Writer and feminism activist Clementine Ford has come under fire after reportedly refusing to answer the questions of young boys when she spoke at a Melbourne high school earlier this year.
The parent of one child in attendance, known only as Darren, claimed to 3AW Ms Ford had refused to take questions from boys at Aquinas College, causing the girls to walk out.
‘The ones that turned on her after she treated the boys like c**p, was the girls who got up and left,’ he said.
‘The boys wanted to ask her questions, and she refused to answer questions from boys. She goes “no no, I’m only taking questions from girls”.’
Clementine Ford has been slammed by a parent of a student at Aquinas College in Melbourne, who claims she ‘refused to answer questions from boys’ during a talk at a school in May
The parent, known as Darren, told 3AW when Ms Ford ignored the boys, female students walked out of Aquinas College (pictured)
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Aquinas College, but a spokeswoman declined to comment.
Ms Ford also declined to comment on the allegations.
Ms Ford has strongly rebuked the claims on Twitter, responding that she had answered questions for 15 minutes and had been trolled online by students at the school afterwards.
‘I answered questions for 15 minutes afterwards, longer than I was contracted for,’ she wrote.
‘The reason I excused myself to leave was because my time was up and I had to get home to my baby so my partner could go to work.’
The Fight Like A Girl author told her Twitter following she had received offensive messages and comments from students on her social media accounts following her talk.
She said one message called her a c**t, and she had reported the messages to the school.
Ms Ford strongly rebuked the claims on Twitter, claiming she had spent 15 minutes answering questions
Abusive comments were reportedly left on Ms Ford’s Instagram following her speech at Aquinas
Darren, the parent of the Aquinas student referred to Ms Ford’s online rebukes as ‘going nuts’
Darren told 3AW that Ms Ford ‘went nuts, she crucified the boys online and the school had to do a massive backpedal’.
One comment thread on Ms Ford’s Instagram shows her followers fight back against a young boy who left now-deleted comments on a picture.
When her actions were called into question by another follower, she responded noting the boys were ‘rude in the session’ and she is ‘not paid to deal with ongoing bulls***’.
‘All I’ve done is discussed the frustration of dealing with childish, defensive boys and shared comments they left publicly on my account,’ she wrote.
‘I was paid to speak for 50 minutes. I was not paid to deal with ongoing bullshit and demands from small minded boys who cannot handle being shown that their world view is limited.
Ms Ford said on Instagram the boys had been ‘rude’ during her session with students
A letter sent out by the school a week after Ms Ford’s talk warned students against ‘online behaviour that might amount to targeted harrassment’
‘Their good opinion and approval might be extremely important to you, but I’m not interested in making sure they feel comfortable about their place on the social hierarchy.’
A letter was sent home to parents of students who were at the talk, noting Ms Ford had spoken to many Year 10 classes over multiple years, but the program may need to be reconsidered in future.
The letter referenced ‘the reactions of some students immediately after the talk, and some unfortunate behaviour that has occurred following Thursday’s assembly’, and warned students against ‘any online behaviour that might amount to targeted harrassment’.