Call to tackle sexual harassment in schools

Experts told the women and equalities select committee that a culture of sexual harassment is widely prevalent in schools and that better sexual education is needed to change pupils' attitudes.

The panel of experts called for new school guidance on tackling sexual harassment, better teacher training on how to handle the problem and for Ofsted to inspect schools on how they address the issue. 

Sophie Bennett, co-director at UK Feminista, which supports feminism in schools, said lack of knowledge about harassment meant some teachers failed to tackle the problem appropriately.

“Teachers feel ill-equipped to deal with this issue and often fall back on ‘why did you send that picture’, rather than asking, ‘why did he pressure you into doing so’,” she said.

“I think teacher training, and making sure that is covered as a core and compulsory element of teacher training, is important.”

Susie McDonald, chief executive officer at Tender, agreed that training could help eradicate unhelpful attitudes among teachers.

“Many teachers are victim-blaming at the moment. They’re looking as sexual harassment as horseplay,” she said.

“They’re not recognising it as a problem, and until they are effectively trained to understand what is at the root of the issue they are not going to be able to make the right suggestion about how they can deliver education and training within their schools.”

The committee, which is holding an inquiry into sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, was told that current school guidance was published in 2000 and needs updating to incorporate issues linked to social media.

Marai Larasi, executive director at Imkaan, an organisation addressing violence against girls, said: “If you can’t have a conversation about Snapchat, if you can't have a conversation about how those structures could be used, then you're not up to date and you’re likely to lose people in those conversations.”

Bennett said ending sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools should be a key priority for the Department for Education.

"It should make that clear and communicate it to schools through issuing national guidance including practical advice on how to implement a whole-school approach,” she said.

There was consensus among the panel that age-appropriate sex education should be taught to all children, and that specialist agencies should support schools to do this.

Lynette Smith, managing director of Big Talk Education, said: “If a child is old enough to be abused, it is old enough to be educated."

The experts also said schools should be monitored on their efforts to tackle sexual harassment and its underlying causes.

“Sexual harassment isn’t listed among racist, disability and homosexual bullying in Ofsted’s inspection framework,” Bennett said.

“The signal that sends out is that sexual harassment isn’t a priority. It’s hugely important that changes.” she said.