There was someone else who wanted to testify but it wasn’t allowed. But I only heard that on this site, I’m not sure of any other details except they weren’t allowing any testimony involving previous sexual history.
All I know is this.
Judge later ruled this testimony could not be admitted into evidence and the girl didn’t testify.
^Wow also this was in there.
“His last attorney, Michael Ramsdell, asked the court in February to suppress statements Labrie purportedly made during interviews with police weeks before his arrest. Carney later withdrew the motion.”
To me it sounds like Carney has an ego and even back then thought his “lawyer” skills were so good he could easily get the kid off.
Well…as some have predicted…The Manchester Union Leader is reporting that the victim’s family may file a suit against St. Paul’s. http://www.unionleader.com/Lawyers-for-sex-assault-victim-may-file-lawsuit-against-St-Pauls-School
I would hazard a guess that St. Paul’s will get fewer applications than usual this year, especially from females and that the parents of prospective applicants at ALL US boarding schools are going to be asked a lot more questions about their policies about sexual consent and assault.
It’s interesting that both Labrie and the victim claim they were “abandoned” by St. Paul’s.
@jonri, very interesting.
I wonder if this potential lawsuit will get very far before it is confidentially settled. It has the potential to expose whether this type of thing has happened before, how many times, and for how long. I have a sneaking suspicion that Labrie wasn’t the only perpetrator of these types of senior/freshman “salutes.” It’s very possible that he’s just the one who got caught. But, we may never know if the school acts swiftly. Let the coverups begin!
From the article @jonri posted – games of sexual conquest were discussed in the student newspaper and Labrie even wrote an editorial about them.
Wow.
I would think the school can afford to settle the suit and will likely do so quickly to avoid more damaging news coverage. I predict (and hope) that all boarding schools will begin to be more proactive in protecting their female students.
@gnocchiB - I’ll go you one even further…not only should these schools be protecting their female students, but they should be protecting their young men as well from developing inappropriate thought processes at such a very young and impressionable adolescent age. The boys enter that school very young. Exactly what types of attitudes is this school allowing them to form?
^ wishing I could like the above a million times over. If this school’s culture were different, perhaps this event wouldn’t have happened. I have 2 sons; one attended a private school & the other our local public. I spoke to them about this case in August. Both said this sexual senior salute wouldn’t have happened at their schools for a number of reasons, among them: at their schools, there’s a dating culture. Not hooking up but actually dating. Oldest son dated his high school GF for 2 1/2 years (broke up after 1st semester in college) and younger son began dating GF senior year of high school and they’re still dating as college sophomores. There’s no feigning you like a girl, hooking up and then stabbing her in the back or dumping her.
School culture - but also parents. Parents’ attitudes matter. I have tried to teach my sons to respect and value young women. I dislike stupid humor/tv/moves that is disrespectful. I have made it clear that Tosh-style humor is not funny. I wonder about Labrie’s parents and how they raised their son. I know they are divorced. Wonder what the father’s attitude towards women is like.
@rockvillemom - exactly! We have two sons and taught them from early on that no means no - in any situation. We know the father but not well - he seems like a nice guy but who knows how people are behind closed doors. I do know their divorce was ugly.
I don’t think you can blame the dad for this. The boarding school would be the ones that are giving the main message on what is right or wrong during his time there. They are the ones who would have been with him 24/7 not the parents. Sure kids can turn out great at boarding school and some turn out bad in public school even with great parents. But it is clear that St Paul’s is messed up. Plus the mom raised him. So if anything he should have learned to respect women from her.
SPS sure isn’t perfect and it has misogynistic leanings, ones that are echoed throughout our society, but blaming the school for what happened is too simplistic. That being said, it was also horrible to know that certain people in the community were harassing the victim when she returned.
However, the school does provide plenty of teaching about living respectfully in community, sexuality and relationships, and consent and statutory laws. Being a private school, I’d argue it probably provides more in this area than public schools do, because it is a boarding school where the students live in community and because being private they don’t have to deal with certain factions that might be divided on what should and shouldn’t be taught, as we often see in public schools.
Labrie started at SPS in his sophomore year. He was a month or so shy of turning 16 at that time. Do you really think an intelligent 16 year old is that unformed and suggestive that you place blame on the school for creating the monster? He did have training in the laws, consent, etc. It’s obvious from the testimony and facts that have come out that there was a big disconnect between the way Labrie behaved publicly in the SPS community and his true actions and true self. Combined with his innate intelligence, that deception and two sided personality is a dangerous combination.
