Police offer to teach privately educated male pupils about consent
THE senior police officer overseeing claims of a rape culture in education has offered to send officers into private schools to teach boys about consent, with a warning that abuse allegations will be fully investigated.
The Metropolitan Police said yesterday it has received multiple reports of offences after reviewing a website which published dozens of distressing accounts by girls of the harassment, abuse and assault they face from male pupils. Scotland Yard said it has reviewed testimonies on the Everyone’s Invited site, where people can anonymously share experiences of abuse.
It said officers have been establishing whether any potential victims in London could be encouraged to report crimes, with several people already coming forward. A link is also now available on the website to directly report crimes to Scotland Yard.
Allegations from schools around the country will also be investigated, with the National Police Chiefs Council saying it will work urgently with Everyone’s Invited to tackle the problem of “peer-on-peer abuse”.
Detective Superintendent Mel Laremore, the Met’s lead for rape and sexual offences, said she wants the Safer Schools Partnership, in which local forces work with schools on issues of crime and safety, extended to feepaying institutions.
She said: “There isn’t a Safe Schools network within the private schools and actually we have already started in the last week to reach out to those private schools, and offer that Safe Schools input to them, so that we can raise education awareness and signpost how to report and how to seek help if peoples have been victims of sexual violence.”
Det Supt Laremore told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it’s more widespread than private schools.
“I think we’re still looking into the exact scope of how wide this is spread but certainly I know there’s already over 100 schools cited on the website which do reach out to national parameters.”
The Everyone’s Invited team is now involved in a series of discussions with police and other bodies about the allegations published by its website, detailing accounts of harassment, abuse, assault and misogyny by state and private school pupils.
Soma Sara, 22, a former private schoolgirl and sexual abuse survivor who last year set up Everyone’s Invited as a platform for claims of sexual harassment, told The Sunday Telegraph: “We have already had some positive conversations with the police and we want to continue working closely with them.”
Det Supt Laremore added: “It is deeply concerning to see the number of accounts published on this website, many of which appear to relate to previous or current experiences within educational settings in London and across the country.”
A number of top independent schools have been accused of failing to deal with complaints about a rape culture.
Eton College, Westminster, Dulwich College, St Paul’s School and Latymer Upper School have been identified in unverified accounts published online.
The schools have said they take such allegations “very seriously” and “will investigate fully any specific allegations”.