Vanity Fair writer who went to prep school at center of a rape trial said something has gone 'badly awry' there

Geoff Forester/The Concord Monitor via AP

Former St. Paul's student Owen Labrie waits for the second day of his trial to begin at Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, N.H., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015.

An alumnus of St. Paul's school - which was at the center of a high-profile sexual assault trial - has written a Vanity Fair article contending something has "gone badly awry" at the prestigious school.

The case involved Owen Labrie, now 20, who was sentenced last year to a year in jail on a misdemeanor charge of using a computer to lure a minor for sex but was cleared of more serious felony rape charges.

Labrie was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old freshman, and the case brought attention to a ritual known as the "senior salute" where older male students proposition younger female students for romantic encounters.

These encounters can involve anything from hand-holding to full-blown sex, journalist and St. Paul's alumnus Todd S. Purdum writes in Vanity Fair.

According to trial testimony reviewed by Purdum, it isn't the "disaffected and marginalized," students of the New Hampshire boarding school who participated in the senior salute ritual, but rather the school's "acknowledged student leaders."

Purdum suggests the culture of the school has allowed such behavior to continue:

[I]t is hard to avoid the conclusion that something has gone badly awry at the school. About every 10 years since the mid-1990s, St. Paul's has been consumed by scandal: one rector resigned after a no-confidence vote by the faculty; a second was forced to resign after a state investigation into his compensation; and now there is the Labrie affair. The common thread? A rotating cadre of circle-the-wagons trustees and administrators who would defend the school's reputation in the face of damning facts and obvious misconduct.

St. Paul's rector, Michael Hirschfeld, had been aware of the senior salute tradition since at least 2013, a full year before Labrie's case, according to a longtime former faculty member who spoke with Purdum.

"I don't understand the culture of some of the adults there," another anonymous former faculty member told Purdum. "Somebody should have said, 'Senior salute? Not in our school.'"

Hirschfeld, for his part, wrote to Purdum that he was, "profoundly disappointed to learn of his [Labrie's] participation in such contemptible behaviors," and, "felt betrayed by the duality of his life here and disheartened by his continued failure to own any part of his behavior."

In a letter addressed to parents, Hirschfeld also wrote that he was, "disappointed that the [Vanity Fair] article did not highlight the real story at St. Paul's, namely... the ways in which we are helping adolescents learn from their mistakes in an increasingly complex world."

St. Paul's School Office of Admission/Facebook

St. Paul's school campus.

Steven J. Kelly, the attorney representing the victim and her family, emailed Business Insider the following statement regarding their potential plans to sue the school.

"We are actively investigating the potential case against the St. Paul School and intend to fully vindicate our client's interest by pursuing whatever legal remedies that may be available to her."

Labrie's attorney, J.W. Carney, was not immediately available for comment.

St. Paul's emailed Business Insider a letter from Michael Hirschfeld in response to the Vanity Fair story that details the steps the school has taken to improve. Here's an excerpt:

As I write this letter, I have just read an article, written by Todd Purdum '78, which appears in the March issue of Vanity Fair that purports to examine the culture of our school, as prompted by the sexual assault trial last year. I was disappointed that the article did not highlight the real story at St. Paul's, namely: the many steps we have taken in the last 20 months to improve the School through our building healthy community initiatives; the ways in which we are helping adolescents learn from their mistakes in an increasingly complex world; and the fact that our students, collectively, comprise a community of highly supportive, caring, and respectful young men and women. Our focus has always been and will remain on making St. Paul's the safest and healthiest learning environment possible. I can assure you the systems and curricula in place at St. Paul's are directed entirely toward achieving this end.

Read the rest of Hirschfeld's letter here.