Max Original three-part docuseries QUIET IN CLASS, debuting Monday, September 29, explores the Swedish private school that failed the children and includes shocking revelations about the scandal in Karlstad, Sweden.
More than 150 schoolchildren were abused by their own youth leader. The pedophile scandal at the Internationella Engelska Skolan (International English School) in Karlstad is the largest of its kind in Sweden to date and shocked the entire country when it came to light. In the new Max Original documentary series QUIET IN CLASS, new information is revealed about how the school, despite repeated warnings, allowed the youth leader to remain in his position, thereby enabling him to continue the abuse for eight years. Hear directly from the students themselves, as well as key figures in the scandal, who recount the unlikely and shocking story of betrayal, blackmail, and an adult world that failed to protect the children. Quiet in Class will have its exclusive premiere on HBO Max on Monday, September 29.
“This story is deeply disturbing, and I cannot put into words how grateful we are for the courage of the victims who chose to take part,” says executive producer Karin Moreno. “What these young girls have been subjected to is horrific, and the fact that the adult world did not listen or take them seriously makes it even more painful. We can only hope that their stories spark reflection on both responsibility and change.”
When the youth leader at the International English School in Karlstad was arrested in 2023, it soon became clear that his abuse had affected hundreds of children – and that it had been going on for a long time. Over eight years, he secretly filmed and photographed children at the school, material he then turned into child pornography and distributed online. In the documentary series QUIET IN CLASS, we hear from the victims and their families about how they repeatedly warned the school about the man’s disturbing and inappropriate behavior – first as early as 2017, six years before he was finally arrested. We also hear from investigating police officers, experts, and the lawyers who represented more than 150 of the victims during the 2024 trial.
Despite the warnings, the youth leader was allowed to keep working at the school, which enabled him to continue secretly photographing minors. After his arrest and conviction for aggravated child pornography offenses, the school leadership has consistently claimed – despite at least seven separate warnings from 2017 onward – that they never received information about the man’s behavior and could not have acted differently. When the scandal erupted, the school hired an external crisis manager to review the case. In QUIET IN CLASS, we hear him explain how he immediately sensed that something was wrong, and how his critical report was never made public.
The documentary series also recounts the unlikely story of how one of the warnings came from another pedophile. This man, an entrepreneur from another city, first warned both the local newspaper and the school about the youth leader. But when his warnings led nowhere, he contacted the youth leader directly. We hear the entrepreneur himself describe how everything then spiraled into a web of blackmail, collaboration, and new abuses.
QUIET IN CLASS is a three-part Max Original documentary, all episodes premiering exclusively on Monday, September 29 on HBO Max. Executive producer for HBO Max is Karin Moreno, and QUIET IN CLASS is produced by Alaska Film & TV. Producer is Stefan Stridh, with Fredrik Öjes as editor.
