“Most people think it’s just a prank, but I guess you never know for sure,” said a female student.
Security remains tight on the tree-lined campus of St. Paul’s School as police continued to investigate threatening letters mailed last week to most of the prep school’s black students, an apparent hate crime that has unsettled the elite institution.
Concord police and school security are methodically patrolling the campus of the private boarding school in a show of heightened vigilance following the receipt of the anonymous letters, which St. Paul’s rector denounced as threatening hate mail. The identical letters, which were sent to most, if not all, of the approximately 40 black students at St. Paul’s, included each student’s photo from the campus facebook and the words “bang bang get out of here,” students said.
In the past decade, St. Paul’s expanded its financial aid program to attract more lower-income applicants. More than one-third of students receive assistance, with an average award of more than $28,000, to help defray the school’s $43,000 annual cost.
St. Paul’s, which is affiliated with the Episcopal Church, requires all students to live on campus. Its 2,000 acres of woodlands, fields, and ponds, about 1 1/2 miles from downtown Concord, has a classic, collegiate feel. Notable graduates include publisher William Randolph Hearst, cartoonist Garry Trudeau, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, and Senator John F. Kerry.