Bullying, Newsletter Articles, Posts for Parents, Posts for Teachers, Raising Boys, Teachers’ Help
‘It’s out of control… it’s insidious… it’s not okay’: Sexual Harassment of Teachers Report
A couple of years ago, the team at Collective Shout and I found ourselves comparing notes on the increasing accounts of sexual harassment of female teachers and students. I suggested we partner up in a national survey, run through our networks, to get a better idea of the extent of the problem in our schools.
The results are now in and collated in the just-released ‘Teacher Sexual Harassment in Schools’ [SHoT] report. And they are deeply troubling.
More than 1000 teachers responded (many of you will be reading this post, so THANK YOU for sharing your experiences with us). Almost 80% reported a rise of harmful sexual behaviours in their schools.
This report demonstrates a strong need for educational authorities to provide teachers and schools with clear steps they can follow to prevent and deal with sexual harassment.
This is something staff, parents and students need to be educated about. Some of what we are hearing about in this report is technically criminal behaviour and it simply cannot be dismissed as ‘boys will be boys’ – which was a phrase we heard multiple times in the report.
I would also urge parents and other caring adults in our kids’ lives, to have more awkward conversations with their kids, and not just expect schools to be responsible for addressing this behaviour from some boys. This needs to be a whole community response.
As the team at Collective Shout say, it is our hope that these findings will act as a wake-up call to State and Federal Governments, Education Ministers and Departments, educational bodies, school leaders, parents & carers and anyone who cares about creating a safe educational environment. Teachers, and vulnerable young people, deserve nothing less.
You can read the final report here: https://www.collectiveshout.org/shot-report