St. Paul’s admits 13 staffers engaged in ‘sexual misconduct’

By John R. Ellement
BostGlobe
May 22, 2017

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/22/paul-admits-staffers-engaged-sexual-misconduct/v8ObXTEPv7WTrHvYepqlBO/story.html

A new investigation at the elite St. Paul’s School found that 13 former faculty and staff members engaged in “substantiated” sexual misconduct. Photo by Jim Cole

A new investigation at the elite St. Paul’s School found that 13 former faculty and staff members engaged in “substantiated” sexual misconduct, while school leaders failed to protect students.

The results of the independent investigation by a Boston law firm were released by the school Monday along with an written apology from top school leaders, Rector Michael G. Hirschfeld and Archibald Cox Jr., president of the board of trustees.

“We offer our most sincere apology to survivors for the wrongs that were done to them at St. Paul’s School,” the two men wrote in a letter to the school community. “The failures uncovered in this report have hurt every member of our School community, none more so than the survivors of these abuses.”

The two leaders credited survivors of the sexual misconduct for their persistence and insistence that the private Concord, N.H., school recognize its failures.

In a summary of the report, the school said:

- 13 former faculty and staff members engaged in “substantiated claims of sexual misconduct.”

- Another 10 former faculty and staff were accused of engaging in sexual misconduct.

- A further cluster of 11 current and former faculty and staff were accused of sexual misconduct, but because the allegations were made anonymously, they could not be substantiated.

“The School failed to protect students from sexual abuse and sexual misconduct done to them by adults entrusted with their care,’’ the statement said.

Administrators “failed to adequately investigate allegations of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct when they were brought to the attention of School leadership – a failing that has damaged trust in the School.” the statement said.

The new investigation was launched after the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team reported in 2016 that teacher Howard White worked at St. Paul’s from 1967 to 1971 before moving to St. George’s School where he was fired in 1974 for sexual misconduct at the Rhode Island school.

The leaders of St. Paul’s said Monday they could not find any documented complaint against White in their records, but they decided to conduct a much broader investigation into the issue of sexual misconduct by staffers than one conducted in 2000.

The new report found that White sexually abused a student for an “extended period of time” when the student was 15 years old. The attack on the teenaged student was referred to Concord police in 2016, the school said.

“There is no excuse for the failure to pursue allegations when they were initially made in 2000,’’ Hirschfeld said in a statement. “That was an error in both priorities and basic judgment.”

The new investigation was led by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and the Boston law firm Casner & Edwards.

The school recently gained unwelcome notoriety from the prosecution of former student Owen Labrie, who was convicted in 2015 or sexually assaulting an underage girl on campus.