The program is described as the “antidote to the poison of political correctness” and will examine “the most beautifully disturbed and disturbing ideas, all of them presented without trigger warnings.”
Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury, where Yiannopoulos was once a student, is causing another stir after creating the 'unsafe space' forum for sixth-form students. The program is described as the "antidote to the poison of political correctness" and will examine "the most beautifully disturbed and disturbing ideas, all of them presented without trigger warnings."
Simon Langton is an all-boys school until sixth form, when it becomes co-ed. Multiple female students have complained to the Guardian about the 'unsafe space' course.
One girl told the paper that Professor James Soderholm, the director of humanities and teacher in charge of the controversial program, had previously made jokes about the LGBT community by adding extra letters and numbers to the acronym in mockery.
It is understood that Soderholm told pupils that the first session of the course would look at a memo sent out by axed Google employee James Damore. In the memo, Damore claimed that female engineers are inferior and less skilled compared to their male peers.
Comment: Damore did not actually claim that female engineers were inferior or less skilled, but that the gender gap of women in science and technology is related to a differing set of priorities, some of which are biologically based. See the full memo here.
Sarah Cundy, 18, said the teacher told students the forum would highlight the pros and cons of Damore's argument.
"To hear a teacher say there are any pros at all in the argument did make me feel pretty uncomfortable," she said. "I think female and minority students are going to face more issues. I think there will be a rise in sexism, which I would say is already an issue at the school - especially with it being an all-boys school except sixth form."
Another student echoed Cundy's concerns. Connie Kissock, also 18, said she was "worried" by "teachers promoting anti-feminist ideas." Kissock also said while she "definitely support[s] discussing a broad range of ideas in academic environments" she thinks that the invited speakers and lectures organized by Soderholm have "become an attack on what they see as leftist bias. We've had a speaker on women's anti-feminism, we're going to have one on why all cultures aren't equal, implying that non-Western cultures are inferior."
Comment: It's critical that schools begin to expose students to differing opinions, particularly the monstrosity of modern day feminism, and while they still have the opportunity to do so.
Headteacher Matthew Baxter said the Kent school "encourages free speech," defending the course on the grounds that it was designed to help students prepare for university, where pupils will discuss ideas outside of the conventional curriculum.
"These are topics which sixth form students routinely discuss in their own time and ones which they should be able to discuss with adults in a school which encourages 'free speech' in all the highest academic traditions of such a phrase," Baxter said. "This does not mean that inappropriate language is permitted - as this is checked and modelled when students are much younger."
In 2016, the school cancelled their lecture with Yiannopoulos after significant backlash from the public. The school was also contacted by the Department of Education's (DfE) counter-terrorism unit in relation to the talk. The school said the talk had been cancelled due to safety concerns.
"The decision was taken following contact from the DfE counter-extremism unit, the threat of demonstrations at the school by organised groups and members of the public, and our overall concerns for the security of the school site and the safety of our community," a school spokesman told the Press Association in 2016.
"We note that, within 24 hours of advertising the event, 220 Langton sixth-formers had, with parental consent, signed up for the event and that objection to our hosting Mr Yiannopoulos came almost entirely from people with no direct connection to the Langton. The staff and students of the school were overwhelmingly in favor.
"While disappointed that both the pastoral care and intellectual preparation we offer to our students has been called into question, we at the Langton remain committed to the principle of free speech and open debate and will resist, where possible, all forms of censorship."
Comment: No wonder this school produced Milo!