Boarding School Abuse denotes a range of illegal and improper activities often perpetrated against students by school faculty members, administrators or staff regarding sexual assault of varying degrees. The assault may be a one-time, non-consensual abuse or it can involve many assaults during an ongoing interaction. For example, an ongoing intimate encounter with a student, formed by the predatory actions 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, which might be made worse by the school’s negligence to offer a safe environment that allowed the attack to occur. Within the school population are students of varying ages, maturity and experiences. Immature students may be exposed to the predatory behavior of older, more experienced students. Their behavior, coupled with peer-pressure exerted to both the attacker and the targeted victim, may lead to varying types of abuse including sexual assault of varying degrees.
In all alleged Boarding School Abuse matters, a school administration’s failure to entirely, adequately report the assault to police and other authorities, or its further failure to investigate, address and deal completely with the situation amplifies the effects on the victim, the school population and potentially others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the media exemplify these failures, including situations when the attacker quietly leaves the school merely to assume employment elsewhere in a school environment.
Predatory Behavior Many private schools pride themselves on their tiny, personal communities inside a well-defined and safe 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 setting. This may provide both opportunity and cover to the possible abuser and for the predatory behavior.
In some matters, the attacker might be a likeable 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 interest in him or her. Because of this popularity and involvement in the school community, attack accusations against these criminals are frequently met with doubt, disbelief, and resistance by the community. Frequesntly, abusers have distance and morality problems which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are beyond what are normally expected. This provides a predatory path and opportunity for the attack.
Most abusers, to varying amounts, employ predatory actions that are generally known as “grooming,” or targeting a potential abuse victim. Following is a compilation of grooming methods used by predators who are in a position of authority in relation to the student.
Grooming Grooming is a main part of a predator’s method. In a boarding school situation, a predator often works closely with small amounts of students, realizing each student’s needs and weaknesses. Once a target is identified and chosen, these vulnerabilities – such as being lonely, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, may be systematically exploited in the following manners:
Trust
A predator may initially work to gain the student’s trust. This step is the 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 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 victim may spend more time with the predator, feeling increasingly comfortable with the relationship. In addition to attention and affection, the possible victim may receive gifts from the predator, including valuable, presents such as the promise of high grades, or a university recommendation letter. The reliance step is mainly when the predatory behavior is distinguishable from well-meaning collegial behavior.
Isolation
While the grooming progresses, the predator will try to isolate the potential victim. At school, this could mean late get togethers, tutoring sessions, meetings in the dorm , one-on-one athletic practice sessions, or various other such circumstances. Sexualization The predator will start to desensitize the student from reacting negatively to contact, caressing and other actions which lead to sexual interaction. This could begin with breaching the physical-touch barrier, or speaking, with suggestive messages to determine the victim’s reaction to the progression. This could escalate until the relationship advances to one of a physical, sexual nature. Maintenance As the sexual relationship is established, the predator may work to keep control over the student and the continuing abuse. The predator will probably try to manipulate the victim by inducing emotions of shame, or possibly threats, or employ the opposite strategy of continuing to have the victim feel special and desired. In any event, the predator may keep trying to exploit the victim by whatever means necessary to maintain the immoral physical relationship.
Legacy on Abuse Survivors
When the grooming increases as intended by the predator, the victim, being made to feel special, will probably respond positively to the actions. The predator, from these well planned and performed grooming behaviors and activities, seeks to re-calibrate and remove the moral confines of the targeted student. Because the abuse survivor participated in the re-calibration, he often 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 boarding school abuse are frequently subjected to discreet social pressure and intimidation, like being bullied, isolation from their peers, or retaliation from administrators. Especially at boarding schools, where education is stringent, competition can be fierce and social circles small, victims of abuse might be rapidly isolated and socially persecuted. Subjected to such reactions, many private school abuse victims who have reported the abuse leave school. Others, fighting with the prospect of the isolation and social abuse, report the abuse years later. In either case, the impact can be significant and lasting.
Some abuse survivors suffer from long-term effects of the abuse that include depression, anxiety, ptsd, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, substance abuse, disturbed sleeping and eating patterns, and trouble creating and keeping healthy relationships. Individual therapy and support groups could assist victims overcome those effects.
Legally, a survivor of boarding school abuse can win financial compensation from the abuser and more frequently, 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 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 prepared to talk with you. It is important for a victim to realize that experiencing assault is not your fault. The lawyers at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those responsible for the assault to justice.
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