Parents boo Sigtunaskolan leadership at information day
Six boarding students suspected of gross crimes against younger pupils, questions from the floor met with the school's earlier emails
Images
Sigtunaskolans ledning utbuad på möte, erfar Expressen • ”Folk skrek”
expressen.se
The leadership of Sigtunaskolan Humanistiska Läroverket, one of Sweden's most tradition-rich boarding schools, was booed by parents at the school's own information day on Saturday. When parents asked about the suspected crimes of six students against younger boarders, the leadership declined to answer, repeating what had already been communicated by email. "People screamed and booed," one person present told Expressen.
Six students are suspected of gross sexual molestation, gross unlawful coercion and gross assault against younger pupils at the school. Seven plaintiffs are named in the case, and prosecutor Lisa Dos Santos says she will bring charges next week. According to the prosecutor, the crimes were committed within a power structure in which older students control younger ones through control and punishment. She has previously told Expressen that "there is a rule book that is passed down and kept hidden," and several students have testified to a punishment system, humiliation rituals and a culture of silence.
Saturday's information day put the leadership in the same hall as the parents who pay for the environment the prosecutor now describes. Board representatives attended alongside school director Sofia Kinberg and boarding director Mazdak Sarvari, but questions from the floor about the events at the boarding house were met with repetitions of the emailed statements. One attendee described the atmosphere as almost rebellious.
A boarding school sells what a day school cannot: round-the-clock supervision, tradition, an environment. The customers pay the fees themselves and can take their children and their money elsewhere the day the trust is gone. A municipal school can carry its families' distrust for decades; the tax funding arrives whether anyone is satisfied or not. At Sigtunaskolan the revenue sits in the auditorium, and on Saturday it was shouting.
Expressen has sought comment from Kinberg and Sarvari. Police were also present at the information day; nobody has explained why.