The market, the media and the family in a school excursion rape case

This paper examines a local and specific instance of the effects of neoliberal markets on individual and institutional subjects of schooling. It reviews a court case between a prestigious private girls’ school and an ex‐student who sued the school for failing to provide adequate supervision on a school trip to Europe during which she was raped. It considers the incident in relation to the legal and discursive complexities of school excursions and turns towards neoliberal imperatives that drive school competition for an explanation of how the crisis was managed. Through analysis of print media reports during the week of the trial it traces how discourses of femininity, sexuality and sexual violence came into collision with ideals of reputation, control and proper behaviour, upon which elite schools depend for their marketing. Finally, the paper explores how figurations of the ‘family’ were mobilized by the school and those involved in the events.