Yes, there are hookups at the school. It’s part of our broader culture and not specific to this school. Females can be the aggressors, as well, including younger ones. If you have sons that are popular/good looking, you’ve probably seen or heard about the phone calls, texts, etc. Girls have hormones, too. But, you’ll also find plenty of students in more committed boyfriend/girlfriend relationships at the school as well.
The administration had been making changes to policies before this incident took place (hence some of the student newspaper coverage - I believe it was push back from students on changing policies/focus).
My point is that the vast majority of the students, through their own family upbringing and through guidance provided by the school, know what is morally and ethically right and wrong here. Aside from Labrie and a couple of his buddies there was no broad tradition of a contest in hooking up with younger students, despite what the defense wanted to impart as an excuse for Labrie’s actions. The police have said as much. Regardless, schools do have a responsibility for the safety of their students and I’m sure the victim’s family can build a case showing neglect. It will be interesting to see if any civil lawsuit will be settled out of court or if the parents will choose a public forum to air their grievances.
@doschicos, I think you said you have some connections to the school (am I recalling that correctly?) and so I completely understand why St. Paul’s is near and dear to you. You have a perspective on it that the rest of us don’t have, so I give you the nod on that. It’s irritating when people spout off about something they don’t completely understand, so I do defer to your overall perspective on what are probably wonderful aspects of this school. Certainly, it’s been around for a very long time, and will undoubtedly outlive all of us and even our children’s children.
That said, I just can’t excuse what happened here. Somebody was not minding the store for at least these past few years, and the school needs to acknowledge that, rectify it, and pay whatever damages it has caused. Moreover, while I don’t excuse what Labrie did as being “all the school’s fault,” I do think the school fostered an environment that allowed this happen. I remain highly suspicious that Labrie was not the first or only boy at this school to have overstepped the law.
Labrie was just shy of 16 when he entered St. Paul’s? That means he was 15 years old … the same age as the victim. I personally find 15 to be very young and impressionable, which is a large part of what fuels my anger against Labrie. It is an age where peer pressure is so prevalent, and it’s an age where somebody can take advantage of that. We need to remember that a boy of 15 is actually even “younger,” both mentally and emotionally, than a girl of 15. Boys’ brains mature slower than girls’ brains. Labrie was indeed just an impressionable boy when he came to St. Paul’s and I personally believe that this is a very critical and formative age for boys.
Did St. Paul’s cause Labrie to commit this crime? No, of course not. Did St. Paul’s enable the crime by allowing this “senior salute” tradition, by not safekeeping the keys to buildings better, by not policing the grounds better, by not parenting these boys better, by not doing probably dozens of other things I can’t think of myself because I don’t know the inner workings of boarding schools? Yes, I think St. Paul’s is guilty of poor parenting, and St. Paul’s IS both morally and legally responsible for parenting the kids in its custody.
In my house, I made it a point of knowing what my kids were doing all the time. They didn’t leave the house without having to tell me where they were going. It was such an ingrained habit that even my adult kids automatically tell me where they are going when they are visiting temporarily (and I chuckle when they do!) I had my “village” of other parents; we conferred and shared stories and the boys AND girls in this social circle knew that not much was going to get by us. Missteps were punished appropriately. Positive male authority figures were present and involved. I acknowledge that it’s impossible to know what my kids were texting/facebooking messaging/emailing all the time…but I can tell you that if I had any inkling, even a tiny clue, even a barely founded suspicion, that there were plans for senior boys to seduce underage girls, I’m not the only one around here who would have stepped in, and very swiftly. Why should we expect any less from a boarding school in charge of - what - hundreds? of 14-18 year olds with no parents within miles of campus?
“Near and dear” probably wouldn’t be the way I’d describe my relationship with the school. Yes, I do have connections and with that I know a lot of the ins and outs of the school and it is by no means perfect or blameless, as I stated in my prior post. I had one child who was very happy there, and one child who wasn’t especially in the last couple of years. They did experience different administrations and I do think that plays into their different experiences. They are also different kids with different personalities.
I do think the school had responsibilities and fault can be found. We are probably closer in our thinking than not, @prospect1. In my opinion, and as you’ve stated, the school did not cause Labrie to commit this crime although there are things the school didn’t do that contributed to enabling the crime.
