St Paul’s responds to Labrie assault victim

“I want everyone to know that I am not afraid or ashamed anymore, and I never should have been”. Prout previously testified at Labrie’s trial, but remained anonymous.

“I hope he learns”, Prout told Guthrie. “And I’m going to make sure that other people, other boys and girls, can own it, too”.

Prout, now 17, said she went back to school after the August 2015 trial, in which Labrie was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault but acquitted on more severe felony charges. Labrie was ultimately found not guilty of the harshest charge but was convicted for three rape-related misdemeanors, another misdemeanor for endangering the welfare of a child and a felony for using a computer to lure a minor. Labrie was sentenced to one year in prison, but was released after serving two months.

Prout said she met with Labrie on a campus rooftop after he approached her via email for the “Senior Salute”, a campus “tradition” created to pair seniors with underage students. “She said, “[The jury] didn’t believe that he did it knowingly.he definitely did do it knowingly”.

Her family filed a civil suit against the school for failing to keep its students safe ― not just from the culture of sexual coercion (Labrie admitted to deleting hundreds of Facebook messages bragging about the assault, having used “every trick in the book” to try to have sex with Prout) but from the supposed retaliation that Prout ended up facing as well.

“Many victims don’t have the kind of support that this young woman did, so we would encourage any survivor considering going public like this to have the support of an advocate who can support them unconditionally through the process”, she said.

“I hope he learns”, she added. She wants to use the experience to help others.

“I just can’t imagine how scary it is for other people to have to do this alone”, she said, after promoting a women’s bill of rights and #IHaveTheRightTo project she’s working on.

Prout said she was adamant about returning to the school, but faced rejection. With tears in her eyes, Prout described how she hides in her closet during panic attacks in hopes of shielding a younger sister from her pain.

Talking about sexual assault can be especially traumatic for victims. “My husband had a wonderful experience there, we thought our first daughter had a good experience there”, her mother, Susan, said. “We have always placed the safety and well-being of our students first and are confident that the environment and culture of the school have supported that”, the school said in the statement. We categorically deny that there ever existed at the School a culture or tradition of sexual assault. “None of my old friends that were boys would talk to me, they didn’t even look me in the eye”. “I have the right to say no, ‘” Chessy said during Tuesday’s interview. “They weren’t trying to prevent it from happening to anyone else”. The school has denied it could have prevented the assault. I was just trying to go smoothly and try not to cause any waves, ‘ ” she recalled.