The investigation is certainly timely, given data from recent years regarding sexual harassment in the U.K. — and recent conversation (and controversy) surrounding uniform policing across the globe. Between 2011 and 2014, there were 5,500 sexual offenses reported in British schools, according to a 2015 report from the BBC . A Girlguiding survey, also released last year, revealed that 75% of young women have felt anxiety over the possibilities of facing sexual harassment in their everyday lives, with a shocking 90% of 13 to 21 year olds agreeing that schools should do more to address sexual harassment in classrooms."We've heard from girls who tell us you don't leave school as a girl without being called a slut, that to wear shorts under your skirt to prevent boys revealing your underwear in the playground is just normal behavior," Sophie Bennett, co-director of U.K. Feminista , an organization that campaigns for gender equality, told the committee. "There is that sense of a normalized culture of sexual harassment in schools where girls don't feel able to report it and instead change their own behavior, such as wearing shorts under their skirts."This echoes the response the Women and Equalities Committee received in April, when it spoke with 300 "young people" in the U.K., prior to launching its official investigation, in order to gauge how people in that demographic felt about the issue of sexual assault in schools, the Huffington Post reports. Back then, those surveyed told the committee that officials and teachers were not only dismissing incidents of harassment that were brought to their attention, but they were also downplaying the pressures of bullying that students can face. In turn, survivors feared being reprimanded for coming forward, according to the report.The committee agreed that sexual harassment is indeed an issue students face every day in school and that those in positions of power (i.e., principals or teachers) don't necessarily know how to recognize and address it.Susie McDonald, chief executive officer of Tender , a U.K. charity devoted to anti-abuse, explained to the Committee that despite a "seismic shift" towards teachers feeling emboldened enough to report harassment, there still exists a "fear that if they're reporting sexual violence, what it will do to their reputation and how it will impact Ofsted checks." (The latter is an organization that helps regulate the quality and care of students in schools.) A representative for Ofsted told the BBC that it takes into account how a school's leadership address concerns of harassment as part of its inspections.