Former students at Eton college have written an open letter in support of the school’s headteacher after he came under fire following the dismissal of an English teacher over a controversial video about patriarchy, masculinity and gender roles.
The teacher, Will Knowland, is due to appeal against his dismissal at a hearing on Tuesday.
The issue has divided opinion, with some believing the school’s headteacher is attempting to modernise and overhaul values at the exclusive Berkshire school, while others claim free speech has been impinged.
Last week more than 2,500 signatures including those of current and former students were gathered for a petition calling for Knowland’s reinstatement and in support of “freedom of thought and expression” at the school.
This week, a separate group of Old Etonians has mobilised in support of the headteacher, Simon Henderson, publishing an open letter that supports Knowland’s dismissal and takes issue with the video, describing the content as “intellectually feeble, misogynistic and vitriolic”.
Knowland was dismissed after being accused of gross misconduct for allegedly refusing to remove the video from his personal YouTube channel. Titled The Patriarchy Complex, the video was a lecture due to be shown as part of the school’s Perspectives course, taken by older students to encourage critical thinking.
Knowland told the Daily Telegraph it was intended to make students aware “of a different point of view to the current radical feminist orthodoxy, which insists that there’s something fundamentally toxic about masculinity”, but it was never shown to students following a complaint from a colleague.
While the video was removed from the school’s intranet, Knowland allegedly refused to take it down from his YouTube channel.
The latest open letter from former students states: “As Old Etonians who value both free speech and gender equality, we were appalled by the intellectually feeble, misogynistic and vitriolic nature of the content. Mr Knowland’s defenders are misleadingly invoking freedom of expression. They claim ‘woke’ culture is to blame at the school and in society at large. They say that the school is trying to indoctrinate its pupils by shutting down alternative viewpoints and critical thinking.
“The reality is quite the opposite … The school is defending the importance of substantiated debate in an educational setting that abides by professional and legal guidelines.”
The letter takes issue with numerous statements in the video including a section on rape in which Knowland says “male-on-male rape in jails dwarfs male-on-female rape outside them”, and references to what is portrayed as women’s attraction to male-on-male violence and men’s role as the natural protectors of women.
One of the organisers of the letter, Jasmeet Sahotay, who left Eton in 2011, said: “We know that most Old Etonians of our generation strongly support the removal of this master, and condemn the contents of his lecture. Spreading demonstrable falsehoods to teenagers isn’t an exercise in free speech, it’s an abuse of his responsibility as a teacher.”
Thomas Oliver added: “As a gay OE [Old Etonian] my concern is that Knowland’s lecture offers no critical engagement with what it means to be masculine – to procreate? To fight and die? His one nod to gay men wearing rainbow laces was crass and pejorative and left me reeling at the lack of inclusion.”
The appeal hearing will be chaired by Eton’s vice-provost, Dr Andrew Gailey, the former housemaster to Princes William and Harry.
