Kicking Us While We’re Down
We are all well aware of the intense scrutiny of The Boston Globe on our school concerning the barrage of unearthed sexual assault cases that have shaken our community. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team is on a crusade against private education institutions and working hard to uncover the decades of sexual assault cases swept under the rug by many schools, including PEA. Their articles helped fuel major discussions about how to improve the climate of elite private schools and will hopefully create a much safer environment on our campuses. That being said, their articles about the cases of a graduated senior and the lawsuit brought against the school by a student who withdrew, are journalistic abominations.
"Instead, they write suggestive pieces that present one-sided arguments and plant ideas in the minds of readers who don’t read critically enough to form their own opinions."
Perhaps the largest distortion of the situation came in an article attacking Reverend Thompson about his actions in the latest assault case, as well as ones dating back to 1993. The article had the tone of comparing his actions with those of the Catholic priests The Globe’s spotlight team has become famous for exposing. In her article, Ms. Abelson begins with a character assassination and seems to overlook the fact that it is a minister’s duty to offer counsel and spiritual guidance to any and all students. I, unlike Ms. Abelson, will not speak for Reverend Thompson, but it seems to me that he felt he was doing right, in his eyes and according to his religion. I believe that he holds himself to a different set of policies, divine rules. This view may have led him to make mistakes in the handling of this case, but certainly not malice-driven mistakes.The articles have a distinct bias that seeks to blame the administration and portray the involved parties as completely incompetent. The only input from the Academy is through lawyers due to the lawsuits against the administrations and investigation of some deans. This means that the administration is legally obligated to remain silent about the cases until their conclusion. Consequently, The Globe prints articles without allowing the school to set the record straight and tell their side of the story. Instead, they write suggestive pieces that present one-sided arguments and plant ideas in the minds of readers who don’t read critically enough to form their own opinions. The actions of the people involved in handling the accusations of sexual assault are taken out of context, blowing a mistake out of proportion and showing the most damaging side.
The deans handling of the most recent sexual assault case, and Reverend Thompson, mishandled the claims of the victim and failed to address the issue quick enough. There is no question that the process and policies surrounding these circumstances were faulty and to some extent disregarded. However, there is a value we hold in this country that we deemed so important it became the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. This is the right to a trial before an impartial jury, and the right to representation. This may not be taking place in a courthouse, but it is taking place in a world of spectacularly unbalanced scales. In the media, the school has not been afforded impartial judgement and the reporters preyed on this story at a time when half of the parties involved were unable to respond, unable to represent themselves.
In spite of The Boston Globe’s questionable method of journalism, their inquiries into the issues that plague not just private schools, but most educational institutions, made a discourse possible about a topic that isn’t easy to bring up, let alone discuss. As a result, the Academy has rushed to implement clear protocols for dealing with issues that arise, and more importantly, preventing further assaults by fundamentally changing the culture.
This rash of cases have raised awareness for the victims, both present and past, and opened our eyes to the struggle they faced speaking out, and the difficulties they will have moving forward. The long-lasting effect will be a change in the culture of all of our schools and hopefully the prevention of any future assaults.