Private School Abuse

Private School Abuse presents a wide-range of illegal and improper actions often perpetrated against students by school faculty members, administrators or employees regarding sexual assault of varying degrees. The assault may be a one-time, non-consensual attack or it may include many assaults during an continuing interaction. For example, an continuing intimate encounter with a student, formed by the predatory behavior of a faculty member, school administrator or staff and whether heading to physical agreed sex acts or not, is a form of abuse.

Student-on-student sexual assault is an additional type of abuse, that can be compounded by the school’s negligence to provide a safe environment that allowed the assault to happen. Within the school population are students of varying ages, maturity and experiences. Younger students may be exposed to the predatory actions of older, more experienced students. This behavior, coupled with peer-pressure applied to both the attacker and the targeted victim, can lead to different types of abuse including sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all alleged Boarding School Assault situations, a school administration’s megligence to entirely, adequately report the assault to police and other authorities, or its further failure to investigate, address and deal fully with the matter 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 times where the perpetrator quietly departs the campus merely to assume employment somewhere else in a school environment.

Predatory Behavior
Most boarding schools pride themselves on their small, personal communities inside a well-defined and safe 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 situation. This may provide both opportunity and cover to the would-be attacker and for the predatory behavior.

In some situations, the attacker could be a personable and popular individual, generally thought to be a positive addition to the school community. A targeted student might feel flattered that a popular superior in the school community is expressing special attention in him or her. Because of this popularity and integration into the school community, abuse accusations against these predators are often met with doubt, disbelief, and resistance by the community. Often, abusers have boundary and morality issues which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are beyond what are commonly expected. This provides a predatory pathway and opportunity for the abuse.

Most abusers, to differing degrees, use predatory tactics that are generally referred to as “grooming,” or targeting a possible abuse victim. Following is a compilation of grooming behaviors used by predators who 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 situation, a predator often works closely with small amounts of students, knowing every student’s needs and weaknesses. Once a victim is located and selected, these vulnerabilities – such as being lonely, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, may be systematically leveraged in the following manners:

Trust

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

Isolation

As the grooming progresses, the predator might try to isolate the potential victim. At school, this may mean after-hour meetings, tutoring sessions, meetings in the dorm , one-on-one athletic training sessions, or other such circumstances.
Sexualization
The predator will begin to de-sensitize the possible victim from reacting negatively to contact, caressing and other actions that lead to sexual interaction. This could begin with breaking the physical-touch barrier, or speaking, with suggestive messages to gauge 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 work to maintain control of the student and the continuing abuse. The predator will probably try to manipulate the victim by inducing feelings of shame, or even threats, or employ the opposite strategy of continuing to have the victim feel special and desired. Regardless, the predator will keep trying to exploit the victim by whatever means necessary to keep the immoral physical relationship.

Legacy on Abuse Victims

While the grooming increases as planned by the predator, the targeted student, being made to feel special, will probably respond affirmatively to the behaviors. The predator, from these well-thought-out and performed grooming behaviors and activities, tries to re-work and remove the moral confines of the victim. Since the victim participated in this re-calibration, he frequently has deep feelings of shame, initially blaming himself for the incident and likely not to report it.

Furthermore, after 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 retaliation from administrators. Particularly at private schools, where academics are rigorous, competition can be fierce and social circles small, victims of abuse could be rapidly isolated and socially abused. Exposed to such reactions, many private school abuse victims who have reported the abuse leave school. Others, faced with the prospect of the isolation and social abuse, report the abuse a while later. In either situation, the impact can be severe and life-altering.

Some abuse victims deal with 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 trouble creating and maintaining healthy relationships. Individual therapy and support groups could help survivors get past those effects.

Legally, a victim of boarding school abuse can receive financial compensation from the abuser and more frequently, from the school for its failure to protect the student from the predator, 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 review 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 remember that being a victim is not your fault. The attorneys at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those responsible for the assault to justice.