Tom Brown's School Days -- or, "We have all been enlightened"

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Sep 14, 2004

From the U.K. Telegraph:

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with raping a 28-year-old teacher at a school in London, it has emerged. The school was closed for two days for police forensic science examinations after the alleged attack on the woman last Tuesday.

A spokesman for the local council said support and guidance was being offered to the headteacher and staff. "The school regards this as an unacceptable, but isolated incident," he said.

Unacceptable but isolated. On the spokesflak Richter Scale, I'd put "unacceptable" one notch above "inappropriate" and about three down from "intolerable." I suppose "isolated" is a safe bet, on the grounds that almost nobody is going to ask, "Isolated from what?" In any case, we can be sure it's a comfort to the victim.

Does the language sound familiar? It should. The spokesman in question, though anonymous, clearly has a bright future ahead of him.