Boarding School Abuse

Boarding School Abuse denotes a series of criminal and lurid activities frequently perpetrated on students by school faculty members, administrators or staff regarding sexual assault of varying degrees. The assault might be a one-time, non-consensual abuse or it might include numerous assaults during an continuing interaction. For example, an ongoing intimate relationship with a student, spawned by the predatory behavior of a faculty member, school administrator or staff and whether leading to physical agreed sex acts or not, is a form of abuse.

Student-on-student sexual assault is an additional form of abuse, that may be compounded by the school’s failure to offer a safe environment that allowed the assault to occur. Inside the school community are students of different ages, maturity and experiences. Younger students may be subjected to the predatory actions of older, more mature students. Their actions, coupled with peer-pressure applied on both the predator and the targeted victim, could lead to different forms of abuse that includes sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all reported Boarding School Abuse situations, a school administration’s megligence to fully, adequately report the assault to police and other authorities, or its additional failure to investigate, address and deal completely with the matter increases the effects on the victim, the school population and potentially others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the press highlight these failures, including times where the attacker quietly leaves the school merely to assume working elsewhere in a school environment.

Predatory Behavior
Most private schools pride themselves on their small, personal communities within a well-defined and safe campus. In that environment, faculty, administrators and staff are frequently much closer and familiar with students than might be expected in a non-boarding school setting. This can provide both opportunity and cover for the would-be attacker and for the predatory behavior.

In some matters, the abuser may be a likeable and popular individual, generally thought to be a positive addition to the school community. A targeted student may feel flattered that a popular superior in the school community is expressing special attention in him or her. Because of this popularity and involvement in the school community, abuse allegations against these attackers are often met with doubt, disbelief, and resistance by the community. Often, boarding school abuse lawsuit have boundary and morality problems which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are beyond what are commonly anticipated. This provides a predatory path and opportunity for the attack.

Most abusers, to varying degrees, employ predatory tactics that are generally known as “grooming,” or targeting a potential abuse victim. Below is a list of grooming behaviors exhibited by predators that are in a position of authority in relation to the subordinate student.

Grooming
Grooming is a main part of a predator’s method. In a boarding school situation, a predator usually works closely with small amounts of students, realizing each student’s needs and vulnerabilities. Once a victim is located and chosen, these vulnerabilities – such as being lonely, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, can be systematically exploited in the following ways:

Trust

A predator could first work to get the student’s trust. This step is the most difficult to realize as private school communities are usually tight-knit and personal engagement is commonplace. Here, the predator is usually part of a group of staff who are genuinely interested in the student’s wellbeing and achievement at the school.
Reliance
As a predator establishes a trusting relationship with the potential student-victim, the student may start to rely more and more on the predator for any need it is that the predator is exploiting and fulfilling. The victim might spend more time with the predator, feeling more and more comfortable with the relationship. In addition to attention and kindness, the possible victim may receive gifts from the predator, including valuable, gifts like the promise of high grades, or a university recommendation letter. The reliance stage is usually when the predatory behavior is noticeable from well-meaning collegial behavior.

Isolation

As the grooming progresses, the predator will work to isolate the student. At school, this may mean after-hour meetings, tutoring sessions, encounters in the dormitory , one-on-one sports training sessions, or other such circumstances.
Sexualization
The predator will start to de-sensitize the student from reacting negatively to touching, caressing and other actions which lead to sexual interaction. This may start with breaking the physical-touch barrier, or communicating, with suggestive messages to gauge the victim’s response to the progression. This will escalate until the relationship transforms to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
Once the sexual relationship is created, the predator will work to keep control over the victim and the continuing abuse. The predator will probably seek to manipulate the student by inducing emotions of shame, or even threats, or use the opposite strategy of continuing to make the victim feel special and desired. In any event, the predator might continue to exploit the victim with means necessary to keep the inappropriate physical relationship.

Impacts on Abuse Survivors

When the grooming increases as planned by the predator, the victim, being made to feel special, will probably respond affirmatively to the behaviors. The predator, through these well planned and executed grooming behaviors and activities, tries to re-calibrate and remove the moral confines of the victim. Since the victim participated in the re-calibration, he frequently has deep feelings of guilt, initially blaming himself for the incident and likely not to report it.

Additionally, after the abuse has been revealed, victims of boarding school abuse are frequently exposed to discreet social pressure and intimidation, such as bullying, alienation from their peers, or retaliation from staff. Especially at boarding schools, where education is stringent, competition can be intense and social circles small, survivors of abuse could be rapidly isolated and socially persecuted. Exposed to those reactions, many private school abuse survivors who have revealed the abuse leave school. Others, faced with the prospect of such isolation and social persecution, report the abuse a while later. In either situation, the impact can be significant and lasting.

Some abuse survivors bear from long-term effects of the abuse including depression, anxiety, ptsd, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, disturbed sleeping and eating patterns, and trouble creating and keeping healthy relationships. Individualized therapy and support groups might assist survivors overcome those effects.

Legally, a survivor of boarding school abuse could recover financial compensation from the abuser and more frequently, from the school for its failure to protect the student from the abuse, as well as failures or negligence in its method of reviewing and responding to the survivor’s report of the abuse. If you are a survivor of boarding school abuse and would like to confidentially share your situation and learn of your legal options at no cost or obligation, we are ready to talk with you. It is important for a survivor to remember that experiencing assault is not your fault. The lawyers at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those responsible for the abuse to justice.