Sex Assault Victim Sues St. Paul's School Over Handling of Owen Labrie Case

The girl's parents say the school failed to meet "its most basic obligations to protect the children entrusted to its care."

The 15-year-old victim in the highly-publicized St. Paul's School sexual assault case is suing the school.

The girl's parents, identified in the complaint only as John and Jane Doe, say their daughter was sexually assaulted "as a direct result" of the school's "fostering, permitting and condoning a tradition of ritualized statutory rape" known to students as the "Senior Salute." They added that the school failed to meet "its most basic obligations to protect the children entrusted to its care."

Owen Labrie, now 20, was convicted of sexual assaulting a 15-year-old classmate at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, in May of 2014, when he was 18 years old. Prosecutors tied the assault to the "Senior Salute," a competition in which seniors at the school sought to have sex with underclassmen. He was sentenced to a year behind bars and probation.

Labrie is free on bail pending an appeal. He is required to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and stay at his mother's house from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.

During his trial, Labrie testified that he and the girl had consensual sexual contact, but he denied having sexual intercourse with her.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, alleges that St. Paul's School ignored "specific warnings" of the dangers to freshmen girls during the spring of 2014.

Email communications from school employees during that time allegedly detailed numerous instances of senior males "seeking out" underage girls in an "inappropriate manner" in or near the girls' dorms.

The complaint says that the victim and her family have been "devastated" by the school's failure to protect the girl from the "known risk" that she would be sexually harassed and assaulted.

She has reportedly suffered severe emotional distress and her sense of privacy has been "shattered."

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