Boarding School Abuse

Private School Abuse illustrates a wide-range of illegal and improper acts often perpetrated against 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 ongoing interaction. For example, an ongoing intimate relationship with a student, created by the predatory behavior of a faculty member, school administrator or employee and whether heading to physical agreed sex acts or not, is a form of abuse.

Student-on-student sexual assault is an additional form of abuse, which might be compounded by the school’s failure to offer a safe environment that allowed the assault to occur. Inside the school population are students of different ages, maturity and experiences. Younger students may be exposed to the predatory behavior of older, more mature students. Their actions, along with peer-pressure applied on both the attacker and the targeted victim, can lead to varying forms of abuse including sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all alleged Boarding School Abuse situations, a school administration’s megligence to completely, adequately report the crime to law enforcement and other authorities, or its additional failure to investigate, address and deal completely with the situation amplifies the effects on the victim, the school community and possibly others. Recent Boarding School Abuse cases reported in the media highlight these failures, including matters where the perpetrator quietly departs the school only to assume employment somewhere else in a school environment.

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

In some situations, the attacker could be a personable and popular person, generally considered to be a enhancement to the school community. A targeted student might feel flattered that a well-liked superior in the school community is expressing special interest in him or her. Because of this popularity and involvement in the school community, abuse accusations against these criminals are frequently met with distrust, non-belief, and resistance from the community. Frequesntly, abusers have distance and judgment issues which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are past what are normally anticipated. This creates a predatory pathway and opportunity for the abuse.

All abusers, to varying degrees, use predatory actions that are generally referred to as “grooming,” or targeting a potential abuse victim. Following is a compilation of grooming methods exhibited by predators who are in a position of authority in relation to the subordinate 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, knowing 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, can be systematically exploited in the following ways:

Trust

A predator may initially work to get the student’s trust. This step is most difficult to see as boarding school communities are usually tight-knit and personal interaction is commonplace. Here, deerfield academy abuse 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 creates a trusting relationship with the potential student-victim, the student might start to count on more and more on the predator for whatever need it is that the predator is exploiting and fulfilling. The student might spend more time with the predator, feeling more comfortable with the relationship. Additionally to attention and kindness, the potential victim might receive gifts from the predator, including valuable, presents like the promise of high grades, or a college recommendation letter. The reliance step is mainly where the predatory behavior is distinguishable from well-meaning collegial behavior.

Isolation

While the grooming continues, the predator will try to isolate the student. At school, this could mean after-hour get togethers, tutoring sessions, meetings in the dorm , one-on-one athletic practice sessions, or other such circumstances.
Sexualization
The predator will start to desensitize the student from reacting negatively to touching, caressing and other behaviors which lead to sexual interaction. This may begin with breaking the physical-touch barrier, or verbally, with suggestive language to gauge the victim’s response to the progression. This might escalate until the relationship advances to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is created, the predator will try to maintain control over the student and the continuing interaction. The predator will probably seek to manipulate the student by introducing feelings of shame, or possibly threats, or use the opposite tactic of continuing to make the victim feel special and desired. Regardless, the predator may continue to exploit the victim with means available to maintain the inappropriate physical relationship.

Legacy on Abuse Survivors

When the grooming increases as intended by the predator, the targeted student, being made to feel special, will likely respond affirmatively to the behaviors. The predator, through these well-thought-out and executed grooming behaviors and activities, seeks to re-work and remove the moral confines of the targeted student. Since the abuse survivor participated in this re-calibration, he often has deep feelings of guilt, initially blaming herself for the incident and likely not to report it.

Furthermore, beyond the abuse has been revealed, victims of private school abuse are frequently subjected to discreet social pressure and intimidation, such as bullying, alienation from their peers, or revenge from administrators. Particularly at boarding schools, where education is rigorous, competition can be intense and social circles small, victims of abuse might be rapidly isolated and socially abused. Exposed to such reactions, many boarding school abuse victims that 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 case, the impact can be severe and life-altering.

Some abuse survivors suffer from long-term effects of the abuse including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, substance abuse, restless sleeping and eating patterns, and difficulty establishing and keeping healthy relationships. Individual therapy and support groups could assist victims get past those effects.

Legally, a survivor of boarding school abuse may receive 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 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 prepared to talk with you. It’s important for a survivor to remember that experiencing assault is not your fault. The attorneys at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those who committed the the abuse to justice.