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Adolescents in medico-social institutions who are administratively proven to be “mildly intellectually impaired without behavioural problems” show, in many circumstances, that these attributions are very random. In terms of social dramaturgy, these young people mobilize unsuspected resources on a daily basis to circumvent the stigma, halt the designation process, and avoid the effects of labelling related to their placement. To do so, they carry out in-depth analyses of the social situations they face and use ingenious strategies. The ethnographer in situ allows us to grasp these reflections and behaviours for the protection of social identities. He also makes it possible to envisage educational means of action aimed at implementing a real work of benevolence with the users, to help them to better live their institutional placement and to avoid engaging with them a process of double punishment.