Jury selected in New Hampshire prep school rape trial

Details of a practice authorities say was called the “Senior Salute” were spelled out in stark terms by a former prefect at the New Hampshire school who is charged with raping a 15-year-old girl on the roof of a campus building in May 2014.

Now 19, Owen Labrie has pleaded not guilty to several felonies.

According to the Washington Post, Owen Labrie, who still expects to matriculate at Harvard, explained to the Concord, New Hampshire, police that the “Senior Salute” was a competition among senior men to have sex with as many underclassmen as possible. He’s denied having intercourse with her but allegedly told detectives it was “tradition” for seniors to keep a rolling list of sexual conquests published for all students to see-initially on a laundry room wall, and later on the internet.

In an interview with police, Labrie spoke candidly of the practice in which boys about to graduate attempt to “score” with younger female students. The same affidavit said the school had been trying to educate students against “sexual scoring”. According to the Concord Monitor, the same affidavit mentions that the school has been trying to educate students against sexual scoring.

Founded in 1856, St. Paul’s is an Episcopal school that counts among its alumni senators, congressmen, Pulitzer Prize winners, a Nobel laureate and Secretary of State John Kerry.

Do you think St. Paul’s School is at least partially responsible for Owen Labrie’s alleged rape of a fellow student?

Jury selection is now under way in the courthouse in Concord, New Hampshire. We will move past this as a School community, stronger, united, and committed, as always, to ensuring our students’ safety and wellbeing.

Labrie-an aspiring divinity student whose acceptance to Harvard was rescinded after the rape charges-allegedly told detectives he was planning on having sex with the alleged victim, and even put on a condom, but stopped “in a moment of divine inspiration”.

Prosecutors say Labrie took his victim by surprise, before she could resist or flee, and raped her repeatedly.