Schools must act to stop sex assaults
SCHOOLS must be ordered to crack down on sexual assaults and harassment in the classroom and playground, MPs have insisted.
MPs including Jess Phillips (Lab, Birmingham Yardley) said the Government was failing to act to protect children from sexual harassment and violence.
It followed an inquiry from the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, which includes Ms Phillips as a member and uncovered a shocking level of abuse taking place in schools.
Almost a third of girls aged 16 to 18 said they had experienced unwanted sexual touching at school, and 59 per cent of girls and young women aged 13-21 said they had faced some form of sexual harassment at school or college in the past year.
The Government has now published its response to the findings – but MPs say they don’t go far enough.
Ministers have rejected calls for schools to have a legal duty to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual violence.
Instead, the Government says it will take a “holistic school-based approach”, which involves “supporting schools to produce their own new codes of practice, building our evidence base, and setting up an advisory group”.
Committee chairman Maria Miller said: “The scale of the problem of sexual harassment in schools demands a robust and urgent response from those who take responsibility for our children’s safety when they are at school.
“Schools are responsible for fostering the best environment for young people to learn; fear of sexual harassment, or worse, should not be part of that.
“We will continue to scrutinise action in this area and work with others to hold those responsible to account for any failure to ensure that all our children are safe and can thrive at school. In particular the Government needs to prioritise action to ensure Sex and Relationship education reflects the realities of the 21st century rather than the presmartphone age when guidance was last updated.”
The committee will hold a follow-up inquiry on the Government’s response to its report. It will examine what progress has been made in tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools.