Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was supposed to host a lecture at his former school, The Langton Grammar School for Boys, however, it has been cancelled due to “safety concerns” after the school was contacted by the Department for Education’s (DfE) “counter-extremism unit”.
CREDIT: LeWeb14 / FlickrMilo Yiannopoulos, the self-proclaimed, super villain of the internet has had a scheduled talk cancelled after the school was contacted by the Department for Education’s (DfE) “counter-extremism unit” after concerns about safety were called into question.
Around 220 students had signed up to hear Milo speak. A spokesperson for the school noted that, “the staff and students of the school were overwhelmingly in favour”, of Milo’s visit.
Concerns for the security of the school site and the school’s community were raised after activists planned to demonstrate during the event.
The school’s spokesperson said,
“This 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.
“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 Yiannopoulos came almost entirely from people with no direct connection to The Langton. The staff and students of the school were overwhelmingly in favour.
“Whilst 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.”
Writing on his Facebook page on Monday, Milo said,
“My old high school has been bullied into canceling my talk on Tuesday by the “counter-extremism” unit at the U.K. Department of Education.
Who even knew the DoE had a counter-extremism unit? And that it wasn’t set up to combat terrorism but rather to punish gays with the wrong opinions? Perhaps if I’d called the speech “MUSLIMS ARE AWESOME!” they’d have left us alone. Disgusted.
The school should have continued with their plan and let the police deal with the handringing, lefty loons protesting!