Italia Conti sorry for ‘offensive’ comments
THE Italia Conti stage school has apologised after a series of social media posts “caused offence” to students.
It is understood a staff member at the London performing arts institution questioned whether transgender people should be referred to by their new pronouns and criticised migrants crossing the Channel in posts on Twitter.
The comments provoked a fierce backlash from students at the school, with some saying the posts were xenophobic, transphobic and homophobic.
Italia Conti has now issued a statement saying it was “deeply sorry” for any offence caused, and disclosed that an urgent meeting of the board of governors was held to discuss next steps.
“Italia Conti has been made aware of some posts on social media which have caused offence,” the statement reads. “We are deeply sorry to all those who have been affected. We would like to thank those who brought this to light, and would like to reassure all staff, students and our alumnx [sic] that behav
‘Behaviour which is contrary to our commitment to diversity and inclusion will not be tolerated’
iour which is contrary to our commitment to diversity and inclusion will not be tolerated.”
The term ‘alumnx’ is used by the school to indicate it does not assume its pupils are either male or female, but could identify as another gender.
Italia Conti also set up an email address to which people can send any concerns.
It is not clear whether the employee who prompted the backlash still works at the school. Their social media comments included one on a news article reporting that Sir Keir Starmer had said some women have penises. They wrote: “Goodness, has he told his wife?”
In another post, discussing migrants, they said: “How much longer can we put up with this?”
A further comment, which addressed protests by Muslims against the screening of the film The Lady of Heaven: “We’ve had multiculturalism drummed into us so much it’s made us fearful of protest against these religious threats.”
Italia Conti, whose former pupils include Noel Coward, Leslie Ash and Martine McCutcheon, was contacted for comment.