Schoolboy, 15, is expelled from £44,000-a-year Abingdon School
Schoolboy, 15, is expelled from £44,000-a-year Abingdon School over ‘offensive jokes’ after sending picture of Nazis to Jewish pupil on Snapchat, posting ‘rape threat’ video on TikTok and mocking Black Lives Matter
- Pupil from a top Oxfordshire boarding school sent ‘highly-offensive’ messages
- He made rape threat he later claimed was joke on TikTok and fat shamed women
- Boy admitted to making the content and it was confirmed he has been expelled
- Reports suggest parents considering taking action to have decision overturned
A pupil has been expelled from the £44,000-a-year Abingdon School after sending an image of Nazis to his Jewish classmate, making rape threats on TikTok and posting a video mocking the Black Lives Matter movement.
Documents and emails from the independent Oxfordshire school detail the extent of several ‘highly-offensive’ jokes the boy, 15, made via Snapchat and TikTok.
It is understood the pupil, who is studying for his GCSE exams at the all-boys school, has admitted to sending the controversial messages and apologised.
Despite this, Abingdon School confirmed to MailOnline that he has been expelled.
The teenager, who has not been named, sent a photograph of three people dressed as Nazi soldiers with the caption ‘Happy Birthday’ to a Jewish student on Snapchat.
He also made a rape threat he later claimed was a joke in a video on TikTok.
Separately, the pupil posted three videos on the app mocking the Black Lives Matter movement and fat-shaming women.
A pupil is facing expulsion from the £44,000-a-year Abingdon School (seen above) after sending ‘highly-offensive’ images to his classmates
Staff were alerted to the situation by students at a neighbouring school who were ‘so disturbed’ they decided to complain to their deputy headmaster.
But the parents of the Abingdon student are now said to be thinking up a number of actions to prevent their son’s exclusion from the top private school.
They are reportedly considering installing a billboard in front of the main building’s entrance demanding ‘justice’ for him.
Headmaster Michael Windsor said he cannot comment on individual cases but he pointed out that permanent exclusion is ‘rare’.
He added: ‘It is never a decision that we take lightly or willingly.
‘It will only occur after a comprehensive investigation has been conducted and it will follow the rigorous processes and procedures that we have in place.
‘The school has a very clear policy on discipline and behaviour of which all the students and their families are aware.
‘There is a copy of the policy on the website and students are frequently reminded of the high standards expected of them.
‘The school will look to support excluded students and their families at what is a very difficult time.
Headmaster Michael Windsor (above) said he cannot comment on individual cases but he pointed out that permanent exclusion is ‘rare’
‘We hope that students are able to learn from the incident and that a move to a new environment will help them to make a fresh start.’
One student who saw the messages said: ‘I was particularly concerned about the video making reference to rape, which I believe has now been removed due to community guidelines.’
The pupil was making reference to a shared video of a woman who removes a balaclava and asks ‘what would you do if I burgled your house?’.
He then attached a video of himself, apparently carrying a gun of some kind, saying ‘I would rape you’ in response.
The schoolboy was interviewed by the ‘deputy head pastoral’ at Abingdon as part of a panel hearing held earlier this month to decide his fate at the elite educational institution.
A report from this hearing stated: ‘He declined to provide any detail about the videos and repeated his view that he thought the videos were jokes.
‘He confirmed that a number of the videos had been taken down by the TikTok platform and that he had removed the other videos after they had been online for a few days.
‘He also mentioned that he had received some online abuse known as trolling in response to the videos he had posted.’
Even though the 15-year-old admitted that he made the shocking videos, reports suggest his parents argue that a school has no right to invade a child’s life on social media.
Abingdon School: Elite institution dates back to 1256 with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke among its alumni
Abingdon School, in Oxfordshire, is the twentieth oldest independent school in Britain.
It dates back to 1256, when the earliest surviving reference to the school was found, but some believe it may have been established prior to the 12th century by the Benedictine monks of Abingdon Abbey.
The school previously claimed it was founded by English mercer John Roysse in 1563.
