The president-elect of the Oxford Union will face disciplinary proceedings for making “inappropriate remarks” celebrating the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, the union has announced on social media.

George Abaraonye, a student at the University of Oxford who became president-elect of the debating society after a vote in June, posted several comments in a WhatsApp group appearing to celebrate what happened, according to the Telegraph.

This included one saying: “Charlie Kirk got shot, let’s fucking go.” Another message, purportedly sent from Abaraonye’s Instagram account, read: “Charlie Kirk got shot loool.”

The Oxford Union said on Saturday that Abaraonye had suffered racial abuse and threats since his comments were revealed in the Telegraph on Thursday.

In a statement posted on social media on Saturday, the union reiterated that it had already condemned the president-elect’s “inappropriate remarks”. The society added: “We emphasise that these are his personal views and not those of the Union, nor do they represent the values of our institution.

“At the same time, we are deeply disturbed by and strongly condemn the racial abuse and threats that George has faced in response. No individual should ever be attacked because of the colour of their skin or the community they come from. Threats to his life are abhorrent. Such rhetoric has no place online, or anywhere in society.”

The statement went on to defend the right to free speech and freedom of expression, but added that free speech “cannot and will not come at the expense of violence, intimidation, or hate”.

“The Oxford Union does not possess executive powers to summarily dismiss a president-elect. However, the complaints filed against the president-elect have been forwarded for disciplinary proceedings and will be addressed with the utmost seriousness.

“Our duty is to demonstrate to our members, the university community, alumni, and the wider public, that disagreement must be expressed through debate and dialogue, not through abuse or threats. That is the tradition we uphold, and it is the standard we will continue to set.”

On Thursday, Abaraonye said he had “reacted impulsively” to the news of Kirk’s shooting, and that the comments were “quickly deleted” after news emerged of his death.

“Those words did not reflect my values,” Abaraonye added. “Nobody deserves to be the victim of political violence … I extend my condolences to his family and loved ones.

“At the same time, my reaction was shaped by the context of Mr Kirk’s own rhetoric – words that often dismissed or mocked the suffering of others. He described the deaths of American children from school shootings as an acceptable ‘cost’ of protecting gun rights. He justified the killing of civilians in Gaza, including women and children, by blaming them collectively for Hamas. He called for the retraction of the Civil Rights Act, and repeatedly spread harmful stereotypes about LGBTQ and trans communities. These were horrific and dehumanising statements.”

Kirk and Abaraonye had met during a debate on toxic masculinity held by the Oxford Union in May, the Telegraph reported. Donald Trump, the US president, paid tribute to Kirk as a “martyr for truth and freedom” after the shooting.

Valerie Amos, the master of University College, Oxford, said on Friday that no disciplinary action would be taken against Abaraonye by the college he attends.

Amos said: “Though Mr Abaraonye’s comments are abhorrent, they do not contravene the college’s policies on free speech, or any other relevant policy. Therefore, no disciplinary action will be taken.”

“I’ve realised how damaging the whole thing’s been because, you know, you can’t trust people,” Jen Smith says from her home in Bristol.

Smith is one of a number of parents of children with special education needs and disabilities (Send) who allege Bristol city council spied on them because of their online criticism of the local authority.

More than three years have passed since a leak of council correspondence containing personal details – including wedding photos – of parents of Send children, and the council has finally agreed to commission an independent investigation into the claims.

Smith and others – some of whom wish to remain unnamed – have called on the former Bristol mayor Marvin Rees – now Baron Rees of Easton – to give evidence to the investigation as they search for answers as to why they were monitored.

They want to know if the “social media spying scandal” as it is known in the city was linked the cutting of funding to the Bristol Parent Carers charity days after the allegations first surfaced.

Smith, who has a son and daughter who are autistic and has been battling for improved Send provision for years, became a member of Bristol Parent Carers in 2018 and assisted in running coffee mornings and support groups in the south of the city.

She would frequently post her frustrations with the Send system in the city on social media. “It wasn’t done in any capacity as being part of the forum,” she says.

