Private School Abuse

Boarding School Abuse presents a range of criminal and improper acts commonly perpetrated on students by school faculty members, administrators or employees involving sexual assault of varying degrees. The assault might be a one-time, non-consensual abuse or it can involve numerous assaults within an ongoing interaction. For example, an ongoing intimate relationship with a student, formed by the predatory actions of a faculty member, school administrator or employee and whether leading to physical agreed sex acts or not, is a form of abuse.

Student on student sexual assault is another type of abuse, that might be compounded by the school’s failure to offer a safe environment that allowed the assault to happen. Inside the school community are students of varying ages, maturity and experiences. Younger students may be subjected to the predatory behavior of older, more mature students. Their intent, along with peer-pressure applied on both the predator and the targeted victim, may lead to different types of abuse including sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all reported Boarding School Assault situations, a school administration’s failure to completely, immediately 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 community and potentially others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the press highlight these failures, including matters when the perpetrator quietly leaves the school merely to assume employment elsewhere in a school environment.

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

In some matters, the attacker may be a personable and popular individual, generally thought to be a enhancement to the school community. A targeted victim could feel flattered that a well-liked superior in the school community has expressed special interest in him or her. Because of this popularity and integration in the school community, abuse accusations against these abusers are frequently met with distrust, non-belief, and resistance by the community. Frequesntly, abusers have boundary and judgment problems which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are past what are commonly expected. This provides a predatory pathway and opportunity for the abuse.

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

Grooming
Grooming is a significant part of a predator’s ploy. In a boarding school setting, a predator usually works closely with small numbers of students, understanding every student’s needs and weaknesses. Once a victim is identified and chosen, these vulnerabilities – such as being lonely, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, could be systematically leveraged in the following ways:

Trust

A predator will initially work to gain the student’s trust. This step is the most difficult to see as private school communities are usually tight-knit and personal interaction is commonplace. Here, the predator is likely part of a group of staff who are genuinely interested in the student’s wellbeing and success at the school.
Reliance
As a predator creates a trusting relationship with the potential student-victim, the student may begin to rely more and more on the predator for whatever need it is that the predator is leveraging and fulfilling. The victim will spend more time with the predator, feeling more comfortable with the relationship. In addition to attention and kindness, the possible victim may receive gifts from the predator, including valuable, gifts such as the guarantee of higher marks, or a university recommendation letter. The reliance step is usually when the predatory behavior is noticeable from well-meaning collegial behavior.

Isolation

While the grooming continues, the predator might work to isolate the potential victim. At abused at boarding school , this might mean late meetings, tutoring sessions, meetings in the dorm , one-on-one athletic training sessions, or various other such circumstances.
Sexualization
The predator will start to de-sensitize the student from reacting negatively to touching, caressing and other actions that lead to sexual interaction. This could begin with breaking the physical-touch barrier, or speaking, with suggestive language to determine the victim’s response to the progression. This might escalate until the relationship transforms to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is established, the predator will work to maintain control of the victim and the continuing abuse. The predator will probably seek to manipulate the student by introducing feelings of shame, or even threats, or employ the opposite strategy of continuing to make the victim feel special and desired. Regardless, the predator may continue to exploit the victim with means necessary to keep the immoral physical relationship.

Impacts on Abuse Victims

When the grooming escalates as intended by the predator, the targeted student, being made to feel special, will likely respond affirmatively to the actions. The predator, through these well planned and performed grooming behaviors and activities, tries to re-calibrate and reduce the moral confines of the targeted student. Since the abuse survivor participated in the re-calibration, she often experiences deep feelings of shame, initially blaming himself for the incident and likely not to report it.

Furthermore, after the abuse has been revealed, survivors of boarding school abuse are often subjected to discreet social pressure and intimidation, like being bullied, alienation from their peers, or revenge from teachers. Especially at private schools, where academics are rigorous, competition can be fierce and social circles small, victims of abuse may be readily isolated and socially persecuted. Exposed to those reactions, many private school abuse victims 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 victims bear from long-term effects of the abuse including depression, anxiety, ptsd, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, substance abuse, restless sleeping and eating patterns, and trouble creating and maintaining healthy relationships. Individualized therapy and support groups may assist survivors overcome these effects.

Legally, a victim of boarding school abuse may win financial compensation from the abuser and more commonly, 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 discuss 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 victim to realize that experiencing assault is not your fault. The attorneys at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those responsible for the assault to justice.