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Help! I don’t want to send my DD to WHS anymore

128 replies

SWMum345 · 19/03/2021 09:10

There was an article in the Mail, Times, Telegraph and Tatler about an open letter written by the ex head girl of WHS about KCS school being a hotbed of sexual violence (there is another thread on this with a link to the letter). We have just accepted a place for DD to start at Wimbledon High School in September but having read this letter and the testimonials I don’t think I can do it. While the focus of the letter is about the behaviour and culture of the boys at KCS most of the experiences are from girls at WHS (or those from WHS who transferred to KCS in 6th form). Just to be clear I am not victim shaming here and I believe that no girl should ever have to endure sexual assault but I have serious misgiving about sending my daughter to a school where so many girls have been victims of sexual assault. The letter claims that “everyone knew” what the KCS girls were like - but if this was the case why did girls from the school continue to go to parties with them? Why did girls from the schools continue to get so drunk they were unconscious in the presence of known sexual predators? Where were their friends when they were being abused - why do so many accounts reference the fact that female friends of the abused (WHS girls) laughed off their stories and implied it was their fault for being too drunk? What were the parents thinking, letting their daughters go to these parties? Why did WHS not intervene if so many girls were being assaulted? So many alarm bells are ringing in my head and I honestly don’t know what to do. Part of the reason I am paying for private school is that I (clearly erroneously) thought it would provide my DD with a better chance of finding friends who were well behaved and whose parents were maybe stricter about what they did and who they were hanging out with. I have a decent state option that thankfully I have held on to (as there were questions around DHs job security in the pandemic). Should I cut my losses with the deposit and just run?

OP posts:
Maverick197 · 19/03/2021 09:21

So you've gone ahead and accepted a state school place and an independent school place knowing that you will most likely not need the state school place? I'm sorry but that is just wrong, there are so many kids who have not been allocated any of their preferred state schools and are desperately waiting for a WL place, while parents who can afford to go private are hanging on to their state school place "just in case"... When were you planning to release the state school place, in September when schools have started your DC was just going to be a no-show and some other kid was going to spend all spring and summer in waitlist purgatory? I know so many kids in my DD's class waiting for WL places to free up, that just really winds me up.

I can't help with your problem regarding sexual violence at your chosen private school, but trust me state secondary schools aren't exactly full of little angels either.

peachgreen · 19/03/2021 09:17

Just to be clear I am not victim shaming here

...and then a long rambling paragraph of victim shaming Hmm

Lightsabre · 19/03/2021 09:16

Sadly you were naive to think that this sort of behaviour only goes on in state schools.