This is terrible for all involved. I wonder if @ChoatieMom or others more closely tied to the school are as shocked and disturbed by this, or if this report was expected by those in that community.
Sad to say, based on what I’ve read about other schools, I am less surprised about the fact that this went on in the 1960’s and 70’s, but that it went on into 2010 is really really disturbing.
@Golfgr8 --thanks for your post. DD mentioned the news in a text last night; we will see how this affects our kids. As for your question regarding contracts and deposits, the answer is yes.
@itcannotbetrue so sorry this is even an issue you have to address with your kids. Hopefully this marks a new era wherein the administration is proactive in dealing with predatory faculty. Maybe students will feel empowered to seek help if they feel like a teacher-student relationship feels funny.
Thank you… Dont even know what else to say…
I can see how the timing in releasing the report is irritating to people who have just turned down other schools and settled on Choate. The news might or might not have been a determining factor in their decisions, but still I would want to have this piece of info factored in the decision making. That said, in the big pictue, sex scandles happened in many private schools, some more severe than others and some may still yet to be revealed. Your kids will attend the school of today and tomorrow, not of yesterday. If the current school administration is handling the matter properly as you see and is proactive in preventing these things from happening again, that’s all that matters, IMO.
Seems these stories are becoming boilerplate at boarding schools these days but I doubt it’s happening with higher frequency than at public or day schools. I’m hardly shocked. Is anyone really?
^wow! that’s a cynical post.
How would this kind of abusive behavior , regardless of where it might happen, EVER be considered “hardly shocking”??
To justify sending a young student away to boarding school and then yawn when his kind of thing happens, cause it “happens” at boarding schools, is just beyond me.
How not? I’m not condoning the behavior, I’m just pointing out that these stories have occurred at almost all of the schools. You can be sure Choate will not be the last school featured in such a story. All of the schools have responded appropriately. Not sure what shock and outrage are going to solve.
The problem is that the schools haven’t responded appropriately. The boarding school nearest my town of Hooterville had a multiyear problem as well.
shock and outrage, when transmitted via social media these days, tends to focus a laser beam of attention on any egregious behavior [ hello United airlines] and stop it in its tracks.
hopefully that will be the case in the future for ALL boarding schools.
@HMom16
Written by a former SPS alumnus:
https://www.google.com/amp/www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/st-pauls-owen-labrie-rape-trial/amp
@panpacific maybe what you say is true. I don’t know. I’m concerned of a prevailing culture that normalizes or permits behavior and that’s intangible and cannot necessarily be stopped by administration. And it’s not necessarily in a vacuum either. Our kids are growing up in a media and tech culture that’s really hard for adults to keep up with. I know that the best I can do is not to shove it aside or assume that my kid won’t be affected by it. But to acknowledge that it happened, might have an effect on school life and talk to him about it. This recent report shows a pervasiveness that suggests to me that no one can assume that it doesn’t exist now or ever wherever they are.
Sorry. Answered from my phone and thought I was on the BS forum where the group is more familiar with all these incidences. Carry on.
Sure, it is horrible but I am not shocked as the same thing has transpired at many schools. This is just the latest to come to light. Boston Globe’s Spotlight team has been investigating this stuff for a few years now. There is a whole laundry list of a history of this stuff at different schools. They have had it on their website. (I’ve read my 5 free articles this month so don’t have access to provide a link). St. George’s, Exeter, Andover, Deerfield are just a few of the top of my head.
The Spotlight team at the Globe is the one that the Oscar winning movie was based on uncovering the Catholic Church sexual abuse history and coverups. This is very similar. Very unfortunate but speaks a lot to a cultural history of looking the other way, not addressing the issue and letting deviant behavior creep in without sufficient checks and balances to systems where some individuals are vulnerable and others are placed in positions of trust and responsibility without sufficient safeguards. Not unique to just boarding schools.
As unsettling as it is, it is important that this stuff is in the spotlight.
