Ridge Creek School/HLA has been caught by DHS allowing kids to restrain other kids. This is a very, very serious violation of the law and was detailed in a DHS report.
This may explain all of the violence at RCS. The inmates seem to be just enforcing their own rules, like in most prison cultures:
...(t)wo other residents
restrained Resident #3 "followed by Staff D". The report states that "outside of the dorm,
Resident #1 was hit several times in the face; his/her right eye was swollen the next day.
Interview conducted on 1/26/2010 at 5:30 pm with Staff A revealed that he/she acknowledges that
"students were involved in the behavior managment of other students"...
RCS looks like any other prison facility - the inmates have rules that they enforce while the guards looks the other way.