In the trial of Owen Labrie, this much is settled: When Labrie was an 18-year-old student at the elite St. Paul’s boarding school in Concord, NH, he invited a girl, then 15, to join him for a “senior salute,” a clandestine tradition at St. Paul’s where an older student essentially “asked out” a younger student. He had a key, which was passed around by older students, to a mechanical room on campus, and the girl went there with him. It was just days before his graduation.
The girl later testified that their encounter was not consensual. Almost a year later, the trial has been underway, and recently, the case has brought a light to the issue of high schools and their policies of teen sex culture. A New York Times article published in August, which recounts specific events from the trial, has stunned outsiders:
Taking the stand on Tuesday, the girl seemed to sob as she identified Mr. Labrie in the courtroom. She was initially put off by his advances, she said, but when a mutual friend of theirs urged her to reconsider, she changed her mind about Mr. Labrie. “Here’s a person who paid special attention to me,” she said. “How nice.”
I do not know Owen Labrie, and I do not attend St. Paul’s school, but at least for me, the trial of Owen Labrie has struck a little too close to home. Many argue that the secluded boarding school and elitist environment of St. Paul’s is at fault for these events, and even worse, many choose to ignore the case as a rare exception in elite high schools. However, the case of Owen Labrie has convinced me that St. Paul’s is not a distorted or distant window of high school culture, but actually, a mirror of the problems that we as a society face today.
After fraternities across the nation have come under fire for promoting sexual harassment and violence on numerous college campuses, it is important to realize that this is fundamentally an issue of respect and entitlement. A culture that has both degraded and objectified women for years is now teaching the next generation these very patterns that need to be eliminated from society. Sexual assault and the objectification of women are problems that exist both in society and in high schools. However, many secondary school administrators simply do not know what actions to take in order to combat these issues since most high schools already have policies that enforce respect for all students. No written policy can fix the mindset of high schoolers and society itself. Instead, it must be up to students themselves.
“Anytime you run into a situation like [the Labrie case] where a student is accused of such a heinous act, it makes you step back and think about what the school is doing to ensure the safety of its students throughout the day,” said Upper School Principal Dennis Herron.
Although Herron is not aware of any said issues on campus, he believes that schools are a representation of society.
“I don’t think that this view [of the degradation of women] starts in middle or high school, but rather students are modeling the behaviors that they see. We are just a reflection of many issues that exist in society, but ultimately society is influencing high schools.”
Even though traditions as blatantly wrong as the “senior salute” may not be present in Trinity and other high schools across the nation, this does not mean that the problem is only singular to St. Paul’s.
According to senior Nat Saffran, our school is not completely free from these problems.
“Our campus does not have as big of a problem as other elite high schools; however, “the ‘senior salute’ and the events of St. Paul most definitely puts senior boys in a bad light,” he said.
Events such as Homecoming and Prom, which take place in the majority of American high schools today, often exemplify the frequent objectification of girls in society. The key tradition to these events is the asking of girls to the dance by their male peers. However, both boys and girls alike place too much of their self-worth in the “asking,” and high school girls are viewed as a market for boys to choose from.
Perhaps what particularly drew the public’s attention to the Owen Labrie case was Labrie’s use of vulgar and disrespectful language when speaking with his male peers in reference to the girl. Additionally, Labrie came up with a list of girls that he wanted to pursue just days before his graduation. The defense, in an attempt to put Labrie’s language and actions in context, noted that vulgarity is common at St. Paul’s and high schools everywhere. And the defense’s claim is fair. Labrie’s vulgar comments may be shocking for any outsider looking in on the case, but they are common and second-hand for many teenagers today. Our school has strict policies in place against the use of inappropriate language on campus. However, at Trinity, I have heard the same derogatory language used by Owen Labrie. These shallow and objectifying words not only cause female students to feel unsafe but also mar the overall reputation of the school.
“I have heard expressions that objectify women on campus before,” Saffran said. “The administration might want to stop [the use of this language], but it really has to come from the students themselves… Unless other students recognize that this is a problem, there will be no way to stop it.”
The underlying cause of the problem is that there are rarely any consequences for comments that could be considered sexual harassment outside of the language of high schoolers. By brushing the issue aside, society ultimately disrespects women by failing to take action and resolving these problems once and for all. The lines between federal crime and teenagers “messing around” have become blurred.
The fact that a tradition as unethical as “the senior salute” has been an informal part of St. Paul’s student life for years causes the public eye to question the safety and the administration of St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s School boasts a shining list of alumni that include John Kerry and numerous other U.S. senators and congressmen. Labrie was not an exception for the school in terms of his achievements. At the time when the alleged crime occurred, he had already been accepted to Harvard, where he planned to study theology, and he was a Presidential Scholars candidate. Additionally, he was a prefect, someone given extra responsibilities for helping younger students at St. Paul’s.
The degradation that women experience in today’s society stems from the toxic environment that is not controlled in high school. In order to balance out the inequities that women face in society, we must fundamentally change the attitude of the younger generation.
