AP- About 340 current and former students have complained to a Kansas military school, saying they were beaten, hazed, harassed or abused over the past five years.

Twenty-one said they were branded.

The numbers surfaced last week in the latest documents filed in a federal lawsuit brought by 11 former cadets and their families against St. John’s Military School.

The document makes public for the first time the extent of abuse that the plaintiffs claim is part of the culture at the Salina boarding school.

The school says the number reflects its concern for student safety because it investigates and records every complaint, no matter how minor.

School president Andy England also said in an email to The Associated Press that some students see branding as “a badge of honor.”