Abingdon schoolboy expelled after allegedly sending antisemitic image to Jewish student

A fifteen-year-old Abingdon schoolboy has been expelled after allegedly sending an antisemitic image to a Jewish student from the same school.

The image, sent through the social media app Snapchat, was said to have depicted three people dressed as Nazis soldiers.

The teenager also allegedly created a video on Tik Tok, another social media app, in which he was said to have joked about raping a woman from a different Tik Tok video.  

The Headmaster of the prestigious Oxfordshire boarding school, Michael Windsor, said that the videos were “grossly racist and sexist”. He added: “These incidents do not just contravene our Behaviour, Rewards and Sanctions Policy but they go completely against the ethos and culture of the school based on courtesy, kindness and respect.”

The schoolboy has issued a response, stating: “I am deeply sorry and regretful of my stupid actions. I deeply regret my actions and I understand that people could get offended by them very easily but I had no intention of offending or hurting someone’s feelings. In the small amount of time I have had to think about my disgraceful actions, I can certainly confirm that not a single thing I said was intended with harm or to offend anyone. I understand now that it would and I regret posting those things, it was a lack of judgment before when posting, and I did not think about all the people that would see my profile. I am deeply sorry and I promise that this will not happen again.”

However, the boy’s parents defended their son, arguing that social media is not real life and therefore that the punishment should not be too severe, claiming that the videos were “just jokes”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms.