'The stories of our lives': Prep school alumni hear echoes in assault claim

[people]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

. . .

This story is based on interviews with two dozen former students, many of whom asked not to be identified because of how tightly knit and powerful the alumni from those schools are, and because they fear retribution or harassment for speaking out on the allegations engulfing Kavanaugh's nomination.

They described parties with kegs of beer and bottles of liquor, grain punch, heavy drinking and drug use that took place almost every weekend and even on weeknights in private homes, parks, open fields and golf courses in Maryland and Washington. Until 1986, the drinking age in Washington was 18, and alcohol was easily accessible. Drugs, especially cocaine and quaaludes, were plentiful.

Women who attended those parties remember sexually aggressive behavior by some of the male students that often bordered on assault and was routinely fueled by excessive drinking.
. . .

Another woman who did not want to be identified said what she witnessed and what happened to her friends left her scarred three decades later. "It was just a horrible culture," she said. "I never married, I don't have kids, and I trace it all back to those parties."

. . .

Read more: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/kavanaugh-prep-school-women-christine-blasey-ford-13242809.php

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The article is very interesting. What a high school culture this was! Amazing that decades later people are afraid to come forward for fear of the powerful tightly knit alumni.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. This kind of thing then continues into college

because I sure as hell saw it while in college '79 - '83. Literally drunken parties every weekend (the games "Pass Out" and "Spin the Bottle" were popular), massive damage to dorms and select places on campus. And we're not just talking "Frat Parties". This was everywhere. And don't let it be a "festive" time of year like "Halloween". But it was just "college kids letting off a little steam".

(We few black students at my school would have our dance parties at some campus auditorium with music played by DJs scratching records, and everyone jamming, and then we would call it a night - at like 5 am But none of these "keg parties" and whatnot)

[lagomorph777]

2. More money than morals

...that's how Kavanugh was raised.

[people]

5. More money than morals

Your description is perfect. Entitled, entitled, entitled. It's all a joke to him.

[GemDigger]

9. If you don't mind me hijacking that for a sign I would be grateful.

Jr. is coming to town to stump for another rotten GOP and I have been debating on two directions for my sign. Hit the candidate or hit the GOP in its entirety.

[DemocracyMouse]

11. In the case of Trump Jr., however, they were always living on borrowed money and a cloud of BS

And their morals were even more degraded.

[lagomorph777]

21. Please hijack freely!

[bobbieinok]

3. Informative, depressing artile

[PatSeg]

4. They certainly did start young

I've heard awful stories about college drinking and parties, but I have to keep reminding myself that we are talking about high school. I recall some partying and drinking when I was in high school, but nothing like this.

[live2011]

6. DENY, DENY, DENY

Who benefits from denial?
Rapists, polluters, sexual assaulters, con-men, liars, scoundrels of all kinds, politicians, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Who loses from denial?
Mostly the victims, but also everybody else because NOTHING CHANGES.
Problems like sexual assault, climate change, pollution, etc. go unsolved and unfixed. Problems get shoved “under the rug” and forgotten [except for the VICTIMS who wish they could forget].

[Moostache]

7. It was not limited to the East Coast...

This culture - prep school party culture - was rampant through my time at another similar institution in the mid- to late-80's in the Midwest as well...

Kegs? Yup...in some cases multiple kegs at a home or residence with seclusion and no supervision or rules.

Fancy homes and cars and access to virtually anything desired? Yup...think Bret Easton Ellis' book "Less Than Zero" was fiction? Not even close. That was a documentary level telling of addiction and partying amongst the off-spring of the well-heeled and privileged - the youth of 1980's prep-school America. Nothing in that book or movie adaptation was 100% fiction, I personally saw much of that live as it happened.

Black-out drunk? That was the entire point...drinking "games" designed to inebriate as fast as possible were staples of every gathering...this was in high school, not college, but the practice continued in college the same way...if anything, the parties and debauchery I witnessed and participated in during prep school was more intense than college and on par with fraternity parties from the 1990's university scene...

Drugs? Name your preference...pot, blow, acid, X... about the only thing missing back then was widespread smack...the 70's stigma of heroin abusers being needle junkies and lowlifes was rampant...cocaine was definitely bigger than heroin at the time, and it was EVERYWHERE. I witnessed a person lose their mind because they had locked 1 kilo of coke in their footlocker and lost the key...they went manic in a way that's hard to describe...completely lost touch with reality for a few hours before essentially destroying the foot locker to access the drugs - for use and for sale.

Sex? It was not only happening everywhere, it was EXPECTED as a "right of passage" for young men to gain currency and standing amongst their peers. Those who "scored" were propped up by momentary fame and celebrity...those who "struck out" were mocked and belittled...those who refused to try or act out were labeled "fags". Young women were viewed as objects, things to be used or possessed momentarily and discarded upon becoming bored or simply desirous of someone else...for any reason. Female party goers were more than a few times invited simply because they were attractive and/or had shown a proclivity for sexual activity. The pressure to submit to the whims of the males at these events was pervasive and was not subtle in any way.

