Elite Swedish school faces new hazing reports

New incidents of hazing have been reported at the prestigious Swedish boarding school once attended by King Carl XVI Gustaf, including a case of a young girl forced to perform oral sex on a snowman, according to the Svenska Dagbladet daily.

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Sigtuna Humanistiska läroverk (SSHL) located north of Stockholm courted headlined in May after five students were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a fellow student.

Sweden's Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen) slammed all three of Sweden's boarding schools – Sigtuna, Gränna and Lundsberg – over the schools' policies and attitudes toward hazing in a report in late 2011.

But despite the inspectorate's report and subsequent intense media focus on the elite schools incidents of bullying, harassment and hazing have continued to emerge.

The Schools Inspectorate in October filed a police report concerning an incident where a young female student was forced to perform oral sex on a snowman in front of her fellow pupils.

The police investigation was ultimately discontinued due to lack of evidence.

Further reports from parents have included incidents where a student was thrown in a freezing shower for five minutes and another beaten for not turning off the light at bed time.

School head Kent Edberg however denied that there is a system of peer to peer discipline at Sigtuna.

"One can give the impression that this has been institutionalized. That I can emphatically deny," he told the newspaper.

Edberg explained that the challenges to combat bullying that the school faces are common to all schools while recognizing that as a boarding school Sigtuna needs to have a greater awareness of the problem.

Sigtuna Humanistiska läroverk was formed in 1980 through a merger of Sigtunastiftelsens Humanistiska Läroverk and Sigtunaskolan and currently has an enrollment of about 580 students, two thirds of whom live at the school.

In addition to the King, the elite school was also attended by well-known Swedes such as Olof Palme, banking executive Annika Falkengren, as well as members of the Wallenberg family.