The New Hampshire student who was sexually assaulted in 2014 by an upperclassman at an elite prep school when she was 15 has spoken out for the first time, saying she is “not afraid or ashamed any more, and I never should have been.”
Chessy Prout, who is now 17, spoke out to the Today Show on Tuesday, because she said she doesn’t “want anyone else to be alone.”
Prout was raped at St. Paul’s School by then-18-year-old Owen Labrie, who was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault and a felony charge of computer-related seduction. Labrie was sentenced to one year in prison, but remains free on bail while he appeals the convictions.
“I want other people to feel empowered and just strong enough to be able to say, ‘I have the right to my body. I have the right to say no,” Prout said. “I just can’t imagine how scary it is for other people to have to do this alone, and I don’t want anybody else to be alone anymore.”
Chessy Prout. (Today Show/Youtube)
Prout told Today that she had to leave the school, and now she wants to help others who have survived the same trauma.
“There was just no recognition that I had gone through something like this,” Prout said. “And that is one of the reasons why we’re pushing for change.”
Her family is suing the school. She claims the assault was part of a “Senior Salute” ritual, in which upperclassman boys competed to have sex with as many underclassmen girls as possible before graduation.
“It’s been two years now since the whole ordeal, and I feel ready to stand up and own what happened to me and make sure other people, other girls and boys, don’t need to be ashamed, either,” Prout said.
Owen Labrie. (Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office)
Prout told Today she and her family were willing to avoid a trial if Labrie had apologized.
“We had been prepared to just receive an apology letter,” she said. “We had been prepared to finish this and just move forward with our lives and let them move forward with their lives, but, you know what, in the pursuit of justice I would’ve done anything.”
Prout said she hopes Labrie learned his lesson.
“I hope he gets help,” Prout said. “And that’s all I can ever hope for in any sort of process like this. Because if he doesn’t learn, he will do it to another young woman.”
St. Paul’s School issued a statement to Today:
As was the case when the survivor was a student here and subsequently, the School admires her courage and condemns unkind behavior toward her. We feel deeply for her and her family. 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. We categorically deny that there ever existed at the School a culture or tradition of sexual assault. However, there’s no denying the survivor’s experience caused us to look anew at the culture and environment. This fresh look has brought about positive changes at the School.
The school argued earlier this month in federal court that the victim and her family should not be able to sue them anonymously, claiming they are attacking the school’s reputation “from behind a cloak of anonymity.”
During Tuesday’s interview, Prout’s mother, Susan, said, “Unfortunately, it seems like the school’s reputation became more important than supporting our daughter.”
