At the national sports high school in basketball in Mark's municipality (RIG Mark), a film circulated during the autumn that shows how several older boys in the student housing attack a newly moved first-year boy and hit him with wet towels.   

At the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF), the operations manager for elite sports, Peter Mattsson, became aware of what had happened towards the end of September at about the same time as the school.   

- I reacted with despair.

This wedging is something that the sport has struggled with for a long time.

To then see that it occurs in a high school and with the seriousness that I perceive in this, it is difficult, he says.  

"Occurs elsewhere in sports as well"

According to Peter Mattsson, there has been no alarm to RF about violations on RIG Mark, apart from the events during the autumn and the report that the Swedish Schools Inspectorate published when sports education was newly started in 2015, which criticized RIG Mark's zeroing culture.   

When something like this happens, where has it broken somewhere?    

- I would probably say that it is the whole chain that is lacking here.

Because even if the ultimate responsibility for the school rests with the principal, we from sports must be aware and humble that this occurs elsewhere in sports as well.  

This is what the principal in charge says about the culture at the basketball high school:

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The principal: "Not my image that a zeroing culture has flourished in all years"

The event, similar to the one at RIG Mark, Peter Mattsson believes can also have far-reaching negative consequences for the willingness to run elite sports educations in the future among the country's municipal and private school actors.  

- If you are a school leader, you probably think twice about whether this is a responsibility you can take on.

Are we as principals really equipped to take responsibility even outside school hours in connection with dormitories?

That question really needs to be thought through.    

Do you think there is a risk of principals withdrawing to be responsible for elite sports high schools?    

- Yes, I think so, I'm completely convinced of that. 

The incident on RIG Mark led to a police report, which was later dropped.

But the municipality, through its children and education administration, has started an investigation that is still ongoing.