minute that this was an isolated incident or that this “senior hookup” thing, whatever it’s called, normally involved innocent walks and handholding and kissing until this particular boy ramped it up. The repeated repainting of the wall in the laundry room is appalling to me. In my OPINION (so take it for what it’s worth) there was an egregious lack of supervision going on at this school.
@doschicos, I appreciate that you are an insider and know a lot more than I do about this school. But keep in mind that sometimes parents are the last to know about what really goes on at an institution.
Edit: by “isolated incident,” I mean that I do not believe that this was the only sexual intercourse between seniors and freshman that routinely occurred during this annual sickening senior hookup ritual. I would be willing to believe that it was the first rape, assuming that rape is proved here.
Interesting article from March - some additional info on his attorneys and his fundraising efforts:
@johnnya - great post.
The SPS summer progam - ASP - still exists and it is just for NH residents.
Not saying all SPS kids are diamonds. Many of them are not. Many are entitled. The school has its issues, definitely. One could call parts of the culture misogynistic. Much of our society in general is. I am not defending all aspects of the school. Just stating that the media portrayal of “senior salute”, the wall, and the contest being a long standing tradition amongst senior males is not the truth that I know. I even stated that the wall is sophomoric and silly, being a web of hookups on campus. Not defending it. I would argue that the VF article, which is now quite dated, has some truths as well as some exaggerations and not so truths, as is the way of the press many times in searching for stories that sell. The school obviously has issues to address. I’m not excusing it, just commenting on the exaggeration of facts and correcting information based on knowledge I do have. I definitely don’t have my head stuck in the sand regarding what is good and bad about the school. However, I think to blame the school for the alleged action’s of this person is not right either. It is secondary issue needing to be addressed, however, but not an excuse or rational for why the alleged incident took place.
doschicos, were you a student there? How did you know “the truth” about the wall and the senior salute tradition not being what the media and some alumni are saying it is? I was a teenager once and I was a “good kid”. My “good kid” friends and I kept an astonishing amount of bad things we knew about from our parents.
@prospect1 - I don’t disagree with your point. I bet - or I should say - I am certain there have been consensual hookups that take place between younger and older kids - and shouldn’t! It is addressed by the school but obviously needs to be addressed more. Happens at our local public high school, too, though. Being a rape accusation makes this incident very different.
@doschicos - I get what you are saying. The media loves a good, juicy story and this sure is one.
Yes, sexual intercourse (and maybe even date rape) happens at my local public high schools too. But public high school parents aren’t paying their public school $60k per year, either, and in so doing, transferring their supervisory obligations to the institution. We public school parents are responsible for supervising our own kids; if something goes wrong, we only have our own supervisory failings to blame.
If this were my daughter and she proves she was raped, I would think long and hard about going after that school for failing to supervise these kids. Of course, the school could have already privately settled with this girl.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was or will be some kind of settlement from the school. If there was, it won’t come to light nor would the school want a civil lawsuit.
For all my comments regarding the school community, I will state one of my biggest disappointments is having heard that the girl was made to feel unwelcomed by some after the incident became known, as students “took sides”. That is definitely an ugly side that community members need to look in the mirror about! Shameful.
@doschicos I also read that that the family needed to move out of the Concord area because of the backlash. So sad.
^^^ Wow, talk about lives ruined.
^^ @MaterS, which family had to move – victim’s or defendant’s?
Also, I believe I read that Harvard issued a statement that said he was not enrolled. Did St. Paul’s rescind his diploma or graduation award (I can’t recall what it was called)?
And this…
"Labrie graduated June 1; The alleged assault took place two days prior, on May 30. According to the affidavit, St. Paul’s counselor xxx contacted the Concord Police Department on June 3 after being notified by the mother of the alleged victim.
“xxx informed me that there is a horrible tradition at the boarding school called the ‘senior salute’ in which a senior emails a younger student regarding a ‘conquest’ before they graduate,” the detective, Julie Curtin, wrote.
I don’t care to post the name so I deleted it. However, I believe the conselor has been at the school at least fifteen years. I don’t know if she will testify, but “horrible tradition” are stinging words.
victim
or as some would prefer: alleged victim