Lowerclassmen Need to Speak Up
By: William Lu
Content Warning: This article involves sexual assault. Phillips Exeter has a number of resources for survivors in the Exeter community. To access these resources, please refer to the Exeter website’s “Contacts and Resources” page. Additionally, if you find yourself distressed by any details, please seek confidential help at the National Sexual Assault Hotline: (800) 656-4673.
Just this past week, the Academy announced another case of sexual misconduct. Law firm Holland & Knight revealed to the Academy that former English Instructor David Weber admitted to “hugging and kissing a student in the basement of a dormitory in the 1980s.” It’s common knowledge that this is not an isolated case; in the past ten years alone, the community has witnessed countless cases filed against the Academy.
A quick glance at The Exonian’s archives shows that the Academy has made no long-term, substantive change to fight sexual assault. Anything that the Academy might dub “progress,” has been for the sake of appeasement. This is my first year, and hearing all of these instances is not what I expected when I applied. I am beginning to understand the darker reality of campus culture.
The perpetuation of normalizing behaviors that lead to sexual assault, however, is a problem that occurs on a nation-wide scale. When the average age of exposure to pornography—for children of all genders—is just eleven years old, the objectification of women is taught to children. Children are malleable, and because it is unlikely for them to fully grasp the ramifications of viewing said explicit material, this generation is no less likely to refrain from harmful behaviors than previous ones.
This problem, likewise, exists within Exeter. I have been on campus for less than a whole term, and in just that short time, I have been asked “would you f*ck that girl” on multiple occasions.
This is a multifaceted issue, but it should not be dismissed simply because of its difficulty; we have already seen the harmful effects realized in the status quo. Maybe we don’t have the power to change anything at a societal level, but has that ever stopped our community from holding ourselves to higher standards?
At Exeter, we pride ourselves on our esteem in academia. Why should we treat toxic culture differently compared to other subjects that we hold an excellent standard to? The frequency of modern instances of sexual assault at the Academy reflects a lack of effort on the entire community. The reason why such offenses happen in the first place is that the perpetrators are comfortable in their environment. There should not be a single place where anyone is comfortable committing such an offense.
In The Exonian’s 142nd Board final issue, former Editor-in-Chief Anne Brandes wrote a chilling op-ed titled “Reporting on Exeter and Sexual Assault”. Her article shed light on not only the frequency of sexual assault on campus but also the experience of a normal student discovering the darker side of our school’s history. Brandes noted that this topic has already been reported on countless times before her arrival, and yet, the same tragic story appears on the paper and in our emails.
As Brandes stated in her op-ed, the campus needs more transparency at the administrative level for sexual assault cases which, unfortunately, has not been realized yet.
This has only allowed the Academy to act in the name of appeasement. Without such publicity, it is near impossible to hold the Academy accountable for all reports. I wonder, how many cases are filed then tucked under a rug after the Academy “mediates” and provides “financial compensation?”
This practice effectively silences those who are underprivileged. The problem here is that only those who are financially privileged can refuse a bribe. Those who are not are then forced to choose between justice and economic stability.
What we see in the status quo is not transparency. The emails that we receive debriefing some cases of sexual assault are far from what the community deserves. As Brandes wrote, “I don’t think it’s right that new students have to be gradually clued into, or experience, Exeter’s culture of sexual assault to understand it exists.
At the Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day) Keynote, speaker and alumna Roxane Gay shared something that struck me. She said, “A lot of times people think that excellence and acknowledgment are antithetical, but they are not. And quite frankly, you cannot be excellent until you have an ongoing acknowledgment.” Without transparency in the Academy, the public will not be able to understand the scope and systemic legacy of the issue at hand.
Gay’s words are critical because many of the lawsuits we see today are from actions from years past. The Academy’s legacy exists, and it will inevitably be resurfaced, as it should. The Academy needs a running acknowledgment that they not only intend to react well but expect that these important stories will appear.
At the same time, we cannot simply consider these instances as something solely from the past. By doing so, we would assign less weight to our own behavior.
Brandes highlighted the urgency required from students, too: “My experiences as a journalist at the Academy will leave with me in May, and so will the experiences of my co-writers when they go their separate ways. Survivors will leave, too, and the Exeter experience—and trauma—will hang with them. I worry for the new students we leave behind.”
I can only speak for myself, but, too often, I think lowerclassmen do not feel they have the grounds for speaking on a topic such as sexual assault. If we wait until we are on the verge of graduation to speak up, how will we hold the Academy accountable?
I’m calling on my fellow lowerclassmen to push for a change in the administration—to provide a public and organized list of reports and to stop mediating sexual assault lawsuits in hopes that victims will no longer be silenced in the future. Change takes time, and if we don’t start speaking up now, it will be too late.
