Administration Aims To Address St. Paul’s
The frightening and eye-catching story of a case of sexual harassment at the prestigious St. Paul’s School dominated the front pages of national newspapers, blogs and opinion pages this summer. Owen Labrie, a senior at St. Paul’s, was exposed for participating in the tradition known as the “senior salute,” where male seniors attempt to “hook up” with as many younger students as they could before graduation.
Labrie, an academically successful student at the school, used email and other online communication to lure a fifteen-year-old student into an uncomfortable and allegedly not fully consensual sexual encounter shortly before the school year ended. The interaction landed Labrie in court; as a result, Harvard University revoked his admission, and he is now registered as a sex offender.
As conversations surrounding sexual cultures, traditions and assault heighten across campuses throughout the United States, prep schools are the latest group to fall under scrutiny. The case showed that tempering sexual behavior is more complex than simply adopting a “no means no” mentality and appeasing both concerned parents and students with a support system with a comprehensive set of services.
Exeter Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove said that conversations “about what it means to treat each other with respect” must continue on campus. “We need to listen carefully, communicate honestly and act responsibly,” he added.
Other boarding schools have been prompted to strengthen their programs and offerings that deal with sexual assault. According to a current student at Phillips Academy Andover, the Andover administration hosted an all-school meeting Tuesday to discuss sexual assault and healthy relationships. Faculty discussed how sexual acts were not encouraged, but recognized that they needed to address issues surrounding them to promote safe sex and more meticulously define acts that constitute sexual assault. The school has planned to hold smaller sessions and workshop groups in the future, starting Oct. 7, but has not yet released further details.
“I believe that student-run sex education sessions would be the most beneficial to our community.”
Assistant Principal Ronald Kim said that the reaction at Exeter and “for pretty much anybody watching [the case]” has been one of “real sadness about what has happened.” While the issue has not gone away by any means, Kim said that the Labrie case has again brought to light that the health and safety of students are always the school’s top concern and that “if we hear about some things that are happening, we want to make sure that we address them.”
Dean of Students Melissa Mischke said that she has, in recent years, addressed sexual behaviors and assault head-on, and that regardless of the press surrounding the St. Paul’s case, this work is vital at any school. “You have to have a significant and multipronged approach,” she explained. “That works to engage everyone in the community. I’m not just saying that; you have to back it up with real stuff.”
Mischke said that the services offered should not only reach out to one group or offer support in one way.
In an email to parents following the Labrie trial, Principal Lisa MacFarlane outlined the support system the school has worked to build. She said that regulations for sexual behavior are outlined clearly in the E Book, a section that Mischke, several health professionals and students edited and clarified together over the summer.
In addition, the Academy has held and will hold required assemblies, adult-supervised clubs focused on sexuality and social issues, begin and sustain partnerships with national experts, offer mental health services and use results from the National Youth Health Risk Behavior Survey taken by students last year to assess the current sexual climate on campus.
The Academy also partnered with the Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC), which was established at the University of New Hampshire in 2006. MacFarlane, who collaborated with the group during her time as UNH’s Provost, said that the PIRC is “one of the premier research centers in the U.S., and [it] has worked with scores of colleges, universities and organizations, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.”
The PIRC has traditionally worked in higher education, so the Academy’s involvement marks one of its first steps into secondary school assessment and program development. MacFarlane said that the PIRC will collaborate with students, faculty and staff to develop interventions tailored to the Academy. She added that the organization has expressed interest in having students participate on the research team, which she saw as a “great opportunity” for Exonians interested in public health, social science research and the prevention of sexual harassment. Despite the efforts of the Academy’s deans to create an environment where sexual assault is easily discussed and resources are sufficient and readily available, some have critiqued their approach.
Monica Acosta ’15 said that, while Exeter is certainly trying to address sexual assault, the offered programs do not yet suffice. She described the Academy’s efforts as clear but “misguided.”
