Assault Case at Andover Leads to Five Million Dollar Lawsuit

Exeter’s peer school Phillips Academy Andover (PA) has recently uncovered multiple cases of sexual assault.

“We hope that this concentration of reports during a particular period of time means that these issues have become less acute in recent years, but we take nothing for granted.”

On April 21, attorney, former New Hampshire state representative and Phillips Academy alumna ‘85 Marie Sapienza filed a federal lawsuit alleging that in 1982, Alexander Theroux, then an English instructor and writer-in-residence at Andover, sexually abused her. According to court filings, Theroux groped her breasts and buttocks. Theroux denied the allegations, but has since been banned from the Andover campus.

Sapienza’s lawsuit stipulates a legal due of 5 million dollars for “mental distress and emotional injuries” from her assault, which have led to “suicidal ideation, depression, sadness, anger, anxiety, sleep problems and panic attacks.”

During her upper year, Sapienza wrote a letter addressing sexual misconduct at Andover and submitted it for inclusion in the school’s newspaper, The Phillipian. However, her letter was declined and the then-Headmaster Donald McNemar dismissed her case because Theroux had ceased working for the Academy by the time she had come forward with her experience.

Theroux is one of five former Phillips Academy teachers who has been accused of sexually abusing students during the 1970s or the 1980s. Last August, Headmaster John Palfrey sent a public letter to update the Andover community on the school’s retainment of the Sanghavi Law Office law firm to conduct an independent investigation of historical sexual abuse. The letter also described the school’s newest preventive and reformatory efforts.

Over the course of the past year, independent investigators from Sanghavi Law Office have examined allegations brought to light by students and alumni, uncovering multiple violations. The investigators concluded that H. Schuyler Royce engaged in multiple incidents of sexual misconduct toward a student in the 1980s, while serving as a faculty member at Andover. Royce passed away in 1991.

Similarly, Sanghavi Law Office found that Stephen Wicks also engaged in sexual misconduct toward a student in the 1980s, while he was working at Andover. In accordance with school policy, Wicks has been barred from the Andover campus and events and he has been stripped of his emeritus status.

Andover has also been linked to the widespread media coverage of sexual misconduct at Choate Rosemary Hall. According to a New York Times article published last week,  two women have accused Frederic Lyman, who taught at both Choate and Andover, of engaging in inappropriate behavior towards them while he was a teaching fellow at Andover during the 1978-79 academic year and again when he taught at Andover’s summer session in 1979.

One of the women had attended the summer session in 1980. She claimed that Lyman gave her alcohol, held her hand and walked with his arm around her. She said that at one point, he tried to kiss her. During a group camping trip, she remembered waking up in the middle of the night to him kissing her and stroking her arms.

In the past, teachers accused of sexual assault were permitted to continue teaching at other schools, free of penalty. School administrators allowed the accused to resign quietly and join another school, a process known as “passing the trash.”

Lyman was one such case. After leaving Andover, he moved to Choate Rosemary Hall, where he was dismissed due to claims of sexual misconduct in 1982 and he then proceeded to teach at a school in Colorado. In fact, Lyman left Choate with a letter of recommendation. Choate’s Dean of Faculty, Charles Twichell, who has since died, wrote the letter, in which he described Lyman’s “easy familiarity with students.”

As for the Andover community, Palfrey expressed his condolences for all those affected and encouraged victims to speak up about their abuse. “We remain committed to a full examination of our past,” he wrote. “As always, please come forward if there is information you feel compelled to share.”

Andover prep Skylar Xu appreciated the school’s transparency. “Andover does a good job informing students about the disclosure of the incident,” she said. “I don't think Andover is trying to cover up in any way because Mr. Palfrey sent copies of news articles in an email so students are all informed.”

This year, Andover also implemented preventive and reformatory efforts in response to the sexual misconduct cases. In the fall, Palfrey and PA’s Dean of Students Jenny Elliot spoke at an all-school meeting about consent, the law and community expectations. The school produced a short video outlining the school’s “affirmative consent” policy and required ninth graders to participate in programs focused on developing healthy relationships. Andover’s disciplinary handbook The Blue Book has also been updated to specify definitions of sexual misconduct.

Xu recalled the thorough sex education she and her prep peers received this year. “There have been many efforts contributed towards educating students about sexual consent. We have received multiple talks from groups of different people,” she said. “Based on their position and area of expertise, I would say we get quite extensive information about the entire system, from medical perspectives, faculty and peer perspectives. Faculty and staff really try their best to educate students and keep them safe.”

Palfrey said that since PA has not encountered any present-day allegations of sexual misconduct, the school has likely fostered a healthier culture over the years. “While we have heard a great deal through this process about the culture of the school in the 1970s and 1980s, we have heard few reports of any kind from the period before or since that time,” he wrote. “We hope that this concentration of reports during a particular period of time means that these issues have become less acute in recent years, but we take nothing for granted.”

Andover upper Makenna Marshall disagreed, saying that she has not seen any change in the students’ sex culture, which she described as “hookup-based.” However, she noted that Andover teachers have become more conscious and deliberate in discussing sex with their younger students. “Sex has been more stigmatized by faculty than students from what I've seen,” she said. “They make small comments about thinking that students are too young.”

In the midst of Exeter’s own sexual misconduct investigations, upper and co-head of Exonians Against Sexual Assault Mila DeGuere believes that sexual violence is, at its core, a result of societal conventions, rather than detrimental dynamics specific to Exeter and that an equitable response to teacher-student sexual misconduct requires open promulgation of such incidents.

“I think it’s important that these [cases] are publicized to emphasize that this doesn’t happen just at Exeter and is truly a widespread, cultural issue,” DeGuere said. “High schools across the nation have to have a strict plan of action in the event of a sexual assault or misconduct case.”