James Ruse, North Sydney Boys among selective schools with students in vile online chatroom

Students from Sydney’s top selective schools were found to have been part of the vile Knox Grammar chatroom by an internal investigation that uncovered accounts linked to school emails.

Students from some of Sydney’s most prestigious public schools were members of the vile online chatroom at the centre of the Knox Grammar scandal.

Teenagers from James Ruse Agricultural High School, North Sydney Boys High and two other selective high schools were identified as taking part in the forum, which included rape fantasies, anti Semitic abuse and racist, sexist and homophobic comments.

Students from another top-tier Victorian private school were also on the online chat on the social media platform Discord.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned the students were identified through school email addresses linked to their social media handles.

The scandal, first reported by The Daily Telegraph in late August, saw several Knox students expelled or suspended and sparked investigations by police and the New South Wales Education Standards Authority.

Knox Grammar is at the centre of a chat room scandal.

It has previously been reported that the posts, which sparked widespread community revulsion, were made by 20 Knox students with 74 different handles or online aliases.

But The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that about 20 students from the further schools took part in the forum that stemmed from their playing an online game together.

The students were identified by school-affiliated email addresses through an internal Knox investigation into who was behind the social media handles, according to sources with knowledge of the probe.

Students must pass exams for attendance at the selective schools, which regularly achieve some of the highest HSC results in NSW and are the alma maters of a host of prominent Australians.

North Sydney Boys High School has been named in connection with the chat room that has caused a scandal at Knox Grammar.

While the posts were made by schoolchildren, The Sunday Telegraph has learned that they were not made in school hours but at night and over weekends.

In the wake of the scandal, Knox Principal Scott James wrote to parents that the “nature of these posts is contrary to the values and culture of Knox and is unacceptable”.

“The boys posted inappropriate images and engaged in offensive commentary in an online private chat room,” he said on September 1.

“The actions of these boys do not reflect a Knox education or the expectations that we place on our students to be respectful and responsible citizens in the community.”

Students from James Ruse Agricultural High School have been identified as taking part in a vile online chat group.

Located on the north shore, Knox charges up to $35,000 a year tuition and has a lengthy list of prominent figures from politics, business, sport and entertainment among its alumni.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell earlier said she was “shocked and appalled to learn of the activities within these chat groups”.

“This is far from the behaviour we expect from students in NSW,” she said.

A police investigation into the posts found they did not contain child abuse material.

An Education Department spokesperson said it was aware students from two of the four selective schools were involved.

“The Department has recently been made aware that student emails from two schools were used to access the Discord channel,” a spokesperson said.

“Currently we haven’t been able to identify the students and will be contacting Knox Grammar School for any additional information.”

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