Behind the façade.
The words Boarding School conjure up different meanings depending on our exposure and experience.
For me it presents memories of abuse, mixed with thoughts of friends and fun. Adventures and pain, laughter and fear.
From high school to boarding school, home to dorm, mum to strangers, alone to never alone; a shift in environment and in the way I’d view the world.
People say children in boarding schools are privileged. That they are part of a separate group, elite, removed. I have heard the expectations of luxury and the jokes about what goes on after lights out.
What I have not heard so much about is the vulnerability of the children in these schools, in terms of a lack of trauma informed care, access for services, and environment-aware safeguarding.
What I have not heard is how many children from these schools are in the statistics for abuse and exploitation, as children or later as adults.
What I have not heard is survivors’ voices being implemented into the design of school buildings and systems.
What I have not heard is how many of those wealthy circles protecting the schools are also in other circles protecting perpetrators, as they also know that no social worker is knocking on their door.
I would spend full terms in a building with other boarding children, day school children, boarding staff, day staff, teachers, cooks, and janitors, ministers, and governors, along with unknown visitors to the school; all without any family near by.
Weeks and months fully accessible to adults my family did not know.
I would hope that in the majority of cases this is not an issue, but in reality, a boarding school is the perfect opportunity for grooming and abuse. 24/7 access to children with no family to intervene.
I have read articles on the need for designated safeguarding officers, improved procedures and reporting, easier access for social care professionals in many environments yet boarding schools are rarely mentioned.
All children are vulnerable.
All children from assumed privileged backgrounds are vulnerable
All children from every economic class are vulnerable
Because they are children.
When a child is in the care of a school for their entire day and night for weeks and months at a time, extending to years; they are in the care of strangers. Their days are controlled by adults who may not always have good intentions. In an environment held separately by society.
Strangers provide their every activity, and those childrenmight not be returning home until the end of term or longer.
I know that children from the wealthiest families went through horrific experiences in these elite schools. I know that even at that age the children knew that no social worker was coming to save them, how could they when they don’t know we exist. No social work or police officers were going to knock on that school door or call their family. They were invisible.
There are gaps in the safeguards, the survivor led insights, the trauma awareness for these children.
There are assumptions made about why children are in these environments and a resulting determination of vulnerability.
Cheese and wine parties attended by local and unknown VIPs, chapel concerts attended by ministers and business people, sports days attended by their sponsors and anonymous staff do not equate to safety no matter the funding or image.
Corridors of beds with sleeping children fully accessible to adults does not equate to safety no matter the price.
Paid for education, uniforms, tuck boxes and name tags on clothes do not ensure protection.
I hope one day that the children in those schools are viewed as being as vulnerable as all children and are afforded the same level of protection with a built-in recognition of the importance of environment and the need for trauma awareness in all training, especially boarding staff. I hope the children and the systems surrounding them are made visible to all who aim to protect.