Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle, London, Eton College, Dulwich College, Latymer Upper School, Westminster School … the time has come for prestigious British schools, both private and public, to be held accountable for the numerous sexual assaults that have taken place. ‘take place there, writes the daily The Guardian, Saturday March 27.
After the publication of more than 5,800 testimonies of abuse, harassment and sexual assault on the Everyone’s Invited website and an open letter in the Sunday Times who denounce a “Rape culture” within these schools, the London police announced on Saturday the opening of an investigation.
Launched in June 2020 by Soma Sara, a 22-year-old student at University College London who was sexually assaulted, Everyone’s Invited allows young Britons to anonymously share the assaults they have suffered, mainly throughout their schooling. The site tells of the hands slipped under the skirts, the young girls drugged at parties, the massive sharing of nude photos, the rapes, the sexual assaults and stories of “Revenge porn” happened to very young adolescents, mostly girls.
The Everyone’s Invited Instagram account now has 33,000 subscribers and has seen testimony pouring in since the murder of Sarah Everard, killed by a police officer on her way home, revived the debate on violence against women. “These stories are not limited to one population group or region, they are everywhere. A girl in Australia has just started a similar project and the testimonials are very similar; girls now share the same stories in america about rape culture ”, she explained to the Times, in mid-March.
London Police said in a statement on Friday evening that they had “Examined the content” of the site for ” to encourage “ any potential victim to file a complaint and that they had “Consequently received a number of complaints regarding specific offenses”.
Offer victims “specialized support”
“We welcome any initiative that encourages victims of a sexual offense to speak out and seek support”, said Commissioner Mel Laremore, investigating rape and sexual offenses, and “We take accusations of sexual assault very seriously”. “The number of testimonials published on this site is deeply worrying”, she said, adding that most of the facts related, “Past or present”, had taken place in “Schools in London and across the country”.
Police said they contacted schools identified to offer victims of sexual assault “Specialized support”. She also got in touch with Soma Sara, in order to propose the insertion of a link allowing contributors to contact the police directly.
The pressure has mounted on schools, which are criticized for their passivity in the face of the climate reigning within their walls. Mentioned several times on Everyone’s Invited, Highgate School, a private school in north London, announced in a press release on Friday that it was launching an independent investigation. “Deeply shocked and horrified by these revelations”, the establishment promised that the voices of the victims would be “Heard”.
Others, like Dulwich College, prefer to look away: a rally organized by pupils to protest against ‘rape culture’ has been called off after threats of disciplinary action by the school and a fine by the police .
