Private School Abuse

Boarding School Abuse denotes a wide-range of illegal and lurid activities commonly perpetrated on students by school faculty members, administrators or employees involving sexual assault of varying degrees. The attack might be a one-time, non-consensual encounter or it may include many assaults during an continuing interaction. For example, an continuing intimate encounter with a student, spawned 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 form of abuse, which might be compounded by the school’s failure to provide a safe environment that allowed the attack to occur. Within the school population are students of different ages, maturity and experiences. Immature students might be subjected to the predatory behavior of older, more mature students. This intent, along with peer-pressure exerted on both the predator and the targeted victim, may lead to varying forms of abuse that includes sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all alleged Boarding School Assault matters, a school administration’s failure to fully, adequately report the crime to police and other authorities, or its additional failure to investigate, address and deal fully with the matter increases the effects on the victim, the school population and possibly others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the media exemplify these failures, including times when the attacker quietly leaves the school only to assume employment somewhere else in a school environment.

Predatory Behavior
Most boarding schools pride themselves on their tiny, personal communities within a well-defined and secure campus. In this environment, faculty, administrators and staff are often much nearer and familiar with students than might be expected in a non-boarding school setting. This could create both opportunity and cover for the possible attacker and for the predatory behavior.

In some situations, the attacker might be a personable and popular individual, generally considered to be a positive addition to the school community. A targeted victim could feel flattered that a popular superior in the school community has expressed special attention in him or her. Because of this popularity and integration into the school community, abuse allegations against these attackers are often met with distrust, non-belief, and resistance from the community. Often, abusers have boundary and judgment problems which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are beyond what are commonly anticipated. This creates a predatory pathway and opportunity for the abuse.

All abusers, to differing amounts, use predatory actions that are generally referred to as “grooming,” or targeting a potential abuse victim. Below is a list 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 amounts 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, may be systematically leveraged in the following ways:

Trust

A predator may initially work to get the student’s trust. This step is most difficult to see as private school communities are often tight-knit and personal engagement is commonplace. Here, the predator is likely part of a group of staff who are genuinely interested in the student’s wellness and success at the school.
Reliance
As a predator creates a trusting relationship with the potential student-victim, the student will start to count on more and more on the predator for any need it is that the predator is exploiting and fulfilling. The student may spend more time with the predator, feeling increasingly comfortable with the relationship. Additionally to attention and affection, the potential victim may receive gifts from the predator, which may include valuable, presents like the guarantee of high grades, or a university recommendation letter. The reliance step is mainly where the predatory behavior is noticeable from well-meaning collegial behavior.

Isolation

As the grooming progresses, the predator will work to isolate the potential victim. At school, this could mean late meetings, tutoring sessions, encounters in the dorm , one-on-one sports practice sessions, or various other such circumstances.
Sexualization
The predator will start to desensitize the student from reacting negatively to touching, caressing and other actions which lead to sexual interaction. This could start with breaching the physical-touch barrier, or communicating, with suggestive messages to gauge the victim’s response to the advancement. This could increase until the relationship transforms to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is created, the predator will work to maintain control over the student and the continuing abuse. The predator will likely seek to manipulate the student by inducing emotions of shame, or even threats, or employ the opposite strategy of continuing to make the victim feel special and desired. In any event, the predator may continue to exploit the victim by whatever means necessary to maintain the inappropriate physical relationship.

Impacts on Abuse Victims

While the grooming escalates as intended by the predator, the targeted student, being made to feel special, will likely respond positively to the actions. The predator, through these well-thought-out and performed grooming behaviors and activities, tries to re-calibrate and remove the moral boundaries of the victim. Because the abuse survivor participated in the re-calibration, she frequently experiences deep feelings of guilt, initially blaming herself for the incident and hesitant to report it.

Furthermore, after the abuse has been revealed, victims of private school abuse are often subjected to discreet social pressure and intimidation, such as being bullied, alienation from their peers, or retaliation from teachers. Particularly at boarding schools, where academics are stringent, competition can be fierce and social circles small, survivors of abuse could be rapidly isolated and socially persecuted. Subjected to those reactions, many private school abuse survivors that have revealed the abuse leave school. Others, fighting with the prospect of the isolation and social persecution, report the abuse a while later. In either situation, the impact can be severe and life-altering.

Some abuse survivors suffer from long-term effects of the abuse that include depression, anxiety, ptsd, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, restless sleeping and eating patterns, and trouble establishing and maintaining healthy relationships. Individual therapy and support groups could assist survivors get past these effects.

Legally, a victim of boarding school abuse could receive financial compensation from the abuser and more commonly, from the school for its negligence to protect the student from the predator, 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 story and learn of your legal options at no cost or obligation, we are ready to speak with you. It’s important for a survivor to realize that being a victim is not your fault. The attorneys at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those who committed the the abuse to justice.