This school is almost as bad as the Catholic Church. Do these kids have no protection from the predators in the BS system?
This is beyond appalling.
“This school.” Nah, I don’t think that’s a fair comment re Exeter specifically. It’s all terrible and indefensible, certainly. But the linked coverage re “new” stories surely came in direct response to the letter Exeter purposefully sent out to its community a few days ago. Actually, the letter quite forthrightly laid out all known cases and outlined the investigation and other steps the school has (responsibly and sensitively IMO) been taking to ensure this never happens again and that victims are heard, etc. One can be flip or cynical and say they’re just protecting the brand, but having been a part of the PEA community I genuinely believe they care and are taking this as seriously as they possibly can.
FWIW, we’ve been part of several different boarding communities (as well as public and private schools) and unfortunately know more than we’d like about this brand of insidious abuse. But I did find PEA’s words, tone, and commitment going forward reassuring. No one is defending the schools’ past mistakes or these disgusting adults or the administrators who failed to protect all of those poor students. But let’s not kid ourselves and think it’s just Exeter (or Andover or St. George’s, Horace Mann, or the other private schools or colleges we’ve heard about – or haven’t). I frankly think that my children would enjoy more protections at a place like Exeter going forward.
I am Catholic, BTW. These schools have nothing on the Catholic Church.
@Valdog – 9 employees. Did the letter mention 9 employees? What institution has had 9 employees?
I was a Catholic. I even went to a Catholic High School where I was hazed by an older student with the knowledge of the coach. By today’s standard it would have been considered an assault. I agree PEA is no where near the level of the Catholic Church but I have trouble believing that this abuse was not known beyond the perpetrators.
In almost all these cases, someone higher up knows or could know if his hands aren’t over his eyes – just like Sandusky.
Rarely do I ever see someone else go to jail for enabling because they should they are complicate.
I agree with @valdog that it is unfortunately common at many schools. Do a google search on St. George’s. Investigations turned up at least 6 abusers in a school much smaller in scale than PEA.
Check out the work done by Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. Similar to their investigation into the Catholic Church, they provide a list of abusers over the decades at private schools.
Unfortunately, sexual assault does happen on boarding school campus’ and has for a very long time. This is not only specific to PEA.
As I understand it these are very, very old cases. I think they are being dredgeed up now so that the “victims” can get their payout. Victims is in quotations because some of them were consensual. All are beyond statute of limitations.
I am not sure how it can be consensual between an adult an a child.
one or more of the older cases was between an 18 or 19 year old PG and a 25 year old teacher. Technically you are correct. However there are serious issues in many cases where the parties are above or below the LEGAL age of consent yet no one was forced to do anything i.e the John/Jane Doe cases from Exeter last year.
This is my first post - 2 of my sons are applying to BS (waiting for Friday anxiously). If they do get accepted and go, how do I prepare them for the possibility - however remote - that they or friends may be exposed to someone with ill intent?
Lots of discussion through the summer. I also had my daughter read the news stories AND the comments to better understand public opinion regarding boarding schools.
@KentuckyMomma Exeter is one of my son’s top choices too. I was not thrilled when I did some research on all the schools And found that most of the schools my son applied to had scandals associated with them. Google boarding school scandal and you will get quite the education and not in a good way
In addition to what @MAandMEmom said: My kids’ K-8 school had a class where over the course of middle school they learned, among other things, how to rate on a scale from 1 to 5 any situation or action that made them feel uncomfortable, and what to do in each case. They practiced this multiple times whereby a touching without a permission would automatically elicit the appropriate response. They also practiced that in various situations of power where the other party is a figure of formal or informal authority - a respected adult, peer, etc. The teacher was a trained psychologist and a priest. I’ll see if I can get info on the course material and share with you. That said, abuse is prevalent everywhere, not just in BS setting. The latter makes for juicier headlines though - Breaking News: A Posh School for the Elites Engulfed in a Sex Scandal!!!