Sexual Abuse

Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire Thursday morning on charges that she helped procure and groom underage girls for the well-connected financier.

In 2019, Epstein was found dead in a jail cell in New York while awaiting trial on sexual abuse charges.  

About 100 people attended a town hall meeting put on by Dartmouth College on Wednesday to update community members on a plan to improve campus climate.

The Campus Climate and Culture Initiative has been in place for a year and focuses on eliminating sexual misconduct and abuse of power on campus.

The initiative, which had been in the works since 2018, was rolled out last January after seven women filed a federal lawsuit alleging Dartmouth failed to protect them from sexual harassment and abuse.

On Saturday, survivors of sexual abuse at St. Paul's School gathered for the first time on campus for an apology that some called a first step and others a missed opportunity.

The addition of a live hearing to proposed new procedures for resolving sexual assault complaints at Dartmouth College is facing criticism. 

More than 500 Dartmouth College students and alumni have signed an open letter to President Phil Hanlon and the school’s board of trustees demanding accountability for what they deem a long-running “institutional culture that minimizes and disregards sexual violence.”

After weeks of public pressure, the Bedford School District has hired an attorney to examine how and why three district staffers came to serve as character witnesses for Kristie Torbick, a former Bedford High School guidance counselor who plead guilty last month to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Exeter High School student. 

St. Paul’s School in Concord has hired one of its former math teachers to serve as interim rector for 2018-19 school year.

Amy C. Richards has been hired to replace current rector Michael Hirschfeld, who retired a year earlier than originally planned. Hirschfeld told the St. Paul's community in May that he was leaving early because it had been "an usually painful time for the entire School community and also for my family."

St. Paul’s School in Concord has agreed to settle with a former student who was sexually abused in the 1970s, though it continues to face lawsuits from other alumni.

The settlement, which remains confidential, was finalized in May and was shared with NHPR by the victim, William Foley, who said he was sexually abused by two teachers while attending St. Paul’s School in the early 1970s. In a statement, the school said it was “pleased" to reach a resolution with Foley and apologized for the abuse he suffered.

A former St. Paul’s student has filed a federal lawsuit against her alma mater, alleging the Concord private school did not protect her from sexual assault and harassment from male students in 2013-2014.

The former student, who enrolled at St. Paul’s in 2012, is not named in the lawsuit, instead referred to as Jane Doe.

Two alumni are suing St. Paul’s School for not protecting them from sexual abuse by faculty members in the 1960s and 70s, and their lawsuit calls the Concord prep school a “haven for sexual predators” that has failed to protect children for decades.  

On Wednesday, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced it was filing charges against a former teacher at St. Paul’s School in Concord for witness tampering and conspiracy to commit perjury. They are the first charges to be filed in connection with the AG’s investigation into the elite prep school over allegations of sexual misconduct over several decades.

NHPR's Jason Moon has been following the story and has this breakdown of what the charges are, and what they tell us about the broader investigation into St. Paul's School.