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The Innocence Project-Investigative Report
A Separate Peace
You have been hired by the Devon School’s Board of Directors to conduct an
investigation into the unfortunate death of one of their prized students. An internal letter has
surfaced related to A Separate Peace. Although written many years ago by a former head of
the Devon School, you have been enlisted to take part in the investigation. The relevant
portions of the memorandum read as follows:
May 22, 1942
Dear Board of Directors,
I am very concerned about a recent event that took place on our campus. One of our prize
students has died.
We are in the process of interviewing students about this incident. We have heard rumors that
the incident may have been intentionally caused by another student. We have also heard that the victim
may have acted recklessly and that other students were involved in a way that could have encouraged
the victim to act irresponsibly. Please be mindful of the importance of not engaging in speculation or
discussing this with any Devon students or any members of law enforcement or the media.
It is also important to keep in mind that we at the Devon School act as loco parentis. We have a
legally recognized obligation to act with the best interests of students and assume an active role in
making students aware of the implications of their behavior, monitoring their personal and social
activities, and regulating their conduct. As an institution, we may face a complaint about liability for
injuries to students who we are duty-bound to protect. Please report to me any instances of negligence
or insufficient supervision which you feel may be relevant and important to this case.
I will, of course, keep all communications confidential.
At this point, we do not want to speculate, but it is imperative that we conduct an investigation.
Please notify me of any information or leads, including witnesses to the initial incident and their
involvement, which may relate to this terrible tragedy.
Sincerely,
David Billingsham
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You may want to use the following words in your notes:
Accident:
Premeditation:
Intent:
Willfulness:
Motive:
Negligence:
Supervision:
Reasonable:
Duty of care:
The Legal Doctrine of In Loco Parentis
The phrase in loco parentis is Latin for "in the place of a parent" and is a recognized
legal doctrine that governs the behavior and responsibilities of schools. In general, it means
that while a student is in the custody of a school, the school can and often should act as a
parent. In this way, schools accept certain responsibilities for their students; school employees
who act in loco parentis should act in the best interest of the students, and take appropriate
steps to supervise and protect them.
When colleges and boarding schools supervise and care for students who are in their
charge around the clock, they have to walk a delicate line. Society often thinks of schools as
safe havens for students and places to nurture them and to promote responsible
independence. However, schools can not control every aspect of a student’s life, and tragic
accidents and incidents do take place in schools.
To understand the serious implications of the in loco parentis doctrine, read the
following newspaper articles. Please annotate the articles and consider the following issues:
ages of the students
abilities of the students (physical and/or mental condition)
who was or should have been supervising the students
the level of supervision offered or required
information known by the parents
privacy rights of the students
level of risk involved in the student activity
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HOMEWORK ONE:
READ CHAPTER ! of A Separate Peace
Take notes on the following
Odd or incriminating ACTIONS and QUOTES from the narrator (Gene) in his visit to Devon.
(pages 9-14)
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Odd or incriminating ACTIONS and QUOTES from Gene when he was a student (14-20)
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Odd or incriminating ACTIONS and QUOTES from Phinny when he was a student at Devon (1420)
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CLASSWORK:
Who Was Responsible For Elizabeth Shin?
“by Deborah Sontag
April 28, 2002 for “The New York Times”
The day before Elizabeth Shin set herself on fire in her dormitory room at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, her parents and little sister drove up from suburban New Jersey for a
quick visit. The Shins did not know that Elizabeth had been threatening suicide or indeed that the
very night before she tried and failed to summon the nerve to stick a knife into her chest. They
did not know that a school psychiatrist had considered hospitalizing her. And so they saw what
they usually saw, or perhaps what they wanted to see: their giggly, harried 19-year-old caught up
in her busy, overachieving life.
It was a last-minute trip, a Sunday jaunt with a trunk load of presents. After unloading on
Massachusetts Avenue in front of Random Hall, the Shins lugged cases of spring water and
tomato juice, boxes of cereal and lo mein, up to their daughter's room. For a finale, they
delivered and hooked up a new television and VCR. Elizabeth seemed like herself; she was
palling around with a dorm mate whom she teasingly introduced as her male twin. Her eyes did
look tired and puffy, but her parents knew that she had a lot going on, what with her studies, her
clarinet performances, her fencing meets. That was M.I.T., they thought, and that was Elizabeth,
always pushing herself.
