" I think the students agree to a pledge to avoid pre-marital sex. So my statement was really directed at the fellow-student issue."
There is sex and sexual assault at Wheaton in Illinois (and at BYU, Oral Roberts, and other schools that forbid sex). I have a case from Wheaton. I agree that there may be less assault at these campuses simply because there is less opportunity; parietal rules make it more difficult for couples to be alone together.
@Hanna - in my observations, parietal rules, divisions by gender, and religious environments - make for worse, not better, understanding of sex and sexuality issues. In my experience, such environments also reinforce power structures where sexual and other assault is much less likely to be reported, but if anything, more likely to occur.
ETA: forced celibacy is also not the best recipe for appropriate discussions, contraception preparedness, and personal self control around sex, regardless of consent.
“make for worse, not better, understanding of sex and sexuality issues.”
Oh, I totally agree when it comes to understanding and future healthy relationships. But it’s a fact that keeping people apart, policing them, and denying them privacy reduces their sexual interaction in the here and now. (Not to zero, of course!)
LOL, made me remember conversations my H and I have had with teenage friends who went to prep school…unless they are telling lies now that they are old, .they were way “wilder” than we were with our parents breathing down our necks in the public schools.
Finally diving back into what feels like a cesspool…I am simply appalled by the content of the parents’ complaint against SPS. I am gobsmacked that the Rector and others ignored such pernicious behavior. He should resign. They need a thorough cleaning and airing at that place.
The contrast between that and the wholesome atmosphere at the coed English boarding school I attended in the late 60s could not possibly be greater. Having a coed boarding school was regarded as somewhat scandalous there in those days. The headmaster and everyone else was extremely alert to any hint of hazing of any kind, let alone sexual assault. Just incredible.
Boarding schools are always in danger of descending into a kind of Lord of the Flies environment, due to the presence of so many adolescents. It takes careful and dedicated administration to avoid it. There will always be incidents–just as there are at day schools, whether public or private–but allowing an actual CULTURE to take root is beyond the pale.
On the other hand, I used to know someone who went to Groton in the late 60s, and he was apparently tied to a chair and sexually tortured by some of his charming fellow students. He was gay. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, or if such stuff was common. I do know that if that happened at my school, A) It absolutely would quickly have been known by the house and headmasters, and B) those who perpetrated it would have been out the next day.
There have been scandals at many male English boarding schools. Just googling brings up lots of stuff, Including issues at Bedales, coed, that Amanda Craig alleges.
@sevmom, I am fully aware of that. Not claiming that they are any different, THIS school was different.
As they say, fish rots from the head. Bullying and other unsavory behaviors breed where they are tolerated by the leadership.
Obviously, all of that is in the past now. I don’t think anyone at St. Paul’s or anywhere would admit to thinking a little bit of bullying was good training for the bullied today. But vestiges of the old ways may linger.
My children’s school had something like this issue with an African-American scholarship student. It was a Quaker school, at which tolerance and respect for others was absolutely a prime virtue, but the student came from an evangelical background and felt called to confront and condemn, publicly, what he saw as clearly immoral behavior, like any form of homosexuality. Actions which would have gotten a rich white student expelled on the spot produced, in his case, mild discipline and extensive counseling.
My school in England was one of those inspired by the ideas of Kurt Hahn, so it very deliberately had a different focus than the traditional public (in the British sense) schools. I really loved that place.
@JHS Chudi is an African-American, and I believe he was either a three or a four year senior. Exeter has a history of trying to minimize assault cases, so I don’t think culture had anything to do with it, at least in this case.
@JHS My understanding is that he is from Florida and is the son of two doctors. Michaella is from the Islands.
He is from Florida.
@JHS Michaella is American as well. She’s Haitian-American.
While neither of the Exeter students was foreign born, I’ve heard of this type of hazing behavior (including non-consensual “buggery”) taking place at at least one American boarding school where there is a large contingent of foreign-born students from wealthy families.
I hate even knowing about this stuff. I doubt living in another state and learning of it through “hearsay” that I constitute a “mandatory reporter,” but it makes me ill to think that this type of behavior goes on, still, and people just look the other way (no pun intended).
Latest, from a new thread entitled “Appalling”
She was a child at that school and they abysmally failed to protect her. Now, they want to make sure the whole world knows her name? Shame on them. That school is really showing what it thinks of young women and how it will do anything for it’s own reputation. How don’t they see that they are absolutely ruining their own reputation?
If St. Paul’s wants to argue how they care for victims, the school isn’t off to a great start.
A couple of new developments: http://www.unionleader.com/Victims-parents-in-Labrie-case-no-longer-seeking-anonymity
I guess with the $100K raised, we now know how Jay Carney was paid and how Labrie’s current attorney is being paid.
I can’t help seeing this as a sad development. Letting her name be known isn’t the same as finding her voice. The victim of the Stanford rapist surely found her voice while remaining anonymous. There are too many crazies out there, too many people who will vilify her.