Boarding School Abuse

Private School Abuse denotes a wide-range of criminal and lurid actions frequently perpetrated against students by school faculty members, administrators or staff involving sexual assault of varying degrees. The attack may be a one-time, non-consensual encounter or it might involve several assaults within an continuing interaction. For example, an continuing intimate encounter with a student, created by the predatory behavior of a faculty member, school administrator or employee and whether heading to physical consensual sex acts or not, is a form of abuse.

Student on student sexual assault is an additional type of abuse, that may be compounded by the school’s negligence to offer a safe environment that enabled the assault to happen. Within the school population are students of varying ages, maturity and experiences. Immature students may be subjected to the predatory actions of older, more experienced students. This actions, along with peer-pressure applied to both the predator and the targeted victim, can lead to varying forms of abuse that includes sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all reported Boarding School Assault matters, a school administration’s failure to entirely, adequately report the crime to law enforcement and other authorities, or its additional negligence to investigate, address and deal completely with the situation amplifies the effects on the abuse survivor, the school population and possibly others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the press exemplify these failures, including situations when the perpetrator quietly leaves the campus merely to assume working elsewhere in a school environment.

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

In some situations, the abuser might be a likeable and popular person, generally considered to be a positive addition to the school community. A targeted victim could feel flattered that a well-liked superior in the school community is expressing special interest in him or her. Because of this popularity and integration into the school community, abuse allegations against these abusers are frequently met with doubt, disbelief, and resistance from the community. Frequesntly, abusers have distance and judgment issues which manifest themselves in unusually friendly relationships with students that are past what are normally expected. This provides a predatory path and opportunity for the attack.

All abusers, to varying amounts, employ predatory tactics that are generally referred to as “grooming,” or targeting a possible abuse victim. Following is a compilation of grooming methods used by predators that are in a position of authority in relation to the subordinate student.

Grooming
Grooming is a major part of a predator’s method. In a boarding school setting, a predator usually works closely with small numbers of students, understanding each student’s needs and weaknesses. Once a target is identified and selected, these vulnerabilities – like loneliness, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, could be systematically exploited in the following ways:

Trust

A predator might initially work to get the student’s trust. This step is most difficult to see as boarding school communities are often tight-knit and personal engagement is commonplace. Here, the attacker is usually part of a group of staff who are genuinely interested in the student’s wellness and success at the school.
Reliance
As a predator establishes a trusting relationship with the potential student-victim, the student might begin to count on more and more on the predator for whatever need it is that the predator is leveraging and fulfilling. The victim may spend more time with the predator, feeling more and more comfortable with the relationship. In addition to attention and affection, the possible victim might receive gifts from the predator, which may include valuable, presents such as the guarantee of high grades, or a college recommendation letter. The reliance stage is usually where the predatory behavior is distinguishable from well-meaning collegial behavior.

Isolation

As the grooming progresses, the predator will work to isolate the potential victim. At school, this may mean after-hour meetings, tutoring sessions, encounters in the dorm , one-on-one sports practice sessions, or other such circumstances.
abused at boarding school will start to desensitize the possible victim from reacting negatively to contact, caressing and other actions that lead to sexual interaction. This might begin with breaking the physical-touch barrier, or communicating, with suggestive language to gauge the victim’s reaction to the progression. This might escalate until the relationship advances to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is established, the predator may work to keep control over the victim and the continuing interaction. The predator will likely seek to manipulate the student by introducing emotions of shame, or possibly threats, or employ the opposite tactic of continuing to make the victim feel special and desired. Regardless, the predator will continue to exploit the victim with means necessary to maintain the immoral physical relationship.

Legacy on Abuse Victims

When the grooming escalates as planned by the predator, the victim, being made to feel special, will likely respond positively to the behaviors. The predator, through these well-thought-out and executed grooming behaviors and activities, tries to re-work and remove the moral boundaries of the victim. Since the victim participated in this re-calibration, she frequently experiences deep feelings of guilt, initially blaming herself for the incident and hesitant to report it.

Additionally, after the abuse has been reported, survivors of boarding school abuse are frequently exposed to discreet social pressure and intimidation, such as bullying, alienation from their peers, or retaliation from administrators. Especially at boarding schools, where education is stringent, competition can be fierce and social circles small, victims of abuse can be readily isolated and socially abused. Exposed to those reactions, many boarding school abuse survivors who have revealed the abuse leave school. Others, faced with the prospect of the isolation and social persecution, report the abuse decades later. In either case, the legacy can be severe and life-altering.

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

Legally, a survivor of boarding school abuse can recover financial compensation from the abuser and more commonly, from the school for its negligence to protect the student from the abuse, as well as failures or negligence in its process of reviewing and responding to the victim’s report of the abuse. If you are a survivor of boarding school abuse and would like to confidentially discuss your story and learn of your legal options at no cost or obligation, we are prepared to speak with you. It’s important for a victim to realize that experiencing assault is not your fault. The lawyers at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those who committed the the abuse to justice.