Phillips Academy Andover has banned two former staff members from its campus and named a third, deceased, and also once on staff, after an investigation into past sexual misconduct involving students.
Head of School John Palfrey disclosed the actions in an email to students and alumni on Tuesday that described an internal investigation performed by Sanghavi Law Office, a Brookline law firm that specializes in such cases. Palfrey had asked the school community for information on sexual misconduct by school representatives in a previous email in the spring.
The prestigious boarding school said the law firm's investigation found former writer-in-residence Alexander Theroux had "engaged in sexual misconduct toward a student in the 1970s," and turned up "multiple concerns" involving such behavior. The letter said that Theroux, a novelist and poet, has denied the accusation, but has nonetheless been banned from the school.
Efforts to reach Theroux were unavailing.
Similarly, the law firm's investigation found former faculty member Stephen Wicks "engaged in sexual misconduct toward a student in the 1980s." Wicks has also been banned from the school and has further had his title as an "emeritus" staff member revoked.
The law firm's investigation also named former faculty member H. Schuyler Royce, who died in 1991, as having "engaged in multiple incidents of sexual misconduct toward a student in the 1980s."
In all, the law firm found five cases, all taking place in the 1970s and '80s, of sexual misconduct between faculty and students. The school said it has notified authorities of its findings in all of the cases, but said school officials felt the need to disclose the three incidents mentioned above.
Tuesday morning, NBC broadcast an interview with the victim of the St. Paul's School rape case in New Hampshire. A spokesperson for Andover said the timing of that interview and the release of Andover's internal report was coincidental.
Andover and St. Paul's are not the only New England boarding schools that have dealt with campus sexual impropriety. St. George's School and Portsmouth Abbey School, both in Rhode Island, and Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire have had to contend with situations of varying intensity and scope.
Portsmouth and Andover appear to have acted more proactively than some institutions.
According to a statement released by the school: "Last spring Phillips Academy Head of School John Palfrey promised an independent investigation of any concerns of sexual misconduct brought to Phillips Academy."
The intent, Palfrey said, was to "acknowledge the school’s past, support those who have been harmed, and ensure that the school is currently taking all measures to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for all students."
Palfrey thanked all who participated in the process.
“It took tremendous strength and courage for alumni who suffered past mistreatment to share their experiences with us years later,” Palfrey wrote in his community letter.