Boarding School Abuse
Boarding School Abuse presents a series of criminal and lurid acts frequently committed on students by school faculty members, administrators or employees regarding sexual assault of varying degrees. The assault can be a one-time, non-consensual attack or it can involve numerous assaults within an continuing interaction. For example, an continuing intimate relationship with a student, created 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, which can be made worse by the school’s negligence to provide a safe environment that allowed the attack to happen. Inside the school community are students of different ages, maturity and experiences. Immature students might be exposed to the predatory behavior of older, more mature students. Their actions, coupled with peer-pressure applied on both the predator and the targeted victim, may lead to different forms of abuse including sexual assault of varying degrees.
In all alleged Boarding School Abuse situations, a school administration’s failure to completely, adequately report the assault to police and other authorities, or its further negligence to investigate, address and deal fully with the situation amplifies the effects on the abuse survivor, the school community and potentially others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the press exemplify these failures, including matters where the perpetrator quietly leaves the school merely to assume working elsewhere in a school environment.
Predatory Behavior
Many private schools pride themselves on their tiny, personal communities within a well-defined and safe campus. In this environment, faculty, administrators and staff are often much nearer and familiar with students than would be expected in a non-boarding school situation. This may provide both opportunity and cover to the possible attacker and for the predatory behavior.
In some situations, the attacker might be a personable and popular person, generally thought to be a enhancement to the school community. A targeted student could feel flattered that a popular superior in the school community has expressed special interest in him or her. Because of this popularity and integration into the school community, abuse allegations against these attackers are frequently met with doubt, non-belief, and resistance by the community. Often, abusers have boundary and morality problems which turn into oddly friendly relationships with students that are past what are normally anticipated. This creates a predatory pathway and opportunity for the abuse.
Most abusers, to differing amounts, employ predatory actions that are generally referred to as “grooming,” or targeting a potential abuse victim. Below is a list of grooming methods exhibited by predators that are in a position of authority in relation to the student.
Grooming
Grooming is a significant part of a predator’s method. In a boarding school setting, a predator usually works closely with small amounts of students, realizing each student’s needs and weaknesses. Once a victim is located and selected, these vulnerabilities – like loneliness, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, could be systematically exploited in the following manners:
Trust
A predator may initially work to get the student’s trust. This step is the most difficult to discern 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 achievement at the school.
Reliance
As a predator establishes a trusting engagement with the potential student-victim, the student may start to count on more and more on the predator for any need it is that the predator is leveraging and fulfilling. The student may spend more time with the predator, feeling more comfortable with the relationship. Additionally to attention and affection, the possible victim might receive gifts from the predator, which may include valuable, gifts like the promise of higher marks, or a college recommendation letter. The reliance step is usually when the predatory behavior is noticeable from well-meaning collegial behavior.
Isolation
As the grooming continues, the predator may work to isolate the potential victim. At school, this may mean late get togethers, 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 that lead to sexual interaction. This could start with breaching the physical-touch barrier, or communicating, with suggestive messages to determine the victim’s reaction to the advancement. This could increase until the relationship transforms to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is established, the predator will try to maintain control of the victim and the continuing abuse. The predator will probably seek to manipulate the victim by inducing feelings of shame, or possibly threats, or use the opposite strategy of continuing to have the victim feel special and desired. Regardless, the predator may continue to exploit the victim by whatever means available to maintain the immoral physical relationship.
Legacy on Abuse Survivors
While the grooming escalates as intended by the predator, the victim, being made to feel special, will probably respond positively to the actions. The predator, through these well planned and performed grooming behaviors and activities, seeks to re-work and remove the moral boundaries of the targeted student. Because the victim participated in this re-calibration, she frequently has deep feelings of shame, initially blaming herself for the incident and likely not to report it.
Additionally, after the abuse has been reported, survivors of private school abuse are frequently exposed to discreet social pressure and intimidation, like being bullied, isolation from their peers, or retaliation from staff. Especially at private schools, where education is rigorous, competition can be fierce and social circles small, victims of abuse may be readily isolated and socially abused. Subjected to those reactions, many private school abuse victims who have revealed the abuse leave school. Others, fighting with the prospect of the isolation and social abuse, report the abuse decades later. In either case, the impact can be severe and lasting.
Some abuse survivors bear from long-term effects of the abuse that include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, substance abuse, restless sleeping and eating patterns, and trouble creating and keeping healthy relationships. Individual therapy and support groups can help victims get past these effects.
Legally, a victim of boarding school abuse may recover financial compensation from the predator and more frequently, from the school for its negligence to protect the student from the abuse, as well as failures or deficiencies in its method of reviewing and replying 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 speak 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 who committed the the assault to justice.
