they have enough money, no? I’d think they would sacrifice all the notoriety (and compensation) if they could take it all back and had their daughter be safe
. I sincerely hope we are all raising our sons to be more honorable and less manipulative than Owen Labrie. His intentions with this minor were not good. If any of you are raising your sons with the attitude that this kind of behavior is okay and that girls are to blame, send me their names and photos so I can keep them away from my girl!
Was Chessie Prout’s behavior okay? Should we ignore that Labrie was found not guilty on the rape charges? (He was basically convicted of misdemeanor statutory rape charges - essentially meaning no finding of anything non-consensual.)
This article is a pretty decent overview, seemingly pretty well done: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/st-pauls-owen-labrie-rape-trial. There is a lot of information there obviously from the trial transcript, which I have not been able to locate (at least easily).
Here is a link to many of the case documents, but not to the trial phase: https://www.courts.state.nh.us/caseinfo/pdf/labrie/index.htm.
Can anyone point to a link to the trial documentation?
This is the classic “he said, she said” case. Neither of these kids had much common sense, that’s for sure. Honestly, I can’t muster the slightest bit of sympathy for either.
It wasn’t just a chance meeting though. His luring her was part of a Senior Salute (thing with the guys) specifically targeting younger class women. So that’s why it seems more sinister on his part.
Agreed @preppedparent . But she also had plenty of knowledge here. Her sister had dated him, and there were intimations of sibling rivalry at issue. She was also medicated for depression. And then there is this from the trial (slightly censored): “She acknowledged at trial that she had shaved her ________ in advance, and her closest friend told the police that the girl had said she was probably willing to let Labrie __, and [she was willing to] _ him, though she herself testified that she did not recall saying this.”
We have plenty of emails from Labrie that paint him in a very unflattering light, to say the least, lol. But where are Prout’s emails?
Trials have all sorts of safeguards built into them. They are not perfect, but they are the system we have. After hearing all the evidence, the jury did not convict him of sexual assault. If she had been a few months older, or he a few months younger, even the statutory rape charge could not have stood.
From my point of view, both kids acted very stupidly - I have zero respect for either, or frankly for any of the other kids at SPS whose messages can be discovered. Yet, it remains that Labrie’s life has been seriously disrupted, while Prout retreated to her $4MM mansion in Naples Florida and will now be enrolling at Barnard this Fall. And the Prout family, despite saying they were in this only to force SPS to change its policies, nevertheless for some reason waited approximately 3 years after those policies were changed to settle their lawsuit, presumably for something more than some changed language in the SPS handbook.
@preppedparent Of course it wasnt a chance meeting. But you are resorting to the dangerously toxic and inaccurate language so in keeping for the me too “victim” movement. “Lured” Chessy Prout knew full well what was going on. He didn’t “lure” a 5 year old with a puppy for gods sake. Wooing her, cajoling her, romancing her (even if disingenuous) would all be accurate. What was he offering as the inducement or reward? Nothing. She wanted to go. She went. She did not leave. He did not restrain her. She was embarrassed because she let herself get used. Girls and women, unless they are physically assaulted or restrained or coerced (whether verbal or physical) have to say no or leave–not use pathetic language like I was frozen or couldn’t say anything etc. Cases like these hurt real victims and diminish all women when retroactive regret or embarrassment and lack of good judgment becomes a crime with which to punish men.
I don’t know how much she or others knew about “SENIOR SALUTE”, but it sounds like a conquest contest of some sort that degrades women. I don’t think she knew full well what was going on. There are so many frats on college campuses with like contests, like Zeta Beta Tau recently profiled on Huff Post in the article “Cornell Frat’s ‘Pig Roast’ Gave Points For Sex With Heaviest Woman” It all starts somewhere, and in many cases in high school. She was “lured,” and this type of “male” activity needs to be called what it is, shameful and despicable and in some cases criminal when No still means No. I don’t think romancing had anything to do with it.
There was plenty of testimony that the “Senior Salute” at SPS also involved senior girls trying to “score” with younger male students. Funny, we never hear about that…
Anyway, reading through as much of the primary material from the legal proceedings as I can, I have to say that SPS comes off looking very bad here. Labrie comes off as an insecure nerd, a braggart - all hat and no cattle as they say. I’d be shocked if there was any real compulsion here, and the lack of any physical evidence of struggle (or even any real DNA evidence of intercourse) is consistent with that. Stupid kids, been happening for generations. I for one am not convinced by the ages. Eighteen year old boy and fifteen year old girl? That’s two million years of evolution at work there, and if you really think that under all circumstances such a relationship is unequal then I think you should have a problem with coed boarding schools!
Chessie actually emailed Labrie after the incident, telling him that it was ok for him to add her to his senior salute score:
“The girl was particularly intent that the encounter remain a secret, though she would later tell Labrie that he could count it toward ‘the numbers’ of the senior salute.”
Does that change your view, @preppedparent? There is a lot of worthwhile information in that Vanity Fair article, and also in the court documents I linked above.
I can only say any kind of contest like this is vile and if the school was complicit knowing about it , then there’s enough blame all around.
^ On that, we can certainly agree, @preppedparent. The administrators at SPS, and a number of other boarding schools that in recent years have been complicit in covering up bad behavior, cannot use their tender ages as an excuse. Read the evidence - there is no question that SPS knew about the Senior Salute (or its precursors) - for a long time. They still deny it. I don’t envy their predicament. They simultaneously need to virtue signal their support for Chessie Prout while all the while implicitly denying her basic claim that this was an SPS culture issue. Not easy - no wonder their lawyers counseled mediation and confidential settlement.
I have worked as a sexual assault crisis counselor and have overseen the rape crisis hotline for our region of the state. The suggestion that a survivor of acquaintance rape or date rape would experience any less trauma than someone who has been dragged into the bushes and attacked by a complete stranger is simply not well informed. Their experience does not make them any less a real victim.
Who is suggesting that? I really don’t see that in this thread.
I think what some are questioning - myself included - is if date rape ever really happened in this instance. A jury decided that the evidence did not establish that it did. They had access to many more facts. Why should people take Ms. Prout’s word for it, and disregard what a jury found? As I wrote above, this is a classic “he said, she said.”