“It was just that Send was so bad in Bristol we had to challenge it, because it was, it was just a mess.”

Her view was backed up by official reviews and reports at the time. A review into alternative learning provision commissioned by the council found a catalogue of failings, and a report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission found “significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice”. “Parents and carers are overwhelmingly condemning of the Send system in Bristol because of the experiences they have had,” the regulators said.

A July 2022 article in the Bristolian, a self-proclaimed “scandal sheet”, published a leaked cache of emails and a spreadsheet of “combative” social media posts that showed officials in the council’s department for children, families and education department had collated examples of social media criticism by Smith and other parent carers.

One official says they are “working hard to uncover some concrete evidence” and lists a number of examples of social media posts, as well as revealing they had been trawling personal photos of some of the members of the parent carer forum.

In one line of the email, the official says: “External comms deduced this is [redacted] as image is the same as wedding photos on [redacted]’s personal Facebook site.”

In another email, an official refers to Smith’s “duplicity”.

She says: “It was personal, critical stuff … They were just so full of themselves. It’s almost like they had this little bubble where they thought they were really important.”

The council conducted an internal “fact finding” mission in August 2022, which found there had been no “systematic monitoring” of social media – an exercise that Smith and others called whitewash.

After a vote by its children and young people policy committee, however, the council announced last month that it would commission an independent investigation into the “historic monitoring of the social media accounts of parents and carers of Send children”.

Smith is critical of Rees, who was Labour mayor from 2016 to 2024 before the people of Bristol voted to abolish the mayoral system in favour of a committee system.

She found him “vitriolic toward Send parents”, alleging he had “a real issue with anybody speaking out whatsoever”. Rees has been contacted for comment.

Kerry Bailes, who has been a Labour councillor in Bristol since 2021, believes she was among the parents monitored when one of her tweets appeared in a subject access request – a process for individuals to ask an organisation for a copy of their personal data.

Bailes, whose son has autism and campaigned for improved Send provision before the allegations of monitoring surfaced, said she had been shocked and baffled when she learned her tweet had appeared in some of the correspondence.

“It feels like a big betrayal,” she says. “It’s like being in an abusive relationship, that you’re reliant, you’re co-dependent on that service, or that person or that group of people, and it just feels like a huge betrayal, but you can’t leave them. Because what’s going to happen to the support for your child?”

Bailes said she took part in protests outside Bristol city hall to raise the profile of the crisis in Send provision in the city.

“We took snippets of that and we put it on social media,” she says. “Our aim was to help the council help themselves. At at the time, there were 250 children without a school placement, so we put bunting up with with one triangle for each child that was missing a school placement outside city hall.

“Prior to 2022 the parent carer forum wasn’t what it should have been. The council weren’t really working with them. We were trying to advocate for our children, advocate as an alliance. It just seemed to rub the council up the wrong way.”

Bailes dismissed the council’s subsequent internal investigation as “patting themselves on the back, saying everything’s legal and above board”.

A spokesperson for Bristol city council said: “The children and young people policy committee is committed to inclusion and transparency and has voted to conduct an independent review into historical social media use.

“The council is also progressing with its Send and inclusion strategy, which includes investment in educational psychology services, the development of an inclusion and outreach service, and is spending over £40m to create new specialist places for children over the coming five years.”

No timetable has been set for the independent investigation.

AI can help build individual learning paths for Ukraine’s 3.5 million students, but its use must remain ethical, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science Yevhen Kudriavets has said.

Speaking to UNN, Kudriavets stressed that AI can analyse large volumes of information and help students acquire the knowledge they need more efficiently. He said AI could construct individual learning trajectories faster than teachers working manually.

He warned, however, that AI should not replace the educational process and that safeguards must be found to prevent misuse.

Kudriavets also said students in Ukraine should understand the reasons behind using AI, adding that it should be used to achieve knowledge rather than to obtain grades.

The deputy minister emphasised that technology itself is neutral, and how people choose to apply it determines whether it benefits education.

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