Loughborough Grammar School racist bullying allegations investigated

Loughborough Grammar School is one of the oldest independent schools in the country

Reports a pupil suffered five years of "harrowing" racist abuse at a private school are being investigated by police after they appeared on social media.

The alleged victim claimed he was smeared with semen and urine and called racist names while at Loughborough Grammar School.

The Leicestershire school offered an "unreserved apology" to any pupil who had suffered racism.

It added it was "deeply upsetting" and said the school strove for better.

'Living nightmare'

The allegations first appeared publicly when a Twitter user shared an open letter from someone who said they had been a pupil at the school.

It has since been retweeted about 2,000 times.

The anonymous author of the letter said he had been "irreparably changed by the relentless efforts of some boys to make every day of [school] a living, waking nightmare".

He said he was called racist names, would be "belittled at every opportunity" and treated as "less than human".

He added: "I was hit with a cricket bat, constantly slapped and punched... and all manner of bodily fluids were wiped or applied on me at some point."

The Twitter user who shared the letter said: "[This is] genuinely one of [the] most harrowing things I've read in a long time."

He said the kind of behaviour described was "all too common" with perpetrators "progressing through society and never facing consequences".

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A petition, calling on the school to investigate "properly", to apologise and to speak to the universities of the alleged abusers, has been signed by about 600 former and current pupils.

The school said it had reported the matter to the police.

Along with others in the Loughborough Schools Foundation, it released a statement saying: "There are no excuses. Racism has no place in this foundation.

"We are sorry that we have fallen short of our aims and strive for better.

"We will now work with the police, as well as examining our own internal procedures to ensure pupils feel safe, respected and valued at our schools."

Leicestershire Police confirmed they had received a report on Tuesday of racist abuse at a school over a number of years and officers were making inquiries.

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