Private School Abuse

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

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

In all alleged Boarding School Abuse matters, a school administration’s megligence to fully, immediately report the crime to law enforcement and other authorities, or its additional failure to research, address and deal completely with the matter increases the effects on the victim, the school population and possibly others. Recent Boarding School Abuse cases reported in the media exemplify these failures, including matters where the attacker quietly departs the campus only to assume employment elsewhere in a school environment.

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

In some situations, the attacker could 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 popular 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 criminals are often met with doubt, non-belief, and resistance from the community. Frequesntly, abusers have boundary and judgment problems which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are beyond what are commonly anticipated. This provides a predatory path and opportunity for the abuse.

Most abusers, to varying amounts, use predatory actions that are generally known as “grooming,” or targeting a potential abuse victim. Below is a compilation of grooming methods exhibited by predators who 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 situation, a predator often works closely with small amounts of students, knowing each student’s needs and weaknesses. Once a target is identified and chosen, these vulnerabilities – like being lonely, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, can be systematically exploited in the following ways:

Trust

A predator could first work to gain the student’s trust. This step is most difficult to discern as private school communities are often tight-knit and personal engagement is commonplace. Here, the predator 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 creates a trusting engagement with the potential student-victim, the student will begin 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 increasingly comfortable with the relationship. In addition to attention and affection, the possible victim might receive gifts from the predator, including valuable, presents like the promise of high marks, or a college recommendation letter. The reliance step is mainly when the predatory behavior is noticeable from well-meaning collegial behavior.

Isolation

As the grooming continues, the predator might work to isolate the student. At school, this may mean late meetings, tutoring sessions, meetings in the dorm , one-on-one sports practice sessions, or other such circumstances.
Sexualization
The predator will begin to desensitize the student from reacting negatively to touching, caressing and other behaviors that lead to sexual interaction. This could begin with breaching the physical-touch barrier, or verbally, with suggestive messages to gauge the victim’s response to the progression. This might increase until the relationship transforms to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is created, the predator will work to keep control of the student and the continuing abuse. The predator will likely seek to manipulate the student by introducing emotions of guilt, or even threats, or employ the opposite strategy of continuing to have the victim feel special and desired. Regardless, the predator might continue to exploit the victim by whatever means available to maintain the inappropriate physical relationship.

Impacts on Abuse Survivors

While the grooming escalates as planned by the predator, the targeted student, being made to feel special, will likely respond positively to the actions. The predator, from these well planned and performed grooming behaviors and activities, seeks to re-work and remove the moral boundaries of the targeted student. Since the victim participated in the re-calibration, she often has deep feelings of guilt, initially blaming himself for the incident and likely not to report it.

Additionally, beyond the abuse has been revealed, survivors of private school abuse are frequently exposed to discreet social pressure and intimidation, like bullying, alienation from their peers, or revenge from staff. Particularly at private schools, where academics are stringent, competition can be intense and social circles small, victims of abuse might be rapidly isolated and socially persecuted. Exposed to such reactions, many private school abuse survivors that have reported the abuse leave school. Others, fighting with the prospect of such isolation and social abuse, report the abuse decades later. In either case, the legacy can be severe and life-altering.

Some abuse victims deal with from long-term effects of the abuse that include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, substance abuse, disturbed sleeping and eating patterns, and difficulty establishing and maintaining healthy relationships. Individual therapy and support groups might help survivors get past these effects.

Legally, a victim of boarding school abuse may recover 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 deficiencies in its process 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 story and learn of your legal options at no cost or obligation, we are prepared to speak with you. It is important for a survivor to remember that experiencing assault is not your fault. The lawyers at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those responsible for the assault to justice.