Male students at an independent school in Queensland have become the latest perpetrators to be exposed for producing and sharing a list of “unrapeable” students on social media.
The “vile and offensive” list was allegedly compiled by a group of six male students at Mueller College, a non-denominational Christian, co-ed school in Moreton Bay, north of Brisbane.
First reported by The Courier-Mail, the list contained the names of eight senior students who were dehumanised as “unrapeable”, including students with learning disabilities and special needs.
Queensland Police are still investigating the case.
Last week, the head of college Paul Valese sent a letter to parents of the school, assuring them that his administration had taken “immediate steps to remove students who either authored the content or subsequently shared it.”
“A strong conviction in protecting our young people drives my firm decisions,” the letter read. “These students are no longer part of the Mueller community, with their final day as a student on campus being the day we received the report. I am grieved for our amazing Year 12 students who want to celebrate their 13 years of schooling in a positive way with their friends.”
He added that he stood by his decision to “immediately remove [the students responsible for the list] from the community.”
The parents of a male student who has been expelled has since spoken out and accused the school of wrongly punishing their child for being a “whistleblower”.
Lori Glover and her husband Chris told The Sunday-Mail that their 17-year-old son had taken a screenshot of the list when he received it from another student. He then sent the image in a private groupchat, only to be expelled.
“It would have been acceptable for the school to say, ‘hey mate, we’re pleased you’ve come to us, but sharing the list in a group chat is a clunky way to go about it’,” Lori Glover said.
“Instead, he’s been expelled for being a whistleblower.”
Chris Glover said his son “has basically been put in the same category as the students who wrote the list and this is what infuriates us”.
In the past year alone, several private schools across Australia have been embroiled in misogynistic “lists” created by male students.
In May, students at three different schools in Victoria were exposed for ‘ranking’ female students. At Yarra Valley Grammar, Year 11 boys were found to have put their female classmates into categories, including “wifeys”, “cuties” and “unrapeable” and ranked them.
Another spreadsheet of photographs of female students was discovered, which saw male students ranking female students according to their physical attractiveness. The Federal Education Minister Jason Clare responded to the incident, calling it “disgusting and appalling.”
Another similar list was uncovered at Brentwood Secondary College, where female students were ranked in a list of “biggest s****”.
A photo was taken of the list which was written on a stall door in the girl’s bathroom at the school. The principal of Brentwood released a statement, saying: “Anyone found to have engaged in such behaviour will face immediate disciplinary action”.
In the same month, Victoria Police were called to investigate another offensive list created by students at McClelland Secondary College.
Acting principal Laura Spence said at the time the school had “already taken disciplinary action.”
“[The school] will consider any further steps when the full facts of this incident have been established,” she said. “The safety and wellbeing of our students is an absolute top priority for us, and we are supporting the students impacted by this behaviour.”
A spokesperson for Victorian Department of Education also released a statement, calling the “misogynistic and disrespectful behaviour… entirely unacceptable in any Victorian school.”
“The school has rightly taken swift action,” the spokesperson said. “We all have a responsibility to teach students respect and we’ll continue to invest in programs that promote gender equality to embed those attitudes.
“More than 1950 Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools are signed up to the Respectful Relationships initiative, supporting them to embed respect and gender equality across their entire school community and stamp out these vile attitudes to women.”
The Department of Education in Queensland has also had to investigate similar incidents of misogyny, when a social media post was found to rank female students into sexist categories.
Students from Foxwell State Secondary College in the Gold Coast were ranked in a now-deleted Instagram post, where they were listed under categories including “abduction material”, “one night stand”, “average” and “unrapeable”.
The Queensland Department of Education said there was no evidence the post was created by a member of the school community.
In August, male students at a private school in Adelaide’s Kensington Park were found to have created and circulated a spreadsheet which denigrated women by putting them into groups and charged male students with a ‘penalty’ for being involved with the listed students.
The list included a range of “offences” a male student could be ‘fined’ for committing, such as “kissing a whale”, “having sloppy seconds,” and “your girlfriend’s crazy.”
The perpetrators were discovered to be some male footballers at Pembroke School, South Australia’s most expensive private school.
Another list at the school denigrated fellow male students for being “fat” or a “pedophile”, while another was racially charged and targeted Indigenous women.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas called the lists “alarming” and blamed the influence of Andrew Tate.
“You can’t help but wonder to what extent the Andrew Tates of the world on a social media platform are driving these behaviours, because I don’t suspect it’s coming from parents,” Malinauskas said at the time.
“I do think that young kids are more vulnerable to the extremes that are made readily available to them through social media and we see the consequences of that playing out in real time.”
Misogynistic lists created by male high school students at prestigious independent schools is not a recent phenomena. But coverage and public opposition to the incidents have risen, in conjunction to the rise of controversial social media influencers like Tate.
