As an alumnus is being tried on sexual assault charges, an elite New Hampshire prep school is promising to tackle its "hookup culture" and unsanctioned "traditions," the Associated Press noted.

Concord's St. Paul's School, which the AP says "has educated some of the nation's elite for more than a century and a half," has been in the headlines because of Owen Labrie, a now 19-year-old accused of enticing a fellow student to the roof of an academic building last year.

There, prosecutors say, the senior raped the 15-year-old freshman girl as part of "Senior Salute," in which seniors try to have sex with underclassman. Labrie denies the charges, insisting he and the girl had consensual sexual contact, but not intercourse, which would still be a crime because of their age difference.

"While the allegation and the people it involves will not be a topic of conversation at the school," St. Paul's School Rector Michael Hirschfeld informed the school community last year, "the broader issues it raises - the use of social media to perpetuate unhealthy relationships, the 'hookup' culture and unsanctioned student 'traditions' - will be."

St. Paul's alumni candidly acknowledged that such a "hookup culture" did in fact exist, Town&Country reported. But following the 2014 incident, the prep school was being singled out in an unfair manner, an unidentified 2004 graduate told the magazine.

"People in every high school, everywhere, hook-up. It happens," the alumnus said. "Just because students at St. Paul's have put a name on senior guys doing it, it's easier to crucify them for it. Not that it's right if anyone gets hurt under the guise of it, but no one should take issue with an old tradition that not even everyone does."

But another former student said that some of those traditions were comparable to a Greek life setting in college.

"A school like St. Paul's ... is going to function like a college in the sense that you're going to have groups that conduct themselves like sororities and fraternities and practice traditions and rituals in that sense, some totally innocent, and some based around their urge to attract the opposite sex," the alumna, who graduated in 2006 explained.

"The difference is, St. Paul's is full of much younger kids, so the maturity is taken down to an even lower level," she added.