Amanda left Sigtuna after the assault

When Amanda Tedenljung went to Sigtunaskolan, one of her classmates was abused by five older boys.

She was not surprised when she heard about the current events at Sigtunaskolan, especially when it comes to the silence from inside the school and student dormitories.

- When you are in that environment, the boundaries wear down and you start to think in a way that is unacceptable to an outsider, she says.

It was in the spring term of 2012 that her classmate was suddenly absent from school. After a week he came back with big bruises on his arms.

- Then he told me and a few others in the class what had happened, says Amanda Tedenljung.

She lived at the student dormitory Haga for girls, and her classmate at Kvarnbranten for boys.

He had been awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call and called down to the basement, where five boys in the third grade were waiting.

The day before he had refused to obey an order to clean the one guy's room. He asked to be excused because he had an exam the following day.

But it didn't bite the guys who stood in a semi-circle and started punching and kicking him.

He cried and tried to protect himself. But the abuse continued. The aim was to get him to obey orders and "follow the 'rules' of the boarding school", according to the judgment which later came in the Court of Appeal.

At the weekend, his family noticed that he was depressed and he told his mother and sister about what had happened.

Nine days later, he still had chest pain and bruises on his arms and shoulders from punches and kicks, according to the Court of Appeal ruling.

Five guys in the third were convicted of assaulting him together and in concert. They received probation and community service.

The aggravating factor was that the assault took place over a long period of time, in an environment where the plaintiff "should be able to feel safe", and that there were humiliating motives, the Court of Appeal wrote.

- I remember that time so well, says Amanda Tedenljung.

- In the small environment that was our class, he should have felt comfortable talking about it. But instead it was hush-hush, despite the fact that he had large, visible bruises.

In the judgment it is stated that his sister accidentally "disclaimed" by telling others that he had been beaten.

And when it leaked, students sought Amanda out and said she had to get her friend to retract her report.

- They thought that "he destroys the threes who meant no harm", says Amanda.

The culture of silence, of not talking to people outside the school and the walls of the boarding school, lives on at Sigtunaskolan.

DN has asked the school management now and on repeated occasions but received the answer that they do not want to participate in any interview but give general statements. Now the school principal Sofia Kinberg writes, among other things, that "violations are unacceptable regardless of when they happened".

The students we have spoken to have wished to remain anonymous, even though they are only telling us how it works at the school.

Amanda chooses to talk openly about what happened because she feels that it is important to break the culture of silence and "get it out of the body once and for all".

There was more violence with the boys. With the girls, there was more ostracism and things that would penetrate the psychic plane.

- It was about humiliating, making others feel insecure and ashamed, says Amanda.

Researcher Petter Sandgren believes that there is greater openness in reporting violations at boarding schools today, but that it still clashes with the culture of silence that lives on.

- The idea is that your real family is actually the ones you have at the student residence. They are the only ones you should tell things to, says Amanda.

At Kvarnbranten's student dormitory, where the abuse took place, there were three house parents employed by the school, one of whom was always present.

Amanda was afraid that she would be physically punished if she spoke in connection with the police interrogation in the spring of 2012.

- Then they realized that I could actually fight. But I was punished by being ignored. There was a period when no one said a word to me, she says.

The only times anyone came to her, it was to tell her to ask her friend to withdraw the police report.

- That's when I realized that I had to leave school.

It took her a long time to get over what had happened. The following year, the trial was held and Amanda was called in as a witness. She lived in Paris and flew to Sweden just to support her friend.

But being face to face with the perpetrators again scared her.

- I thought I would be contacted. It has taken many years, and many conversations with psychologists, to get to where I am today.