I'm tackling sexual violence in Britain's schools - and you can help
Maria Miller
MP and Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee
19 April 2016 • 11:28am
Maria Miller heads up the Women and Equalities Committee, which is tackling sexual harassment in schools Credit: Rex
As a parent, it's hard to read the views of young people on the subject of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools.
There are stories of teenagers being pressured into sex, blackmailed over sexual images and casually groped in corridors.
Many people will argue this is not a new problem. And it's true - I remember from my own school days in a mixed comprehensive in Wales over 30 years ago, a degree of sexual name calling and harassment. But it was on nothing like the scale experienced today.
Before launching a new inquiry into sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, the Women and Equalities Committee – of which I am chair - heard from 300 young people across the UK, via the charity Fixers.
They described how sexualised behaviour is the new social norm; how sexually charged behaviour permeates their lives online, as well as in the corridors and classrooms of their schools.
These experiences are backed up by research. Figures published in September 2015 showed that 5,500 sexual offences were recorded in UK schools over a three year period, including 600 rapes. A poll of 16-18 year olds in 2010 found 29 per cent of girls experienced unwanted sexual touching at school and a further 71 per cent said they heard sexual name-calling towards girls at school daily, or a few times each week.
'1 in 5 British women experienced sexual harassment at school'
Behind the figures are alarming personal stories. Like that of Gemma who told us that lad culture was "really common. In my school lads would come up to girls and grab their ass, try and push them into the changing rooms and stuff and then say 'don't get upset it's just banter'." Or Beth who said her view of being a woman "was so warped I kind of felt like I just had to accept it and give men what they want."
And it's not just students that are affected. We've already heard that teachers are also the victims of sexual bullying and harassment by pupils. As part of this inquiry, we want to understand the impact of this behaviour on education professionals, and whether enough is being done to address it.
We also need to remember that this doesn't just impact girls. While some evidence shows that it is predominantly young women who are the victims of sexual bullying and harassment, this poisonous culture also has serious repercussions for boys. That is one of the areas our inquiry will be focusing on. We'll be asking what effect a culture of sexual bullying has on young men who may feel pressured into inappropriate behaviour.
I know from the parents and teachers I speak to regularly, that this is an issue that concerns them. And as a parent of teenagers myself, I worry about the consequences on my own children of this hyper-sexualised culture.
'Can I have your number Miss?': What it's like being a young female teacher
Establishing the scale of the problem will be the first step my committee takes. At the moment, there are no official statistics collected on levels of sexual harassment or sexual violence in schools, so it's hard to know exactly how prevalent or serious an issue this is. We're particularly interested in trying to understand whether it's a growing problem.
The anecdotal evidence suggests that access to pornography and the 24/7 nature of social media interaction has exacerbated sexual bullying. We'll be asking academics, teachers, youth organisations and other stakeholders to help us fill in our knowledge gaps and understand the scale and impact of social media on what happens in schools.
After that comes the most difficult part: finding the right solutions to tackle the problem.
To do this we need your help. We want to hear from young people and others about what they think the most effective measures would be to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools. Is there a role for OFSTED? What can individual schools do? How can parents and governors support our schools, primary and secondary, to stamp it out?
You can submit evidence to our inquiry before May 22 via our website. Please consider sharing your thoughts with us so we can tackle a serious problem which is affecting the lives of many young people.
Maria Miller,
Teachers,
Students,
Pornography,
Social media,
Ofsted,
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