Nadine Thompson Speaks Out

Exeter’s former Dean of Multicultural Affairs Nadine Thompson believes that the Academy scapegoated her partner, recently retired Academy minister Robert “Bob” Thompson, for his purported role in the 2016 case of alleged student-on-student sexual misconduct.

In an exclusive interview with The Exonian, Nadine Thompson divulged details from the past two years, speaking on the record for the first time since 2016.

“It was good to finally have something out for closure. It’s good that [Rawson] was able to say that Bob had not been accused of any sexual misconduct. That was the only thing good about that letter to me,” she said. “Bob gave up so much of his […] life to be here, and to not even end with a celebration of this work or a statement about all that this man has done for the school—that was really hard. That felt like a slap in the face.”

In an article from its July 13, 2016 issue about the alleged sexual misconduct perpetrated by a student in 2015, the Boston Globe wrote that at Robert Thompson’s “urging,” the then-student baked monkey bread for the purported survivor as a weekly “act of penance.” Three days after the article was published, the Academy placed the Reverend on paid administrative leave, under gag order and banned him from campus. These restrictions persisted for two years until Interim Principal William Rawson announced Robert Thompson’s retirement, effective Oct. 31, in an email sent to faculty, staff and alumni on Monday, Oct. 29.

While Nadine Thompson acknowledged that Rawson’s statement provided necessary clarification in certain areas, in her opinion, it did not do justice to the Reverend’s contributions to the Academy. “It was good to finally have something out for closure. It’s good that [Rawson] was able to say that Bob had not been accused of any sexual misconduct. That was the only thing good about that letter to me,” she said. “Bob gave up so much of his […] life to be here, and to not even end with a celebration of this work or a statement about all that this man has done for the school—that was really hard. That felt like a slap in the face.”

Rawson—who is traveling this week and given limited time to respond remotely via email, said he was not aware of Nadine Thompson’s more specific sentiments, but he recognized the community’s mixed responses to his statement. “The majority of responses have expressed appreciation for the letter and the fact that a resolution has been achieved,” he said. “Some commenters have expressed strong disappointment that the letter did not do more to recognize Rev. Thompson’s service to the Academy over the course of his career. Others have expressed equally strong disappointment that the letter spoke as favorably of Rev. Thompson as it did without addressing other issues and without acknowledging the secondary harm that can occur when sexual misconduct matters are not handled properly.”

Rawson, in his letter, wished to convey the Academy’s efforts to reach “a resolution fair to Rev. Thompson and responsible to the school,” and voiced that the depth and scope of his statement was suitable considering the circumstances. “I did not think it appropriate to say more in the letter than I did, recognizing that though it was public knowledge that Rev. Thompson had been placed on administrative leave, this is an employment matter and in most such cases far less is publicly stated,” Rawson said.According to Nadine Thompson, the retired Reverend is currently drafting a statement to share with the greater Exeter community. “Of course, [the statement] is really important because nobody's heard from him for two years and people don't know his side of the story… People assume that he was a minister with such bad judgement that he would prescribe monkey bread as a penance for sexual assault,” she said. “To serve an institution for 30 years, be an alum of the school, a black man and be seen as the monkey bread minister is painful—his whole career was destroyed over a poorly researched article and an institution that didn’t care enough for him and his service to set the record straight.”Nadine Thompson recalled the crowd of local reporters stationed outside her and the Reverend’s home and the outpouring of “angry calls” they received from rape crisis centers when the Globe article was first released. She stated that the Reverend’s first response had been to call the school and that he was promptly instructed not to respond or comment on the situation. “It didn't feel like a gag order at the time. In those three days, it felt like ‘don't speak to the press because they're going to distort this even more,’” she said. “He was told that he could not speak to anybody about it. And we just kind of sat there in silence because we trusted the school. We trusted that the school would take care of it.”According to Nadine Thompson, the Academy’s official response differed from what she and her husband had anticipated. The Academy enforced restrictions against the minister which—Nadine Thompson contends—“silenced” and “isolated” him from the community.  “We were naive to think that the institution would want to correct the narrative—that his role was as minister and not disciplinarian [and] that his knowledge of the issues were limited, due to the confidential nature of the case,” Nadine Thompson said. “It was like complete silence. […] Up until last week, he wasn’t able to say anything.”Nadine Thompson also attributed racial nuances to the Academy’s decision to place the Reverend on leave. “We’re living in a time where there is an awareness of racial and implicit bias. We are in the midst of the Me Too Movement and Black Lives Matter, and the intersection of power, race and gender issues. All of these dynamics were evident in this incident […] I think the school missed the racial implications of what happened with that one case,” she said, elaborating that the Academy had missed a “great teaching opportunity” by failing to more transparently address and discuss the situation.Despite her qualms with the Academy, Nadine Thompson expressed gratitude for the support she and Robert Thompson received from the larger Exeter community. “The institution is going to protect itself—it's not going to protect him,” she said. “But Bob said to me, the administration is not the school. The students and the alumni are the school. And he felt tremendous love and support from the students and the alumni. […] If they hadn’t supported us in that way that they did, we wouldn’t have made it through.”