"Well ..." Miss Prout answered, then taking a deep cleansing breath as she organized her thoughts she continues: "It's been two years now since the whole ordeal and I feel ready to stand up and own what happened to me and I am going to make sure that other people -- other girls ... other boys -- that they can own it too, and they don't have to be ashamed either."

Two years ago Miss Prout, then a fresh-faced 15-year-old freshman, went on a Friday night date in late May with graduating senior, Owen Labrie. Before the evening was over, Miss Prout was sexually assaulted by the older prep school student. This led to Labrie being arrested following his June 1, 2014, graduation and charged with sexual assault. In August, 2015, he went to trial to defend himself, and the jury found guilty of three counts of misdemeanor Sexual Assault, one misdemeanor count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child and one felony count of Prohibited Use of Computer Equipment.

For three days, Miss Prout testified and was grilled by the defense in an open courtroom, an experience she called "pretty scary and pretty difficult."

"A question I was asked on the stand was: 'Why were you so hazy during that period?'" Miss Prout remembered. "I looked at the defense attorney (J.W. Carney) in disbelief and said: 'I was raped!'"

Carney, a high priced defense attorney from Boston, tried to paint Miss Prout as a "liar" during the eight-day criminal trial and, when the jury returned its verdict, Labrie was not convicted of the most serious allegations -- three counts of Aggravated Felonious Assault.

"On the one hand he (Labrie) was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault, which means the jury believed that a sexual assault took place," Ms. Guthrie explained. "On the other hand, there was a more serious charge that he was not convicted of. How did you feel about the verdict in this case?"

"Well, they (the jury) said that they didn't believe that he (Labrie) did it knowingly," Miss Prout answered. "That frustrated me a lot, because he definitely did do it knowingly."

She said that she was "bothered" and "disgusted" by the fact that Labrie was able "to pull the wool over a lot of people's eyes."

The young sex abuse survivor -- she'll turn 18 next month -- said that she doesn't think much about Labrie's post conviction life other than the fact she hopes "he'll learn and he'll get help ... because if he doesn't learn, he'll do it to another young woman."

However, she has been traumatized and is dealing with some after effects from the unwanted sexual encounter, with behavior exhibited by post traumatic stress sufferers. She tearfully revealed that she gets panic attacks and will lock herself in her closet to rock on the floor, in an attempt to cope with the impact of the overall experience.

St. Paul's School has seemingly been less than supportive throughout the whole elongated trauma. The elite Episcopal prep school in Concord, New Hampshire, has always denied the existence of the Senior Salute tradition, and, in a statement to NBC St. Paul's states: "We categorically deny that there ever existed at The School a culture or tradition of sexual assault. However, there's no denying the survivor's experience caused us to look anew at the culture and environment. This fresh look has brought about positive changes at The School."

The nine-point "positive changes" that St. Paul's has implemented include: 1) Employing developmentally appropriate education models designed to prevent and reduce risky adolescent behavior; 2) Implementing healthy boundary and bystander intervention programming for adults and students; 3) Engaging external teams of experts to examine the health of the student culture; 4) Bringing in leading experts to train the faculty on adolescent relationships, consent, sexuality, and culture; 5) Creating an Associate Head of School position for the purpose of integrating and advancing healthy culture initiatives; 6) Continually assessing and strengthening our advising system and the role of the head of house; 7) Regularly reviewing and clarifying rules governing student behavior; 8) Regularly reviewing and upgrading our security systems; and 9) Leading a nationally recognized symposium on the influence of technology on adolescent relationships, which was held June 15-17, at The School.

Through the years, the entire Prout family had been stanch supporters of St. Paul's School. In fact, Miss Prout's father, Alexander Prout, was a 1982 graduate of The School and her older sister, Lucy, was Labrie's classmate. Both Lucy Prout and Owen Labrie were graduated from St. Paul's on June 1, 2014.

Following the unwanted sexual encounter with Labrie, Francesca, who goes by the name "Chessy," attempted to return to St. Paul's for the 2014-'15 academic year, but she found the atmosphere on campus too toxic to remain. Lucy had been graduated that spring, and, as Chessy started the new term in the fall, she was harassed, The School's administration played duck and cover, her former friends gave her the cold shoulder and the boys on campus rallied around their hero. Owen Labrie, making life hell-on-earth for his victim. Even though it was illegal for her name to be revealed by the working press, her name was spread all over the blogosphere by Internet trolls, and she was the target of vicious slander and mean-spirited comments. By Christmas, she had enough, and transferred to another school to finish out her high school career.

