Eton College apologises after boys 'hurl racist and sexist slurs' at girls visiting from state school
19 November 2022, 08:07 | Updated: 19 November 2022, 15:41
Eton College has said sorry after claims that several of its students subjected girls visiting from a state school to racial and misogynistic slurs.
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The £40,000 a year school said the boys in question had been "sanctioned" for the alleged offences, which took place during a speech by former Ukip leader and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.
School leaders told the BBC that they apologised "unreservedly" for the "totally unacceptable" incident.
It comes after someone who said they were a parent of one of the girls who went to the event last week made anonymous claims on social media that they were subjected to abuse and booing from the boys.
Many prominent men in British society were educated at the elite all-boys boarding school, including Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as 20 former Prime Ministers, such as Boris Johnson and David Cameron.
But this is not the first controversy to have beset Eton in recent years.
Former teacher Matthew Mowbray was jailed for five years in December 2020 and banned from teaching for life after being found guilty of eight counts of sexual activity with a child.
Earlier that year the school sacked one its teachers in 2020 amid a free speech row, despite hundreds of pupils demand his reinstatement.
A controversial lecture landed Will Knowland in hot water and eventually led to the school removing him from post.
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The English teacher was found guilty of gross misconduct after posting lecture online which allegedly broke the Equalities Act - something which he denied.
He refused to remove the video, which had over 28,000 views, after being asked several times.
