CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Gov. Maggie Hassan’s campaign said Friday she was unaware of sexual misconduct by a former prep school teacher when she listed him as a supporter and accepted donations from him during her 2012 gubernatorial bid.
Hassan’s husband, Thomas, was principal of Phillips Exeter Academy in 2011 when the teacher, Rick Schubart, admitted to sexual misconduct with a student in the 1970s. Schubart was forced to retire and leave campus housing that year. Hassan’s campaign listed Schubart as a public supporter before and after he left the school.
Schubart’s misconduct, which included a second report last year from decades ago, was not publicly known until the school alerted alumni this week.
Hassan, a Democrat, is running for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte. Her campaign spokesman, Aaron Jacobs, said Hassan sensed the teacher had “done something wrong when he abruptly retired and left campus,” but was unaware of the specific details of his departure because she and her husband “strive to maintain the confidentiality of their respective jobs” with one another.
“As the school continued to work closely with the victim to protect her privacy, the information was confidential, so neither the Governor nor her staff knew enough to remove him from any supporter or fundraising lists,” Jacobs said in a statement.
The school alerted alumni on Wednesday that Schubart acknowledged two incidents of misconduct in the 1970s and 1980s. Although he retired and left campus in 2011, under Thomas Hassan’s tenure, it wasn’t until a report of misconduct surfaced last year that was he was stripped of his emeritus status and banned from campus.
Exeter police said they determined the statute of limitations had expired in both cases. They said the victim who came forward in 2011 was 18 at the time of the misconduct.
Thomas Hassan, principal from 2009 to June 2015, said in a written statement issued by Exeter that the school received the 2011 report after he sent an email to the community that year with the goal of encouraging reports of misconduct following cases of sexual abuse at Pennsylvania State and Syracuse universities.
He called the report about Schubart “one of the most heartbreaking situations I dealt with as principal.”
Maggie Hassan, in a statement, said the issue “reinforces why every school must have clear guidelines for reporting and addressing sexual misconduct and must continually re-evaluate those guidelines.”
Ayotte, a former state attorney general, issued a statement from her official office saying “important questions have been raised about whether these accusations were handled properly.”
The Boston Globe reported Friday that Exeter Principal Lisa MacFarlane said in an email obtained by the newspaper that the private school is hiring an independent investigator “to thoroughly review any allegations.”
The newspaper also reported that The Association of Boarding Schools has censured Thomas Hassan for failing to disclose that Schubart had admitted to sexual misconduct before the association gave Schubart a leadership award in 2012.
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