Robert Land Academy promised to reform boys into “good citizens.” Former students allege it subjected them to years of humiliation, degradation, and abuse
Over the past year, The Walrus has learned that nearly a dozen people—former students and a parent—have filed multi-million-dollar lawsuits against, or are planning to sue, RLA over a series of alleged abuses that former students experienced from the 1980s to the present. The allegations include physical and emotional violence by staff, racism, withholding of food, sleep deprivation, and sexual assault by fellow students that they say the school overlooked. The Walrus has obtained numerous statements of claim; the academy has not filed statements of defence.
Martin, who requested to go by only his first name, attended RLA starting in 2006, when he was twelve years old, after struggling in school; his parents believed a place with more structure would help. In his statement of claim, Martin states that, while at RLA, an older student who was tasked with overseeing him repeatedly abused him sexually, verbally, and physically. He is suing RLA for $5 million. The school administrators, Martin alleges, failed to document his abuser’s offences, warn teachers and other students about his abuser, and put in place reporting mechanisms and counselling. “They didn’t want me to talk to my parents about it,” he told me. “I always knew I hated it [there], but I just thought I had to kind of eat shit on the whole matter for a long time.”
Staff, he notes in his statement of claim, wilfully did not see the abuse and maintained what he calls “a system . . . designed to cover-up the existence of such behaviour.” Several former students allege in statements of claim as well as in interviews that a culture of fear and abuse was enabled by the school’s founder and former headmaster, Scott Bowman, and by other teachers and administrators. In a statement to The Walrus, Robert Land Academy noted, “The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority and these alleged incidents do not reflect the values of the school, past or present,” and that the school “will not comment on the specific allegations or individuals at this time.” (I reached out to Bowman for comment via LinkedIn. He declined an interview request and told The Walrus to direct questions to RLA.)
I was sent to Wentworth Military Academy when I was 16yo. It was absolutely a hellhole. A kid got hot oatmeal poured on him for oversleeping. Another was put into a coma from a “fight club” style boxing match overseen by other students with superior ranks. A “company” of teens rioted and burned their school shirts when one from their rank was suspended. I participated in hazing new cadets by striking their asses with broom handles the second year.
I was one of the only escape attempts to succeed that I know of. A friend met me off-campus and drove me away. I survived on couches and the like for a month before calling my mother and informing her that I’d come home, but if she sent me again I would escape and she wouldn’t hear from me again until I was 18.
The abuse was unbelievable, so my mother didn’t believe me when I begged to be released from the school. Only my escape and her not knowing my status for a month earned my freedom from the school. These places are prisons for children and should all be shut down. They literally give “troubled teens” power over one another and then act as if that won’t lead to abuse.
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I was sent to Wentworth Military Academy when I was 16yo. It was absolutely a hellhole. A kid got hot oatmeal poured on him for oversleeping. Another was put into a coma from a “fight club” style boxing match overseen by other students with superior ranks. A “company” of teens rioted and burned their school shirts when one from their rank was suspended. I participated in hazing new cadets by striking their asses with broom handles the second year.
I was one of the only escape attempts to succeed that I know of. A friend met me off-campus and drove me away. I survived on couches and the like for a month before calling my mother and informing her that I’d come home, but if she sent me again I would escape and she wouldn’t hear from me again until I was 18.
The abuse was unbelievable, so my mother didn’t believe me when I begged to be released from the school. Only my escape and her not knowing my status for a month earned my freedom from the school. These places are prisons for children and should all be shut down. They literally give “troubled teens” power over one another and then act as if that won’t lead to abuse.