Don’t blame private schools for failing to tackle ‘rape culture’

The allegations levelled against some of Britain’s top private schools have been deeply troubling. Dulwich College turns boys into sexual abusers, one former pupil has claimed. A ‘dossier of rape culture’ has been compiled by ex students at Westminster School; Latymer Upper School has reported sex abuse allegations to the police. These are just a handful of examples: Everyone’s Invited – an online campaign which invites young people to post anonymous testimonies of sexual assault and harassment – has over 4100 testimonies from girls as young as nine.

For teachers like me who have taught sex education to 14 and 15 year old boys, these allegations are shocking but perhaps not surprising. Sex education has improved enormously since I was at school, when it was pretty much the equivalent of Coach Carr’s warning: ‘Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant… get chlamydia… and die. Now everyone take some rubbers.’ Conversations around issues such as consent are now commonplace.