Alex Prout '82 Stands up for the Truth
Alex Prout ’82, is a co-founder of I Have The Right To, an organization whose mission is to create an ecosys- tem of respect and support for students and survivors of sexual assault. Alex and his wife, Susan, were motivated to create the nonprofit due to the sexual assault of their daughter Chessy at St. Paul’s School, in 2014. Alex says that after the assault, the family was shunned by the school community and his daughter was bullied and harassed when she returned to the school her sophomore year. “Parents wanted to believe that there was something wrong with my daughter, not with the school and its culture,” Alex says. Chessy’s attacker was ultimately convicted of three counts of misde- meanor sexual assault and one felony account of luring a minor through use of a computer.
After St. Paul’s threatened to reveal Chessy’s name when the Prouts subsequently filed a lawsuit, she decided to come forward on the Today Show, jump-starting a conversation long before the “#Me too” movement brought media attention to sexual assault in powerful institutions. Chessy then wrote a book called I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope with Washington Post reporter Jenn Abelson. Its title was inspired by a “Girls’ Bill of Rights” that Alex’s three daughters created after Chessy’s assault.
I Have The Right To offers workshops on aspirational masculinity, consent, and digital safety to students, faculty, and parents and has worked with over 16,000 students in more than 30 schools in 10 states. Alex praises Browning’s focus on masculinity. “The School has institutionalized raising boys who value honesty and integrity and the values we need in our leadership,” he says.
As a student, Alex embraced these core values, which “set me on a course for how to be in the world.” His two older broth- ers also attended the School and he fondly remembers many of his teachers and classmates. “The word I still associate with Browning is care; it was an idyllic existence for a child,” he says.
Prout and family march for survivors of sexual violence.
Alex left Browning for St. Paul’s, lured by the athletics program and an opportunity to study Japanese, which was his mother’s first language. After St. Paul’s, Alex attended Georgetown and set off on a finance career that took him overseas for several years. After Chessy wrote her book, the family moved to Washington, DC, and created I Have The Right To. Alex is also Chair of the Men’s Solidarity Council at Vital Voices Global Partner- ship, which brings together men who are allies in the fight to raise global awareness on behalf of women and girls.
I Have The Right To’s most popular course is on aspirational masculinity. “We try to motivate young men to each be the best version of himself by being honest with themselves and acknowledging their wholeness,” he says, adding, “How do we let them exercise that goodness, integrity, honesty, and love, which inherently reside in everyone despite layers of pressures to conform?”
Going forward, Alex says, the group hopes to hold a summit of leaders in business and education to address these issues. “If we can get some key stakeholders to show leadership in this effort, I think we can change the world. That’s ultimately our goal.”