During an early supper with her family at a Chinese restaurant, Elizabeth hunched over sheet
music, preparing for a rehearsal later that evening of her chamber music quartet. She discussed
getting passport photos taken for a summer trip to Korea, her parents' homeland. She invited her
little sister, Christie, to spend a weekend with her. And then she more or less ran off, and her
father, as usual, shouted after her, ''If you need us, we're only a phone call away.''
The Shins' phone call came the next night, but not from Elizabeth. ''There's been a fire,'' an
M.I.T. official began. The Shins have been plagued ever since by that final visit with Elizabeth.
They suspect that people wonder about them, about how they could have driven away that chilly
April night and left Elizabeth to her fate. ''Some people might ask, 'How could you not see?' ''
Cho Hyun Shin, her father, says. ''How we wish. How we wish we had seen some sign. How we
wish that we had known. How we wish, more to the point, that we had been told.''
Two years after Elizabeth's death on April 14, 2000, the Shins have filed a $27 million wrongful
death suit against M.I.T. in a Massachusetts superior court. The Shins claim that M.I.T., overly
concerned with protecting Elizabeth's confidentiality, failed to inform them of their daughter's
precipitous deterioration in the month before her death. This, they say, robbed them of a chance
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to oversee her care or perhaps even to save her life. M.I.T., the Shins claim, made matters worse
by failing to act in their place, ''in loco parentis to the deceased.'' The school did not provide
adequate, coordinated mental health care for their daughter, they claim, nor a proper emergency
response to the fire.
Was her death an accident?
Was it premeditated?
Was there evidence of intent?
Did the school provide enough supervision?
Who was responsible?
Suit filed in teen's drowning
Student died in St. Paul's pool. By Allison Steele for the “Concord Monitor”
June 24, 2005
The parents of the 15-year-old St. Paul's School student who drowned in the school's swimming
pool last November have sued St. Paul's for negligence and for the loss of their son. The lawsuit
alleges that the school's lifeguards were not watching the pool when Clifford Nyquist, a star
athlete, lost consciousness in four feet of water.
Nyquist's parents, Lee Nyquist and Leslie Nixon Nyquist, also state in the lawsuit that the school
did not take enough safety precautions before letting students use the brand-new pool, and that
the school's lifeguards were inadequately trained.
"St. Paul's School had an obligation to provide appropriate safeguarding and lifeguarding
activities to protect users of its lap pool," the suit states. ". . . Contrary to the forestated duties of
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St. Paul's School, its employees and agents, St. Paul's breached each and every duty to its
students."
The Nyquists filed suit Tuesday in Hillsborough County Superior Court. The lawsuit does not
request any set amount of damages.
Reached yesterday at the family's New Boston home, where the Nyquists live with their
daughters Christina and Carla, Lee Nyquist did not want to comment on the lawsuit. But he said
the family is trying to move on as best it can.
"Obviously, we're very deeply grieved by the tragedy of our son's death," he said.
Bill Matthews, acting rector of St. Paul's, said in a statement that the school can't comment on
pending litigation.
"Cliff Nyquist was a cherished member of our community, and our thoughts and prayers
continue to be with his family," Matthews said.
Nyquist was popular and successful, a straight-A student who was near the top of his class and
an extraordinary athlete. He played almost all sports, and he was on the school's varsity ski
racing and baseball teams as a freshman. He was also, his friends and relatives say, an
exceptionally thoughtful and self-possessed teenager who radiated kindness.
Those who knew him have struggled to understand how Nyquist, a strong swimmer in perfect
health, could have drowned. A week after his death, an autopsy concluded that he had died from
complications of near-drowning. Some of Nyquist's friends told the police that Nyquist might
have been trying to see how long he could hold his breath underwater, and the police speculated
that Nyquist might have fainted. But there have been few other answers.
The Olympic-sized swimming pool, part of a $24 million athletic complex completed last year,
had been open for less than a month when Nyquist died. The lawsuit states that the school didn't
tell parents that the pool was open to students, and that St. Paul's hadn't yet sought parents'
permission allowing their children to use the pool. In addition, it says, the school did not require
students to sign in or out of the pool, or to use a "buddy system" where students keep an eye on
one another.
On Nov. 7, 2004, Nyquist and some friends went to the pool at about 3:30 after an indoor soccer
game. There were two lifeguards on duty, and the pool's manager was there. The manager had
her children with her, according to the lawsuit, and the four-year-old son of one of the lifeguards
was also there. The school's athletic director was there, as well.