This led to an unusual circumstance in which the school celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1963, then its 750th in 2006.
Abingdon currently has around 1,040 pupils aged 11–18, of whom 135 are boarders.
Notable alumni, or Old Abingdonians, include writer and art critic Anthony Fawcett, actor Tom Hollander and musicians Andy and Thom Yorke.
They are now said to be considering writing to all the owners of the prestigious school, starting an online petition to remove the headmaster from the school and launching legal action to overturn the panel’s decision.
The school has offered to support the pupil over the coming months with his GCSE exams.
The ‘highly-offensive’ messages are the latest controversy to rock Abingdon School after it was named on website Everyone’s Invited, which has collated more than 12,000 testimonies about ‘rape culture’ in British schools.
Allegations uploaded anonymously to the confessions site claimed several victims had been ‘sexually assaulted, harassed or objectified’ by Abingdon boys.
One testimony, seen by the Oxford Mail, said: ‘I dated a boy in the year above me from there [Abingdon School] when I was 16 and felt manipulated and coerced into doing a majority of things with him.
‘He pressured me into having sex in the back of his car in a public car park which, after a lot of fighting back, I was able to argue my way out of.’
Mr Windsor insisted earlier this month that Abingdon promotes a ‘culture of mutual respect,’ adding that the allegations will be investigated.
He added: ‘Abingdon School promotes a culture of mutual respect and equality and we celebrate diversity.
‘We foster strong messages of respect throughout our everyday school lives, through our PSHCE course, assemblies, chapel talks, lectures and discussions.
‘As headmaster, I addressed the school in a recent assembly in which I focused on sexual harassment and our mutual responsibility to call out poor behaviour.’
Abingdon is far from the only top private school to be dragged into the pupil sex abuse row following a raft of allegations of rape, assault and harassment.
One in ten of the country’s grammars have been named on Everyone’s Invited.
One girl said she had been raped by a pupil from Dr Challoner’s Grammar School for boys in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, at an 18th birthday party.
Pupils staged a protest against rape culture at Highgate School in London on March 25
A sign reading ‘Educate Your Sons’ is attached to a gate outside James Allen’s School. The school was protesting rape culture at nearby Dulwich College Boys School
She said: ‘It happened at the back of the garden and another boy saw it happening yet did nothing to help and just laughed. This was over three years ago and it’s still something I think about.’
In another example, a 14-year-old girl said she had been raped by an 18-year-old pupil at Cranbrook School, Kent, during a party when she was ‘blacked out’ from drinking too much.
She said: ‘I woke up unconscious in a corridor of the party having lost my shoes, my pants and my bra, having a hazy recollection of what had happened. When I went into school the next day I was labelled a slut.’
Following the testimonials, the Government ordered Ofsted to launch an immediate probe into the alleged rape culture in British schools.
A dedicated helpline for those who have experienced sexual harassment or abuse at school was also commissioned by the Department for Education.
Report Abuse in Education, created in collaboration with the NSPCC, provides support and advice to victims of abuse and harassment.
Ofsted will consider safeguarding policies in state and independent schools and ensure there are appropriate systems in place to allow pupils to report their concerns.
Soma Sara, founder of the Everyone’s Invited website, said the team were ‘proud to have started a crucial conversation’
‘The extent and the severity of the issue’ will also be looked into, the Department for Education said.
Gavin Williamson has branded the reported assaults ‘shocking and abhorrent’ and indicated any schools implicated could face Government measures.
‘Sexual abuse in any form is abhorrent and it is vital that these allegations are dealt with properly,’ he said.
‘While the majority of schools take their safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously, I am determined to make sure the right resources and processes are in place across the education system to support any victims of abuse to come forward.
‘This Government is committed to ensuring victims feel supported to refer the most serious allegations to the police via the helpline, safe in the knowledge that everything possible will be done to bring offenders to justice.
‘No child or young person should have to experience abuse.
‘But if something isn’t right, they should speak to someone they trust to raise concerns, whether that’s family, a friend, teacher or social worker, helpline or the police.’
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