I think I give more credit to a teenager to have their moral compass formed at that age. Judgement can still be lacking in teens, especially when it comes to risk taking, but when it comes to moral issues? I do expect more at that age. At least in my own kids’ cases, an unformed moral compass hasn’t been the case. If I thought they didn’t have a strong moral compass then, I would not have sent them to boarding school at all.
I also think that many of us are fortunate - in addition to our superior parenting skills. 
I do think there are cases where kids can be raised in the type of atmosphere you describe having created - with support from a “village” and the school - yet a kid still turns out to be a bad seed. I know I’ve seen it - great parents, other kids turn out well, one kid is a bad apple. I don’t know anything about Labrie’s early upbringing, but I do believe blaming the school and even his parents is too simplistic. Even with the tight control you’ve outlined, there are kids that will cause trouble - and the smart ones are the best at getting away with it. I think in situations like this, jumping to blaming parents or a school community gives us some comfort that nothing like that would ever be done or happen to our own kids. My intent is not absolving the school from blame, just being pragmatic that there is no easy answer and that I personally feel that dumping it on the school is too simplistic. I’m also not saying things can’t change for the better at the school. They should and I think, if any good is coming out of this, tough questions are being asked and things are changing. From my own family’s experiences, the school is not perfect and there is room for improvement in many areas, but it is also different than the picture painted by the defense and the media.
@doschicos, I do think we are largely on the same page.
In these matters, there is rarely an easy answer, or a simple explanation, or a single factor. We humans do try to put things in categories so that we can understand them better, and try to learn from them.
The media often gets things wrong, but I do tend to agree with a lot of what I’ve seen reported on this case, which is that there is plenty of blame to spread all around. A perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances, so to speak. I guess the positive is that this case will add to the conversation about what we as parents and schools need to do to supervise, educate, nurture and prepare our young men and women for real life.
@doschicos Except…
When the victim went to the school nurse at St. Paul’s, the nurse asked if it the sex was consensual. The nurse knew or should have known that the victim was under the age of consent. The sex could not have been consensual by law. The young woman had been on campus. It was clear that her sexual partner was almost certainly a member of the St. Paul’s community.
Now, it’s possible that the young woman wouldn’t want to pursue charges. But the impression I got was that as soon as the young woman said it was “consensual” that was the end of the inquiry. That nurse, IMO, knew or should have known that a crime had been committed and did nothing. I don’t even get the impression–though maybe I’m wrong–that she made any attempt to find out if the sex partner was another student, a teacher, or other employee. The nurse also testified that she knew nothing about “the senior salute.” The rector testified that he did. If they are both being truthful, the rector knew that there was some sort of practice in which older boys invited young girls to do something sexual…what is vague…but he had never bothered letting the school nurse know about it.
It sounds as if the RA also knew what had happened, and her reaction was “call your parents.” Now, given what we now know about St. Paul’s, that turned out to be good advice. However, as far as we know, the RA didn’t tell anyone in the administration that a 15 year old student, i.e., one too young to consent to sex in NH, was upset and alleged that she had had involuntary sex with an older student.
St. Paul’s ONLY reported the incident to the police when mom called and reported it to St. Paul’s. By then, it was most definitely CYA time because mom had taken the girl to the hospital and a rape kit had been done.
What most upsets me is that at least a dozen students at the school knew about the sex, some of them knew the victim was upset, but nobody seems to have reported what was going on to anyone in the administration.
The “evidence” strongly suggest that the young woman was not the only underage prey in the game. Nothing we’ve heard so far suggests that St. Paul’s has called in an independent investigator.
Would it still have been a crime if the victim was 15 and Labrie was 16? I thought the big hit was because Labrie was 18.
@cardinalfang, true, if the report to the nurse was simply that she had consensual sex, perhaps the nurse assumed it was with a similarly-aged boy, which I think would not have been a crime. However, the rest of @jonri’s points have merit.
I dunno. If the school nurse thought the sex was consensual, because the victim said it was, do we really want her probing more? If the sex really was consensual, the victim would not want to get her partner in trouble. We don’t want to discourage students from going to the nurse for health care because they’re afraid they’ll get their consensual sex partners in trouble.
@cardinalfang…but…if it was just an appropriately-aged consensual sex partner, I don’t think he would have been in trouble. I see your point, however.