In 2020, NSW Police were notified of an offensive ‘muck-up day’ list of activities created by Year 12 boys at North Sydney’s Shore School. The list included criminal activities, such as “shit on a train”, “break into Taronga Zoo” and “spit on a homeless man’, as well as “have sex with a woman over 80kg”.
In 2021, the Herald revealed that boys at Sydney’s St Luke’s Grammar School sat through a Christian studies class where they were asked to rank the most important qualities they desire in a female partner. Each quality was allocated a number where the highest points were given to qualities such as virginity, strong Christian values, attractiveness and loyalty. One male student reportedly described the classroom exercise as “build[ing] a bitch.”
Recent studies have monitored the rise in disturbing behaviours exhibited by male students as the growing influence of harmful public figures continues to draw media attention and public concern. One study from South Australia found that teachers were observing an increasing use of misogynistic language and behaviours by male students and that they were seeing more frequent use of vulgar, sexualised and aggressive language.
According to Dr Samantha Schulz, a senior lecturer in education the University of Adelaide and lead author of the study, the sexist behaviour and abusive language enacted by male students can be associated with the rising popularity of internet “manfluencers” such as Andrew Tate.
“Such influencers champion a style of populism entangled with racism, xenophobia, trans and homophobia, which believes boys and men are victims of feminist gains,” she explained in The Conversation.“ Acts of “male supremacy” are therefore needed to restore a supposedly natural gender order.”
Other recent studies in the UK and Canada have linked the harmful behaviour and attitudes of male students to Tate’s views.
As Angela Priestley noted on Women’s Agenda earlier this month, “For every Tate we can name, there are many more behind him.”
“These are talented communicators who can present themselves as having the simple answers to some of the challenges young people are facing, including loneliness, bullying and trying to figure out their identity and place in the world – challenges we know are amplified during periods of uncertainty, which is especially present when kids are coming of age.”
As incidents of misogynistic gender narratives are increasingly exposed, a project from Monash University is working to help secondary school teachers tackle the influence of harmful online ideologies on young boys and men.
The project will deliver a research-based program to secondary school staff across to help them identify and address online misogyny and the manosphere’s influence and impact on young men.
Researchers hope the findings and outcomes from the project will extend beyond classrooms, contributing to national, state and territory policy planning to reduce the prevalence of gender-based violence.
The project’s co-chief investigator Dr Stephanie Wescott believes the project will form a crucial part of helping teachers to tackle misogynistic narratives in their classrooms and creating safer spaces.
“Australian women teachers have described an alarming increase in sexual harassment and other harmful behaviours by boys in classrooms, often linked to narratives and ideologies unmistakably derived from manosphere content,” Dr Wescott said.
“We need effective strategies for teachers to challenge this harmful masculinist ideology that reinforces violence supportive beliefs online, in the classroom and beyond.”
Deputy Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, Dr Naomi Pfitzner is the lead researcher of the project. She is particularly worried about the growing influence of misogynistic discourses in schools given the links between these harmful ideologies and men’s use of gender-based violence.
“Young boys and men are increasingly absorbing misogynistic narratives online, which can shape their views on gender equality and masculinity, potentially leading to future harm and violence,” Dr Pfitzner said.
“We are at a critical juncture for addressing the links between misogyny and men’s use of gender-based violence. Our research-backed project aims to prevent these dangerous ideologies from taking root and to support teachers in creating safer, more equitable classrooms.”
In the UK, the results are disturbingly similar. Nina Humphries, the deputy director of UK Feminista ( an organisation working to tackle sexism in schools) said earlier this year: “It is deeply concerning that misogyny is so normalised in schools. This fuels violence against women and girls and limits the aspirations of all young people.”
“These joint survey results contribute to the abundance of evidence that sexism and sexual harassment are rife in the UK education system. Staff and students alike face this unacceptable behaviour. More must be done to make schools and colleges safer.”
Humphries was responding to a report released by UK Feminista which revealed an alarming number of female teachers had been sexually harassed by their male students.
The organisation conducts research and delivers training for teachers to combat sexual exploitation within schools.
In Queensland, Enlighten Educations’s Goodfellas program equips boys with the skills to connect and build strong relationships and reduce behavioural, conflict and engagement issues.
“It really is a game-changer,” founder and CEO Dannielle Miller said in 2019. “I’ve had over 25 years’ experience working with teens and know that if you truly want to change their behaviour long term, you must not only inform them, but inspire them to put what they have learned into practice.”
“The key thing we wanted to do with this program was go beyond the symbolism and talk,” Miller says. “You can give people a whole day’s worth of education and they can walk out and make the same mistakes the next day. You have to find a way to practically embed what they have learned.”