Miss Prout's parents are disappointed in how The School responded to their daughter's sexual assault and aftermath.

"We think the campus would say: 'Oh, oh. We need to talk about what's happened,'" said Susan Prout, wife of one St. Paul's graduate's (Alexander) and the mother of two of three daughters who have gone to St. Paul's. Her youngest daughter will not become a St. Paul's student.

"Nobody was talking about the issue itself," Chessy recalled. "They (The School) weren't trying to prevent it from happening to anyone else."

"If ever there was a family to work with..." Mrs. Prout added. "It would have been our family. We loved The School."

But that love affair with The School turned into a nightmare.

"Unfortunately it seems like The School's reputation became more important rather than supporting our daughter," Mrs. Prout explained.

In June 1, 2016, two years to the day that St. Paul's School Class of 2014 was graduated, the Prouts, under the pseudonyms of "John and Jane Doe," filed a civil lawsuit against St. Paul's, claiming that the elite New Hampshire school failed to "meet its most basic obligation to protect children entrusted to its care." And, to protect the identity of their minor daughter, Francesca was referred to simply as "J.D," in the filing of the civil suit. The Prouts are also seeking a jury trial, to bring the whole incident involving their daughter out into the open.

St. Paul's pushed back hard, demanding that the identity of "J.D." be made public.

The School charged that the parents were "waging a media campaign behind a cloak of anonymity which was designed to have a prejudicial effect on the adjudication of the case and prospective jurors."

Now "J.D." aka "Miss X" has voluntarily come forward and identified herself, and she and her family are talking.

"We're talking about children," Mr. Prout said, explaining the reasoning behind the lawsuit, which has been amended to reflect their legal names. "We feel an obligation that this not happen to any future kids at The School."

On Aug. 29, federal Judge Paul Barbadoro accepted the Prouts' amended case, which then nullified The School's objection to the use of pseudonyms as the case proceeds. Now Miss X -- "J.D." -- is referred to as "F.P." in the impending lawsuit.

The Prout's lawsuit also focuses on ferreting out St. Paul's School's alleged predatory culture, which allowed upperclassmen males to prey on younger girls and rob them of their dignity.

"We have always placed the safety and well-being of our students first and are confident that the environment and culture of the school have supported that," St. Paul's said in a statement to TODAY in defending its reputation.

Miss Prout had hoped for an apology from her assailant. It didn't come. She had hoped to be able to simply move on with her life and let Labrie go forward with his. That didn't happen.

"We had been prepared to just received an apology letter," Miss Prout said in Tuesday's seven minute TODAY segment. "We had been prepared to just move forward in our lives and let them move forward with their lives ..."

Instead, she sought justice.

"You know what," Miss Prout explained. "In the pursuit of just, I would anything."

Now the whole incident -- the crime, the trial, the lawsuit, St. Paul's pushback -- has turned Miss Prout from a sexual assault victim, and subsequently survivor, into a crusader.

As a survivor, the dishwater blond hair and blue eyed teenager is reaching out to help others who have suffered the same fate as she.

"I want other people to feel empowered ...," she said on TODAY. "... and just strong enough to be able to say: 'I have the right to my body ... I have the right to say "No!"'

To help make that happen, Miss Prout has connected with PAVE, an organization dedicated to "Promoting Awareness & Victim Empowerment." PAVE also helps to provide "safe space for survivors to thrive after trauma."

As a result of Miss Prout's coming forward to identify herself as Labrie's Senior Salute sexual conquest victim, PAVE has begun a Twitter campaign #IHaveTheRightTo that "engages participants to be a positive force for change bringing safety and respect to pop culture."

#IHaveTheRightTo was launched after Miss Prout's TODAY show interview. PAVE says Miss Prout is: "The survivor in (the Owen Labrie) case (who) has decided to be a voice for others and refuses to be ashamed or silenced."

On Wednesday, TODAY's Carson Daly reported that #IHaveTheRightTo online response to Miss Prout's emotional story has been "overwhelming."

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline