A civil lawsuit filed by the parents of Chessy Prout against St. Paul’s School will not go before a federal jury in Concord until March 2018.
The roughly 14-day trial is set for March 6, 2018, in U.S. District Court. In the meantime, attorneys have begun the pretrial discovery process of exchanging information about potential witnesses and evidence.
Alex and Susan Prout, parents of Chessy Prout, filed the civil lawsuit against the Concord prep school this past summer, although originally under the names John and Jane Doe to protect their daughter.
Chessy Prout, a former St. Paul’s freshman, was sexually assaulted by senior Owen Labrie in May 2014, a Merrimack County jury found. She chose to shed her anonymity in August and simultaneously launched a new social media campaign under the hashtag #IHaveTheRightTo, aimed at empowering other survivors of sexual abuse.
Labrie, now 21, was convicted of statutory rape, endangering the welfare of a child and using a computer to lure the then-15-year-old into their encounter. He has since appealed the convictions and separately petitioned for a new trial, claiming ineffective counsel. He is out of jail on bail conditions pending that appeal, and living with family in Vermont.
The Prouts filed their civil lawsuit against St. Paul’s several months after a judge sentenced Labrie to one year in jail. The former student’s parents maintain she was the victim of a tradition known as the “senior salute,” in which upperclassmen solicit intimate encounters from younger schoolmates.
The school has since denied any liability, saying it could not have prevented the sexual assault.
As the case moves forward in federal court, Prout and her family continue to advocate for change in New Hampshire and beyond.
The family is working with the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster to find ways to improve campus accountability and safety laws and to encourage young people to access help through rape crisis centers. Kuster shared publicly for the first time this year that she was sexually assaulted as a young woman.
The Prouts, accompanied by their attorney, Steven Kelly, were recently guests of Yale Law School on Oct. 27. The more than hourlong workshop, “Sexual Assault at St. Paul’s School: A Conversation with the Plaintiff,” was open to the public.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)