As St. Paul’s alumni gather for the school’s reunion and graduation weekend, they have been invited to reflect on the findings of an independent investigation, which recently revealed decades of sexual abuse at the institution.
The school held one forum Friday and will hold a second this afternoon at the campus library to give former and current students the chance to talk openly, but privately, about the issues raised in the 71-page report. The forums are open to members of the St. Paul’s community but not the general public.
The report, released May 22, was the culmination of a yearlong inquiry commissioned by the elite boarding school and carried out by a former Massachusetts attorney general. The Boston-based law firm Casner & Edwards substantiated claims against at least 13 former faculty members between 1948 and 1988, and also looked into 21 other claims that were less clear, 11 of which were deemed “unsubstantiated.”
“Like everyone else, I did not see the report until the day it was released,” Alumni Association Executive Director Alisa Barnard said in a phone interview Friday. “In anticipation of it, the folks in my office talked a little bit about what we could expect in terms of our response from our alumni community. We expected that people would have questions and things they would want to process.”
Forums provide a great framework for that to happen, especially with so many alumni already on campus for other events, Barnard said.
St. Paul’s Rector Mike Hirschfeld said previously that the dissemination of the report throughout the school community, including to current students, could prompt more victims to come forward. However, the school said it will not have trauma specialists or advocates on hand during the forums if others do disclose.
St. Paul’s staff and faculty play an important role in assisting student victims of sexual abuse, and providing those students with resources is the school’s most basic responsibility, said Amanda Grady Sexton, director of public affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. The coalition’s 13-member crisis centers provide victim services throughout the state.
“Anytime a facilitated group conversation occurs in a school setting where the talk of victimization is expected to occur, it’s really important that trauma specialists or someone who is an expert on trauma-informed services be available in case there are any disclosures,” Grady Sexton said. “That resource must be available on hand, but also at a later date because everyone experiences victimization differently.”
R.P. Hale, a former adjunct faculty member at St. Paul’s, also questioned why the school did not reach out to the coalition or a local crisis center while planning the forums.
Hale noted he is encouraged at the prospect of healthy discussions among alumni, but concerned that the substance of those conversations won’t be shared with the broader community. For decades, sexual misconduct on St. Paul’s campus has been shrouded in silence, and that silence continues despite the report’s release nearly three weeks ago, he said.
“If the alumni do talk in these sessions will there be any communication on the outside about it or will they bury it,” said Hale, a Concord artist and resident. “It’s a first step, yes, but is it part of a progression or does it end there?”
Barnard said she views the forums as a first step in the school’s healing and reconciliation process, and noted that they provide a chance for people to share their ideas about how “we move forward together.”
When asked whether the school could connect the Monitor with alumni Friday, Barnard declined, saying the interviews would be premature as the forums had not yet taken place.
According to a letter to alumni, Hirschfeld, Board of Trustees President Archie Cox, Jr., and Dean of School Life Theresa Ferns plan to attend both forums. Though school officials will be available to answer questions, Barnard said the goal of the forums is to provide a secure space for alumni to be heard.
Students who attended St. Paul’s in the 1970s and 1980s have most consistently reached out to the school since the report’s release, she said.
“The group that’s most closely identified in the report is the one I’ve heard the most from, and they’ve been very thoughtful in wanting to make sure the forum we created was a safe space, because that wasn’t their experience in 2000 when they brought their concerns to the administration,” Banard said.
Current administrators acknowledged that St. Paul’s previously failed its former students by not adequately investigating sexual abuse reports made in 2000.
That year, a group of graduates got together after a reunion to submit narratives to St. Paul’s of their teachers’ sexual misconduct in the 1970s. The report concluded that school officials commissioned an attorney to investigate, but that it was done half-heartedly as the school’s primary concern was protecting its reputation.
St. Paul’s School was founded in 1856 and admitted girls for the first time in 1971. It now enrolls 531 students from 38 states and 21 countries.
The school will hold its annual commencement Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The ceremony will follow baccalaureate at 10 a.m., during which former ambassador to the United Kingdom Matthew Barzun, a graduate of the class of 1988, will be the guest speaker.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)