While three other students were in the pool swimming laps, the lawsuit alleges that Nyquist
drowned in the shallow end as a result of "shallow water blackout," a rare phenomenon that can
be brought on by taking a series of short breaths before going underwater.
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According to the U.S. Naval Safety Center, swimmers who suffer from shallow water blackout
often take short breaths in an effort to hold their breath for longer periods of time. Breathing that
way can cause the swimmer to hyperventilate, depriving the brain of oxygen and leading to
sudden unconsciousness. The blackout happens without warning, and victims likely die without
any idea of what is about to happen.
According to the center, unconscious swimmers do not always appear to be in danger and can
fool lifeguards because they may even appear to be making coordinated movements. But the
longer the brain goes without oxygen, the more likely the swimmer is to suffer brain damage.
The lifeguards at the pool did not see that Nyquist was in trouble for a substantial period of time,
according to the filing. Nyquist was submerged for so long, in fact, that by the time someone
pulled him from the water to perform CPR, Nyquist's face had become disfigured by the effects
of the drowning.
"He was not recognizable by any of the individuals present at the pool, including a man who had
coached him," the lawsuit states. "It was necessary for the school to call the roll in each of the
dormitories in order to determine which student was missing and unaccounted for, so that
Clifford could be identified. As a result, his parents were not notified of the event until almost
three hours after it happened."
Nyquist was taken to Concord Hospital, alive. He died at 11:30 that night.
"As a direct result of the negligence of St. Paul's School, its agents and its employees, Clifford R.
Nyquist suffered a near drowning incident, resulting in severe and irreversible brain damage and
organ damage, ultimately resulting in his wrongful death," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit comes at a particularly rocky time for the boarding school, which has attracted
national media attention in the past year due to increasing scrutiny over its finances.
Was her death an accident?
Was it premeditated?
Was there evidence of intent?
Did the school provide enough supervision?
Who was responsible?
Name:
Date:
HOMEWORK NUMBER 2:
Read chapter 2
What behavior on the part of the school shows negligence. Include quotes and
descriptions.
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What behavior or quotes on the part of Phinny shows malicious intent or
premeditation to hurt someone?
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What behavior or quotes on the part of Gene shows malicious intent or
premeditation to hurt someone?
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Name:
Date:
Documenting Proof for the Investigative Report (Textual examples and Quotes)
Use the graphic organizer below to gather background information and evidence for the
investigative report for Devon’s Board of Directors based on your reading of A Separate Peace. As you
read, keep track of any information that you think could be important because it relates to the
unfortunate death of Phineas and the events leading up to it.
For each SUSPECT, record any relevant information that relates to guilt or innocence. Consider
the ACTIONS of the suspect (what the suspect does and says) as well as the OMISSIONS of the suspect
(what the suspect should have done and should have said). Keep in mind that a person may act in a way
that causes his own or someone else’s injury but remember to consider ways in which a person’s failure
to act may also expose someone, including himself or herself, to harm.
Example:
Suspect Elwin Lepellier (aka Leper, 17-18 years old, nature lover from Vermont, Devon student)
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE or GUILT (PAGE #)
1. “’I think that was better than Finny’s,’” said
Elwin . . . who bidding for an ally in the dispute
he foresaw.”
(p. 17)
EXPLANATION:
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
1. “Leper closed his mouth as though forever.
He didn’t argue or refuse. He didn’t back
away. He became inanimate.”
(p.17)
EXPLANATION:
1. May support his involvement in the
incident because he encouraged the rivalry
between Finny and Gene and force them to
continue the challenge.
1. Leper didn’t really want to jump and did not
want the other boys to jump either. He was
silent and neutral in the contest.
Name:
Date:
SUSPECT #1 (Name ___________, Nickname_______, Age__, Background_______, Profession______)
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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EXPLANATION:
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INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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SUSPECT #2 (Name ___________, Nickname_______, Age__, Background_______, Profession______)
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
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SUSPECT #3 (Name ___________, Nickname_______, Age__, Background_______, Profession______)
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
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SUSPECT #4 (Name ___________, Nickname_______, Age__, Background_______, Profession______)
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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SUSPECT #5 (Name ___________, Nickname_______, Age__, Background_______, Profession______)
ACTIONS OR INACTIONS THAT SUPPORT
INNOCENCE OR GUILT (PAGE #)
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