Phillips Exeter details sex-abuse cover-ups
CONCORD, N.H. — Eleven former staffers at a prominent New Hampshire prep school have been accused of fondling, forced kissing and other sexual misconduct with students over several decades, according to two reports released Friday.
The reports released by Phillips Exeter Academy also found that school administrators often failed to act on complaints of abuse and, in several cases, never recorded the complaints of wrongdoing in personnel files — allowing teachers to be hired elsewhere despite concerns about their behavior.
The allegations involve staffers who have since been fired, left the school or have died. Several have been named in the past by the school.
In a letter, Exeter officials apologized to the school community, including victims who have come forward and those who have remained silent.
“On the Academy’s behalf, we accept full responsibility for the harm that has been suffered and for the failures of those whose responsibility it was to prevent and address such harm,” Interim Principal William K. Rawson and John A. “Tony” Downer, president of the trustees, said in a letter. “We recognize the enormous violation of trust and the lasting wounds inflicted and endured.”
The reports harshly criticized Exeter for mishandling many of the complaints, either by failing to investigate them or providing support to victims. It also accused administrators of trivializing complaints or leaving them out of a wrongdoer’s personnel file — thus allowing at least one staffer to get a job at another school in Pennsylvania where he was accused of abuse in the 1980s.
It also alleged the school had two sets of personnel files for decades — one for human resources and a confidential one held by the principal or the dean of faculty.
The reports from Exeter are the latest evidence that sexual misconduct by faculty was widespread for decades at prep schools across New England, a revelation that has led to scores of lawsuits, protests from alumni and the enactment of reforms aimed at helping victims and preventing future misconduct.
Earlier this week, another New Hampshire prep school, St. Paul’s School, released a report detailing abuse by 20 former faculty members and administrators going back decades.
‘On the Academy’s behalf, we accept full responsibility for the harm that has been suffered and for the failures of those whose responsibility it was to prevent and address such harm.’ — WILLIAM K. RAWSON and JOHN A. DOWNER, Phillips Exeter Academy officials