The sex culture at an exclusive New England boarding school has been bought into the spotlight, after a Harvard bound student was accused of rape, reports the New York Times.
Owen Labrie, now 19, a former pupil of St Paul’s School that has fees upwards of $50,000 a year, was accused of rape by a 15 year old freshman, a claim he denies. In fact, he says it’s impossible as they never even had sex.
Harvard have now withdrawn their offer since Labrie’s indictment. Image Credit: AIR FORCE ONE (Flickr)
The girl, now 16, describes a different story: that she was invited by Labrie to attend part of a “senior salute” tradition at the school, where older male students invite younger girls for romantic encounters before graduation.
While kissing, he allegedly became overly amorous and then raped her.
He describes his intentions as innocent: “I wanted to ask her out,” he said.
He described that he had believed they were going to have sex and so had put on a condom. But at this point he had a change of heart. “I thought to myself, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t do this.’ ”
In her testimony, the girl says she said no more than once, but also did not push him off as she worried she might offend him or be accused of being inexperienced.
Criminal defense lawyers in Thailand have decades of experience handling criminal law cases, both in Thailand and internationally.
As a rape case, the setting here is familiar, but what is unusual in this case is that it is considered a felony and made it as far as court. In many states it would not have. Whether Labrie is innocent or guilty depends on whether she consented or not. The girl admitted he did not use force, and her account of the alleged rape sounds more like he took her by surprise.
Deborah Tuerkheimer of Northwestern University writes:
“The Model Penal Code and a majority of states still retain a force requirement, effectively consigning most rape — that is, non-stranger rape — to a place beyond law’s reach.”
New Hampshire differs to much of the United States in that does not require force to prove rape.
In 1995, New Hampshire adopted language regarding consent in the criminal code. It reads:
“When at the time of the sexual assault, the victim indicates by speech or conduct that there is not freely given consent to performance of the sexual act.”
Tuerkheimer argues that consent is needed, and she, among others are pushing to reform state rape laws and the Model Penal Code.
The topic of consent and culture of “no means no” when it comes to sex is not new. You may be interested in this video which aims to tackle sexual assault. As actor Benicio Del Toro says:
“If she doesn’t consent, or if she can’t consent, it’s rape. It’s assault.”
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