Letter: Girls take a different kind of beating at boarding school

GIRLS are rarely beaten or physically tormented in the way that boys have been at boarding school ('Tormented souls lay Mr Squeers to rest', 20 September), but there are different ways of hurting people.

The girls' school way is to undermine the person by verbal abuse and to withdraw all the qualities of life that make survival as a human being possible. Affection, approval, physical contact, the right to privacy and free time are some of these. The insidious things about the treatment at girls' schools is that it all comes dressed as normal and acceptable.

Rosalind Brackenbury

Edinburgh