At the school, students are said to be regularly bullied and beaten up, especially by older classmates. The school board is accused of sweeping the violence under the rug.
According to the head of the school, Mikkel Kjellberg, there is no question of a violent culture and these are ‘incidents’. Kjellberg also denies that the school board has failed to protect students.
The allegations came on Thursday revealed in a documentary from the Danish television channel TV2. In that documentary, about 50 former students of the school talk about their experiences.
Younger students oppressed
Herlufsholm is one of the oldest and most elite schools in Denmark, with about six hundred students, including the 16-year-old Prince Christian, the son of the Danish Crown Prince Frederik.
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The school pays a lot of attention to traditions. For example, students wear a school uniform and there is a system in which older students are responsible for younger classmates. It is partly because of that system that things often go wrong. Younger students would be ‘oppressed’ and punished with violence if they don’t do what their older classmates want.
In the documentary, former student Peter tells how a classmate was pulled out of bed at night in the dormitory and beaten up. The older students slapped his upper arms and thighs so that the school uniform would cover the bruises, Peter says.
Abused in the dorm
Dozens of other cases of violence are discussed in the documentary. And that’s not all. An anonymous former student tells how he was sexually abused in the dormitory. “I woke up being held on the bed and someone was holding a hand over my eyes. My arms and legs were being held and then someone stuck their finger in my behind.”
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When the student finally told his parents about the incident, they wanted the perpetrators expelled from school, but they would have received only a light sentence. It would be discouraged by the school board to report to the police.
‘Heartbreaking’
After the documentary was published, Herlufsholm came under heavy fire. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the revelations “inexcusable”. “The school must take responsibility and end this culture,” Frederiksen wrote in a Facebook post.
Crown Prince Frederik said in a statement that he found the situation at his son’s school “completely unacceptable” and called the stories “heartbreaking”.
The school has now announced that it will take measures. Headmaster Kjellberg has been fired and a large-scale investigation is launched. Certain traditions and sleeping in dormitories will also be abolished immediately.
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