⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
Thirty-two years ago I wrote an anonymous letter to broadcast news. I was 16. And one day I saw my letter on TV. It was written by hand.
Why would they show the anonymous letter I sent them? My teachers would surely recognize my handwriting!
(1/6)
⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
There was no way for the three perpetrators to save themselves now. My letter had exposed in detail the hazing ritual. The abuse that had taken place six months earlier wherein the three older students had forced themselves into the dorm rooms of three 14-year olds. Pulled off their pants. Shaved off their pubic hair.
Everyone knew.
(2/6)
⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
I remember. The victims trying to laugh it away as they were standing in line for Sunday breakfast. Joking away the abuse they had to endure.
Everyone knew.
(3/6)
⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
And then six months later a journalist was running a completely different story. A person who had been locked in a cupboard for hours. The event had leaked to the press and she was gathering information.
It was my chance. I had to do something. I wrote to the network about what had happened only a few months after I had started at the boarding school.
And there was my letter on TV.
(4/6)
⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
The day after they were expelled.
Three young men who were about to graduate. They were given just four hours to vacate the premises.
The school that had been their home four years of their lives. Where they had been perpetrators. But also themselves victims, year after year until tradition dictated it was their time to play the abuser.
(5/6)
⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
All the adults at the school knew. But only the the ones who had been in the room faced consequences. The just-turned-18-year olds.
And if any teacher recognized my handwriting they never said to me.
I remained anonymous.
And so the system endures.
(6/6)
⚠️ Mention of physical abuse
I’ve had the opportunity to share the story in this thread before, in a book written about the three long-lived boarding schools in Sweden. It contains many witness reports from students and staff.
Unfortunately I have little insight into the happenings of today at these schools (which honestly has essentially always been the case for anyone on the outside).
Watching Dead Poets Society again really gnawed at me...