Wikipedia:Abingdon School controversies

In recent years there have been several notable controversies relating to students and staff at Abingdon School, an independent boys' boarding school in Oxfordshire.

Student misconduct
In 1995, the school received publicity in the national news after three pupils were charged with an armed hold-up in a local off-licence. It was also reported that the event took place in Unwins and two of the accused were aged 16 and the third, 15.

A 15-year-old student was expelled in 2021 for posting offensive content on social media that included rape threats, an antisemitic meme, and mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement. The incident received international press coverage.

Sexual abuse
Abingdon School attracted unwanted attention in the press in May 1999, when the boarding house matron Christine Barrington was asked to step down after a sexual relationship with a student came to light.

In 2016, Richard Whalley, a music teacher at Abingdon from 2000 until 2014, was condemned by a professional association for conducting a sexual relationship with a student between 2000 and 2002. As reported by the BBC, the teacher's behaviour was described as "targeted grooming of a young man attempting to come to terms with his sexuality".

Later the same year, Abingdon School was reported to be among the most frequently cited schools in Oxfordshire on Everyone's Invited, a website hosting accounts of alleged sexual abuse.