A botched initiation ritual is said to have led to the events at the boarding school in early October, where two 18-year-old boys have now been arrested on suspicion of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated unlawful coercion, unlawful threats and aggravated assault. A third student is suspected of assault and unlawful coercion, but is not in custody.
Power structure
Lawyers representing the youths have stressed that the events need to be seen in context and that school culture played a role. Prosecutor Lisa dos Santos has also spoken of a “power structure” among students that includes punishments.
"As we have seen so far, several of these punishments have been criminal acts," she told Expressen this weekend.
Older students run the dormitory, according to Petter Sandgren, a senior lecturer in education at Stockholm University and an expert on boarding schools. For younger students, this includes initiation rituals that they are expected to take part in and keep quiet about.
That's what's come to light more and more now: people don't really accept it, but tell the school administration about it.
Tradition
The system of peer education has been around for a long time and is based on the idea of being tough and developing a “thick skin,” according to Sandgren. He believes this is a tradition maintained by students, rather than the school.
It is rare for teachers and principals to have been boarding school students themselves. They often come from a slightly different social class as well.
Sofia Kinberg, CEO and school principal, has commented on the events, saying that tradition can never be “used as an excuse for offensive behavior” and that students who speak out have the school’s full support.
Petter Sandgren believes the only way forward for the school is to report everything it learns to the police, even if this may draw criticism from parents at the school.
Many of them are former students, so for them this is not news. You often see them defending the system, saying, "this is not that dangerous". That goes some way to answering why it can survive: many of those who send their children there do not think it is that serious.
"Reporting incidents to the police and investigating them sends important signals," says Petter Sandgren.
When you realize that it's not a parallel world where we can do whatever we want, but that society's laws apply, then it's not as fun anymore.
Notable events at the boarding schools Lundsberg and Sigtuna:
2012: Five students in their final year of high school at Sigtuna School are convicted of assaulting a younger student.
2013: Lundsberg is temporarily closed by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (the national school regulator) after two students are burned with an iron during an initiation ritual.
2017: A student at Lundsberg is convicted in district court of filming two students having sex in a shower room and posting the film online. The student is later acquitted by the court of appeal.
2026: Four students are convicted of assaulting younger students at Lundsberg. The incident is said to have been triggered by a so-called "rap battle" at the boarding school in January last year, with lyrics about Hitler and prostitution, among other things.