I grew up in that environment and eventually left it all behind. I could have made other choices that would have landed me in dramatically different circumstances than the ones my life has taken since then. In some ways, I know people from back then who look at me as an abject failure for not pursuing the path of a John Roberts (yes...he too was a product of the prep school environment as well...maybe just better at hiding it than others) or Brett Kavanaugh. I don't lose any sleep over it or their derisive attitudes. It was never real - the consequences were certainly real, and I have no doubt whatsoever that thousands of young women experienced EXACTLY what Dr. Ford has described happening to her at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh-esque boys between 15 and 18 years old from 1980 through 1990 - it was always a raging fantasy run amok. Something more like what you hear about from the fall of Rome than from an American high school. Something like the inspiration for movies like "House Party", "Ferris Beuller's Day Off", and the like...a culture was prevalent that said to young, privileged boys (white mainly, but green was the only defining color for entry in the Midwest at the time...enough cash and you're in like Flynn, so while subtle racism was always there, exclusion by skin tone was less likely than exclusion by bank balance accessible) everything is yours. Everyone is expendable or a commodity to exploit.

Do not for one minute think that this was NEW or unique to the 1980's scene...it goes back far, far longer than that...but to ignore the fact that it was (and truth be told probably STILL IS) real is a sham. The GOP knows that this charge against Kavanaugh is merely the tip of the iceburg and if it gets full vetting in the light of day, a whole lot more will come to light than just this one case. A LOT more...

[geardaddy]

16. You should make this its own OP

I went to a large city public high school from 79-83 and didn't participate in the party culture, but I'm sure it went on. When I got to college (a smaller, private, liberal arts school in the Northeast) I met people who had been in boarding/prep schools, and many of them seemed like the ones you described. Not all, but there definitely was a feeling that the ones who went to those schools were ultra-privileged assholes.

[people]

10. "Geese! What a drama queen . . . "

You have absolutely no idea what this woman saw or experienced. You CANNOT put yourself in her shoes. Calling her a "drama queen" is stereotyping this person and minimizing her reality. Probably you and your friends did not fear getting physically overpowered and raped at these parties. Your comment is really disappointing.

[DownriverDem]

15. Hello?

I seriously don't believe you should be judging that woman. Were you there?

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

It echoes my own high school.

[Amimnoch]

13. Mine as well.

Makes me glad I was a rather shy, closeted gay geek.

[Solly Mack]

14. I'm sorry you had to be in the closet.

People should never be pushed into hiding that way.

[Amimnoch]

17. May sound kind of strange, but looking back, I'm not sorry for it.

I grew up in a very rural part of Louisiana.. city of Breaux Bridge. The trials I went through in my high school years have driven me to becoming a rather successful adult. One that has a high level of empathy for people instead of apathy. One that really cares about respect for others. It also lets me really see people like nominee Kave-man-ugh for what he is.


My life has turned out to be one rather incredible adventure. It'd have been very different for me if my high school years were more pleasant, and my home town had been a place that I wanted to remain in post graduation.

[Solly Mack]

18. I understand.

Had my life been otherwise I might have learned the wrong lessons.

[FakeNoose]

19. In other words, these people aren't as brave as Dr. Ford

...two dozen former students, many of whom asked not to be identified because of how tightly knit and powerful the alumni from those schools are, and because they fear retribution or harassment for speaking out ...

Just sayin'

[mn9driver]

20. I lived in both worlds in the '70s.

I attended a private prep school on a scholarship until halfway through my junior year and then transferred to a public school. There were some differences in how the students socialized with each other at each place.

At the private school no one ever talked about who had money and who didn’t. But everyone knew. I was a partier, and got invited to a lot of parties. Lots of drinking and other things, and high hopes for getting “lucky”, which almost never happened (certainly not ever for me). When something did happen, everyone in the school knew about it within a few days. It was a small school. I never got the idea that anything happened against someone’s will, but it was high school, drinking was legal for most of the seniors (and winked at for the lower classes) and it may have happened.

At the public school, the parties were bigger and invitations were rarely required. Not too different from the private school parties, but a lot more people who didn’t know each other drinking and drugging together. The cops would usually show up at some point. It was a big school and I wasn’t hooked into all of the different groups there, but if anything, the party culture was wilder. Even so, there was only one party I remember where it was rumored afterward that something like the Kavanaugh incident happened.

I guess my point is that in those days drinking and drugging were extremely common in many high schools. It was out of control at times. But rape, or attempted rape, would have been gossiped about. It was extremely rare. Kavanaugh’s behavior was deviant and an outlier even by the standards of those days.