Top £20,000-a-year London private school has a ‘rape culture’, say pupils

Pupils at a top private school have claimed it has a ‘rape culture’ after detailing allegations of sexual abuse and harassment, it was revealed yesterday.

Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, has contacted pupils and alumni to offer support after youngsters reported a ‘toxic environment’ within the £20,000-a-year co-educational school.

Headteacher David Goodhew said he was ‘troubled’ by the anonymous allegations made online, which included claims female students had been assaulted by their male counterparts and coerced into sex acts.

The website and social media campaign Everyone’s Invited has received hundreds of anonymous claims of sexual abuse involving pupils from some of Britain’s leading private schools, also including Eton and St Paul’s Boys School in Barnes, south-west London.

Pupils at Latymer said it had a ‘serious and ongoing problem’. A second website has since been set up to demand the school tackles its alleged ‘rape culture’.

The school, where alumni include actor Hugh Grant and model Lily Cole, said it had alerted parents and the local council’s child safeguarding officer to the allegations.

One shocking account claimed some ‘rich, white, privileged boys’ at the school were ‘predators’ who forced girls into performing sex acts.

Girls alleged boys made ‘sexual comments’ to them in the classroom, compared nude photographs of them and ranked them based on their faces and bodies.

Pupils said they were bullied and sexually harassed during lessons and that teachers had ignored the behaviour.

Parents who complained to the school were also ignored, according to some of the accounts on the Everyone’s Invited website.

One anonymous pupil said they had been repeatedly sexually harassed in a classroom by a boy, saying: ‘The teacher could also see this happening every lesson and the other boys laughing and chose to ignore it.’

In a statement, Latymer said: ‘Our policies around safeguarding and anti-bullying stress a zero tolerance approach to behaviours that foster the prevalence of misogyny, sexism, harassment, abuse and assault. 

‘All staff at the school undergo regular safeguarding training, including a unit on Sexual Violence and Harassment between Children and Young People.

‘When an allegation is reported to us, we follow the appropriate processes, including referral to and involvement with outside agencies and the police if appropriate, and work with our young people to ensure they feel empowered and supported. 

‘If an allegation were to involve a member of staff, we would always follow our safeguarding procedure which requires us to take any disclosure extremely seriously, notify the LADO and carry out a thorough investigation.

‘We take all such issues very seriously and have encouraged anyone affected to come and talk to us directly.

‘The welfare of our students and alumni is of the utmost importance to us and we will be listening carefully to our students and alumni and reflecting on what further steps we should take.’

Condemning the actions described, St Paul’s Boys School said it had also reported the website allegations to its local council’s safeguarding team.

Eton said it took any allegations ‘extremely seriously’, would investigate thoroughly and take appropriate disciplinary action.