“I don’t think we’re saying that the school isn’t doing anything, but that they’re not doing enough,” she said. This was a common sentiment among recent alumni and has remained a cause of frustration. Lower Charlotte Polk said the “hook-up” culture at Exeter was similar to what she has heard about cultures at many colleges. This, she said, “can be damaging for younger students.” Polk explained that it adds a pressure for some students to “do more growing up than they may be ready for.”
Lower Lily Friedland agreed that the culture is unhealthy and that the Academy needs to try a different approach. While she said the services currently offered “work hard to give us the tools they think we need, [they don’t] give me any sense of security. This is a subject that needs to be addressed differently than how many vegetables you should put on your plate at dining hall.” Friedland said she would like to see student-designed and student-led forums on the topic of sex education, which she thinks would be more effective if not led by adults. “I believe that student-run sex education sessions would be the most beneficial to our community,” she said.
To address the underlying culture of sexual assault, senior Lucy Weiler advocated closer scrutiny of the policies surrounding illegal visitations (illegal Vs) and suggested the creation of a formalized and advertised system to combat discomfort that occurs during illegal Vs. She said that she understood the administration’s hesitancy to do so, in fear of encouraging illegal Vs, but felt that a lack of a system created an unhealthy gap in understanding for students.
One especially poignant and conversation-inducing assessment was written by Zoha Qamar ’15, in a piece called ‘When I Tried to Talk to My Prep School About Rape Culture, They Wouldn’t Listen.’ Published in August for Jezebel, Qamar set the scene sitting in a dean’s office after she had been called in to discuss an OpEd — titled ‘Our Fixation on Symptoms’— she wrote about the Academy’s decision to curb “grinding” at dances; Qamar had suggested that the school was simply trying to cloak the prevalence and acceptance of sexual assault instead of addressing it head-on.
A day after the article was published, Mischke wrote an official response representing the school in the comments section. Mischke asserted that Qamar had made factual errors in the article that misrepresented the nature of meetings with administrators and the efforts to address sexual assault already in existence. “Ms. Qamar’s assertion that Exeter is turning a blind eye to an important issue like sexual assault is simply wrong,” she wrote.
“We want to listen to what people have to say,” Mischke said in a recent interview, “but there were really some profound inaccuracies in her piece. I wouldn’t say misinterpretations, I would say total misconstruction of meetings and how they happened. That’s really challenging for us.” She said the response on the Jezebel site served to stand up for the efforts of the school and address some of the “inaccuracies.”
Qamar, however, didn’t accept Mischke’s rebuttal. “The response comment from Dean Mischke on the Jezebel website was a basic arbitrary assertion that I was simply ‘wrong,’ with reasoning that superficially chronicled a laundry list of services the Academy provides, in an attempt to assert that the utter existence of such practices and protocols must inherently be enough,” she said.
Kim said that while he appreciated Qamar’s concern and work to address the issue, careful measures should be taken when writing about sexual assault to remain sensitive to all parties. “I respect [Qamar’s] right to voice her opinion.” However, Kim added that “the term ‘rape culture’ is used a lot, and every time someone uses a term like that, people have a responsibility to make sure they’re using it carefully and thoughtfully.
But Qamar said she had a clear goal in mind. She wished to express concern and frustration at obstacles faced by students trying to vocalize concerns and facilitate change in Exeter’s sexual culture. She said that students’ voices were frequently ignored and rarely validated. “[The administrators’] overall existence is an eternal component of the Exeter we know. It is thus irresponsible and unacceptable for campus administrators to wash away the voices and concerns of students after their graduation.”
Friedland, who thought that Qamar’s piece raised both valid and necessary points about the school, thought it was an effective way to address the issue. “The only way to get the most out of Exeter is to learn how to go fight against Exeter while fighting for Exeter,” she said. “This is exactly what Zoha did by writing her piece.”
While Qamar’s article was met with controversy and community members differ in their suggestions for approach, students, faculty members and administrators are in agreement that the Academy must continue to discuss and work to address sexual assault in more comprehensive ways.