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Elite London school reports pupils to police amid ‘rape culture’ allegations
Detailed view of a club badge of Dulwich College on a blazer

A PLANNED protest against “rape culture” at south London’s elite Dulwich College was cancelled today after students were threatened with disciplinary action and a police fine.

The action was planned after the private school said it had reported multiple students accused of sex offences to the police.

The march was organised by several schools and advertised as “a demonstration against the predatory culture of Dulwich College and the school management [which] condones it.”

But the school’s head Dr Joe Spence had warned students that if they went ahead with the protest, they could face fines for breaching Covid-19 regulations. 

The Guardian quoted an organiser as saying he was bitterly disappointed that the action had been cancelled.

In a letter to parents, Dr Spence said that a number of students had been reported to police following an outpouring of allegations levelled against Dulwich pupils and other private schools.

“A small number of people have come forward naming their abusers and in these cases Dulwich College has either disciplined those pupils or, where there has been an allegation of criminal behaviour, passed the case on to the police,” the letter reportedly reads. 

It comes after an open letter was published on Sunday by former pupil Samuel Schulenburg, 19, who branded the elite school “a breeding ground for sexual predators.”

It included 250 anonymous stories from neighbouring girls’ schools alleging sexual abuse and assualt by Dulwich boys. Allegations claimed the school had an “established rape culture.” 

Pupils have also walked out this week at Highgate School in north London following the publication of accounts of abuse there. Public accusations of sexual violence by fellow pupils have also been reported at Westminster, Latymer Upper, King’s College and London Oratory. 

England’s new children’s commissioner Rachel de Souza said the accusations were “really distressing.”

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