Private School Abuse presents a series of illegal and improper acts frequently perpetrated on students by school faculty members, administrators or employees regarding sexual assault of varying degrees. The assault may be a one-time, non-consensual encounter or it might involve numerous assaults during an ongoing interaction. For abuse in boarding school , an ongoing intimate relationship with a student, formed by the predatory behavior of a faculty member, school administrator or employee and whether leading to physical agreed sex acts or not, is a form of abuse.

Student on student sexual assault is an additional type of abuse, which may be compounded by the school’s failure to offer a safe environment that enabled the attack 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. This behavior, coupled with peer-pressure applied to both the attacker and the targeted victim, can lead to different types of abuse that includes sexual assault of varying degrees.

In all reported Boarding School Assault situations, a school administration’s failure to completely, immediately report the assault to police and other authorities, or its further negligence to investigate, address and deal fully with the matter increases the effects on the victim, the school community and potentially others. Recent Boarding School Abuse issues reported in the press exemplify these failures, including times where the attacker quietly leaves the school merely 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 safe campus. In that environment, faculty, administrators and staff are often much closer and familiar with students than would be expected in a non-boarding school setting. This could create both opportunity and cover to the possible abuser and for the predatory behavior.

In some situations, the abuser might be a personable and popular person, generally thought to be a positive addition to the school community. A targeted victim might feel flattered that a well-liked superior in the school community has expressed special interest in him or her. Because of this popularity and involvement in the school community, attack allegations against these attackers are often met with distrust, non-belief, and resistance by the community. Often, abusers have distance and morality problems which turn into unusually friendly relationships with students that are past what are commonly expected. This creates a predatory path and opportunity for the attack.

All abusers, to differing amounts, use predatory methods that are generally referred to as “grooming,” or targeting a possible abuse victim. Below is a list of grooming behaviors 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 ploy. In a boarding school setting, a predator often works closely with small amounts of students, realizing each student’s needs and vulnerabilities. Once a target is located and selected, these vulnerabilities – such as being lonely, low self-esteem, emotional neediness, or attention seeking behavior, can be systematically leveraged in the following manners:

Trust

A predator will first work to get the student’s trust. This step is most difficult to discern as private school communities are usually tight-knit and personal engagement is commonplace. Here, the attacker is likely 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 relationship with the potential student-victim, the student may begin to count on more and more on the predator for any need it is that the predator is leveraging and fulfilling. The victim will spend more time with the predator, feeling more comfortable with the relationship. Additionally to attention and affection, the possible victim may receive gifts from the predator, which may include valuable, gifts such as the promise of higher grades, or a college 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 work to isolate the student. At school, this might mean after-hour meetings, tutoring sessions, meetings in the dormitory , one-on-one sports training sessions, or 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 verbally, with suggestive language to determine the victim’s response to the advancement. This will escalate until the relationship transforms to one of a physical, sexual nature.
Maintenance
As the sexual relationship is created, the predator will try to maintain control of the victim and the continuing interaction. The predator will likely try to manipulate the victim by inducing feelings of guilt, or even threats, or employ the opposite tactic of continuing to make the victim feel special and desired. In any event, the predator may continue to exploit the victim with means available to maintain the inappropriate physical relationship.

Legacy on Abuse Victims

When the grooming escalates as intended by the predator, the targeted student, being made to feel special, will likely respond positively to the behaviors. The predator, through these well-thought-out and performed grooming behaviors and activities, tries to re-work and reduce the moral confines of the victim. Because the victim 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, after the abuse has been reported, survivors of private school abuse are frequently exposed to discreet social pressure and intimidation, such as being bullied, alienation from their peers, or retaliation from administrators. Particularly at boarding schools, where education is stringent, competition can be intense and social circles small, victims of abuse can be quickly isolated and socially persecuted. Subjected to those reactions, many boarding school abuse survivors that have revealed the abuse leave school. Others, fighting with the prospect of such isolation and social persecution, report the abuse years later. In either case, the legacy can be significant and lasting.

Some abuse victims bear from long-term effects of the abuse that include depression, anxiety, ptsd, low self-esteem, suicidal feelings, substance abuse, restless sleeping and eating patterns, and difficulty creating and keeping healthy relationships. Individualized therapy and support groups can assist survivors get past those effects.

Legally, a survivor of boarding school abuse may recover 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 deficiencies in its process of reviewing and responding to the victim’s report of the abuse. If you are a survivor of boarding school abuse and would like to confidentially review your situation and learn of your legal options at no cost or obligation, we are prepared to speak with you. It’s important for a survivor to realize that being a victim is not your fault. The lawyers at Meneo Law Group are committed to bringing those responsible for the assault to justice.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.