Harry academy alarming tweet

[whaz]

Harris academy has tweeted along the lines of the following

Particularly at this time of year female students should not be walking alone to or from school. They especially mention mornings. Ending the tweet with a be safe message.

What on earth are they going on about have girls been attacked?

Why would such a tweet be sent?

Does anyone know?

Is it unsafe for females to be walking to or from school at a particular time of the year or has some real and awful risk occurred?

I hate a pet hate of communicates that scaremonger without proving useful advice.

Two of my children’s schools have put out such communications. They only did it once because I contacted them and since then they have been more measured, more specific and much more practical.

Just checking - is this an all-girls school, or with split girls / boys campuses? Otherwise I can't see any justification for this.

I cam on to say that mugging rates are much higher for teenage boys, but others have beaten me to it. If there are also boys at this school, the message, statistically, should be directed to them. Unlesss teenage boys glow in the dark or something and I've missed seeing it.

It's mixed. It's probably in relation to it being specifically school girls on their way to and from school being targetted by the sex attacker in the Telegraph article. The advice they've given isn't very useful though. I've seen other schools advise people to if possible travel with others and choose busy roads rather than quiet ones.

I have just rec'd an email from school regarding an attack on a school child at 7.45am yesterday in Eltham. They quoted their letter from the police: "The suspect is described as a white male, approximately 50 years of age, light blonde hair, quite tall, wearing a grey jacket and a hat. The description is similar to the suspect from the linked series of sexual assaults currently being investigated. CCTV is currently being checked in the area and house to house enquiries are being made to try and trace any witnesses. Officers have been tasked to increase patrols in the area. CID at Greenwich and Lewisham are aware of this latest incident as part of our joint investigation strategy.

A month ago I spoke to a local policeman on the street who confirmed there had been many recent incidents in the Lewisham/Greenwhich area and as far out as Beckenham and Chislehurst/Petts Wood. He told me they were looking for two men - one white, blond and the other ethnic (this one was flashing at school children in wooded areas).

Harris should have emailed a letter to parents. Whaz, I would suggest you phone Harris and tell them to email a letter and to also speak to their students in assembly if they have not already done so.

What I would take from that Tweet is that over the last two months there have been attacks on girls / young women, in the mornings.

And I would think that until
The attacker is caught girls walking in pairs or groups will be less of a target for this particular attacker than those who are alone.

And I would ensure my Dd made such arrangements wherever possible.

We received similarly cryptic text messages from our DC's primary school back in the summer term. I contacted the school and asked them to be more specific about the sort of vigilance they were encouraging. Subsequent messages have been a bit clearer.

I imagine the reason Harris Academy's tweet only mentioned girls is because it's girls (mostly aged 11-13) who have been assaulted in this series of attacks. The majority of attacks have taken place against girls on their way to school in the Lewisham and Greenwich area.

The MET Police appeal is here:
news.met.police.uk/news/appeal-following-linked-sexual-assaults-272535