@raven860 It was extremely complicated. The students were deaf and hard of hearing—90% of their parents could not communicate effectively with them through speaking or signing. The kids did complain, but if any questions were asked, the abusers were very able to discredit what the kids were saying by explaining it in another context or saying, “Oh no, that was a misunderstanding on their part.” It’s not an uncommon occurrence with deaf children, unfortunately.
There was one situation after I left where a boy was dragged, shirtless, about 150 feet down a hall and up 2 flights of stairs into the dean’s office. The rugburn on his back was so bad it later turned black. It was obvious he was hurt, but because he was “out of control” (they couldn’t stand him- he was a question asker) they called the police on him. He was 12… the cops cuffed him, asked what happened—the school told the cops he did it to himself. The cops took him to the hospital, the hospital asked what happened, same answer. At least 10 adults saw him and only one, the social worker he saw 3 days later, was concerned enough to ask more questions. He had no voice or defense until the social worker believed his story.
Word did get out and often the former students often talked about different abuse stories like they were football game stories—they saw it as a part of their growing up experience and didn’t see how they were affected overall. Some knew it was wrong, but the school gave them a place where they completely fit in and weren’t rejected by their peers, a place where they could communicate with people and not live half-lives where they guessed their way through, and they weren’t going to risk that being jeopardized by reporting. That’s one of the main reasons I was mobbed— I was challenging the status quo, their comfort zone, as warped as it was. I completely understood their perspective—but wanted them to have that without the abuse.
The school eventually did end the abuse and the mobbing about 3 years after I left—it took several different things to happen but it then became last school of its type to stop this kind of abuse—finally. I really do believe that the group mentality has a lot to do with mobbing—change the mentality, the mobbing ends.
I want to emphasize that, today, this type of abuse rarely ever happens at deaf boarding schools because the schools are watched very closely.