The tall, soccer-playing senior first invited the pretty blonde freshman girl to up to their New Hampshire prep school’s chapel tower so she could see graffiti declaring: “Believe in Angels”.

Owen Labrie was 18 and days away from graduation when he sent the girl a “senior salute”. In the alleged tradition at St Paul’s, an elite boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire, seniors set up dates with younger students in the waning days of high school.

On Friday, a jury found that Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, had sex with the 15-year-old, who was too young to give consent, as they lay in their underwear on the floor of the science center attic.



The girl’s parents and Labrie’s defense attorney both blamed the culture of St Paul’s for the May 2014 encounter that dramatically altered the lives of both pupils and cast a harsh light on a school where alumni include former candidates for president and captains of industry.

The victim, who said she had never had sex before, claimed Labrie ignored her instructions to keep their tryst more innocent, and raped her. Labrie testified that after the tryst, he went to the chapel to hear an a capella concert.

The jury acquitted Labrie of aggravated rape but convicted him of misdemeanor sexual assault and use of the school’s computer to lure a child for sex. At his sentencing, on 29 October, he will face up to seven years in prison.

The girl’s parents said St Paul’s failed to protect their daughter and fostered a “toxic culture” marked by boys who joked on social media about “slaying” and “porking” underage girls.

“They left our daughter and several other students at risk of sexual violence,” the girl’s family said. “We trusted the school to protect her and it failed us. We continue to feel anger and disappointment for the lack of character and integrity of the young men at St Paul’s school.”

Prosecutors argued that Labrie was competing with other boys to have sex with the most girls at the school. Both he and his roommate denied the claim and little evidence was offered during the trial to prove a contest existed.

A spokesman for the girl’s family said they were reviewing whether to pursue legal action against St Paul’s.

The girl’s father graduated from the school in the 1980s and is a corporate executive at a major global investment firm.

The school’s attorney, Michael A Delaney, a former New Hampshire attorney general, attended the two-week trial. He declined comment.

In a statement, the head of St Paul’s praised the girl’s “remarkable moral courage and strength” and said the incident had affected the entire school community.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that our students live and learn together in a community that is built on respect, caring and support for one another. Anything short of that cannot and will not be accepted,” rector Michael G Hirschfeld said.

“We will continue to focus on teaching our students our core values – that they live honorably, respectfully, and never forget to be kind – and that they learn and grow in ways that lead to productive and respectful relationships throughout their entire lives.”

Labrie, a top student who had won a full scholarship to Harvard, received an award for his character and devotion to St Paul’s. The school sent him a letter rescinding his award and has taken his name off a vaunted school wall, where names of alumni are listed.

He was also a student prefect and a member of the school’s Fine Tea and Chocolate Society. In emails to the girl, he said he had by “divine intervention” obtained a key that would get them on to the roof of the science center. How Labrie obtained the key was not mentioned during the trial.

Labrie, who testified in his own defense and denied having sex with the girl, attended St Paul’s on a scholarship. His mother is a public school teacher and his father is a landscaper who has played accordion in a touring cajun band.

Some alumni of St Paul’s rejected the idea that “senior salute” was a long tradition on the bucolic campus. “None of us have ever heard of it,” one member of the class of 1998 said.

“There is no tradition. This is something [Labrie] and his buddies started,” said Barbara Ruedig of Concord, whose three daughters graduated from St Paul’s in 1997, 2002 and 2007.

“Every institution has bad apples,” added Ruedig, who attended most of the trial. “To drag down St Paul’s over this is just wrong.”

Columbia University sociologist Shamus Rahman Khan, who graduated from St Paul’s in the 1990s, wrote about sexualized consensual hazing among female students at the school and described how the school’s rituals enforced a hierarchy important among elites.

Seniors constructed games designed to coax freshman girls into disclosing their sexual experiences and had them wear diapers at a party, Khan wrote.

However, Khan’s 2011 book, Privilege: the Making of an Adolescent Elite at St Paul’s School, contains no mention of a “senior salute” tradition.

Dean of students Chad Green testified during the trial that he knew about the tradition beginning in 2013, but was not sure how many other administrators knew.

Staff found a list of names hidden on a basement wall inside a school building, which Green called a “map of relationships” associated with the tradition. He said the school covered the graffiti and the wall was now inaccessible.

One author who has studied boarding schools said Labrie was ultimately responsible for his own conduct.

“The school indeed knew, but I doubt they understood the full implications of such a tradition,” said Tim D Hillman, who has written several books on boarding school culture.

“I have been amazed at the manner in which schools accept negative traditions without reacting to them.”

Hillman said boarding schools accept the role of in loco parentis but are “woefully unable to police sexuality on campus”.

“When the lights go down, boarding school students wake to the night and explore their world sans adult intervention,” Hillman said.