We recently had a case in our county involving a drama teacher. So yes, it happens everywhere. I’m glad we are talking about this stuff now. I went to boarding school myself, and it’s hard for me to imagine how these schools managed to keep things secret for so long. We had one art teacher who had some sort of relationship with one of the students and he was fired. (He did later marry the young woman for whatever that is worth - and I don’t think he was a serial molester.)
This. And this is why I don’t register “shock.” This is not the first time I’ve heard of sexual misconduct between students and teachers. Not even the 20th. I certainly don’t condone it, but I’m hardly shocked. And for all the incidences reported on this forum over the years, it seems to me that all of the affected schools have responded swiftly and appropriately and are NOT promoting toxic cultures. If you think they are then, by all means, do NOT send your child to them.
Agreed, but did anyone who just sent in their deposit to Andover or Exeter or St. Paul’s or Groton or think twice about similar scandals at those institutions? If your school has not yet been named in a scandal, remember, Choate was in that situation just last week.
I usually don’t respond to these threads, but someone called me out on the main board and I responded from my phone thinking I was in the safety of our family here. Yikes. Don’t be me.
Anyway, I find this all very unfortunate for the victims first and the schools second, but I don’t believe that any of you new parents have to be concerned that your school will lack transparency or concern for the well-being of your child or that your school will not react swiftly and appropriately to deal with whatever issues it needs to deal with to ensure the health and happiness of its community.
Full Disclosure: This recent story is not the only scandal Choate has endured. Please search for Choate and “cocaine” or Choate and “mean girls” to see what else has happened at the school in the past that might concern you. But please do similar searches for any school you are interested in, boarding or otherwise.
I agree in general with @panpacific, but I think the emphasis is wrong. Many (or most) of those in this forum have invested enormously in independent schools – financially, academically, professionally, emotionally. These schools do so many good things and offer tremendous, life changing benefits for those involved with them. We all understand, I think, the instinct to protect these manifest good deeds from the damage a scandal can cause.
But for the same reason I believe honest, courageous and proactive leadership is so critically important at an independent school – more important than anything else, perhaps. Releasing a report in and of itself qualifies only as a first step. A well-run, well-led school should have in place rules and practices that proactively protect the children in their care from harm. Some schools in fact place great emphasis on this, and some less so. The administration is not all powerful in this arena, but they are not helpless either. They play a huge role in setting the tone, promoting integrity, providing positive role models, applying discipline etc.
These things happen more often than we think … but I do believe there are schools where they seem to happen much less often. Before we started visiting schools in person and speaking to current and former students (and their parents) I had underestimated the HUGE differences in school cultures.
@ChoatieMom I just want to clarify I never said admin is promoting a culture that is toxic. I truly believe that most schools when they have a public mission statement they carry it out. It’s easy to figure out if they do as they say.
I’m talking about separate teen culture. Our kids are old enough to have internalized our values and we can trust them to behave in accordance. I think if I didn’t trust my kid, we wouldn’t have looked at BS. My kid is still going to choate.
Spoke with staff, my kids, and parents in-the-know. Reporters on campus (so sad for the current students). Mandatory all-school meeting is today at 3:00. Students were made aware this morning, however many students received the report/parent email that was sent out yesterday from their parents. There has been a lot of angst on campus, understandably so.
Re post # 25-- "Releasing a report in and of itself qualifies only as a first step. A well-run, well-led school should have in place rules and practices that proactively protect the children in their care from harm. . . "
To this end, there are many updated and new policies and procedures to be implemented in addition to ones that have already been implemented with the current headmaster (on the job since 2011). I will post more details later.
It appears that the present and future Choate may very well be the safest NE prep school around going forward. They are on task now. I only wish that this was the case in the past as well–for Choate and many of its sister schools.
@libaya I agree the more recent incidents are in particular unsettling. IMO, they should’ve been reported to law enforcement in the first place as they were clearly potential criminal acts that needed investigation and interventions from authorities outside the school.