The shocking truth about sex abuse in our schools
As it’s revealed that a third of sexual offences against children are committed by their peers, Closer asks what needs to be done to end it
❛ EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT YEAR, THE SAME THREE BOYS WOULD GROPE MY BREASTS ❜
As she walked between lessons, 12-year-old Dandy Doherty should have been safe. But the schoolgirl was approached by three male students, who laughed as they groped her.
No one came to Dandy’s rescue, and believing that no one would care, she didn’t report the incident.
Dandy says, “The boys in my year saw their female classmates as targets for lewd comments, jokes and harassment. So many of my friends have stories like mine – it was just part of everyday life at school.”
ORDEAL
Sickeningly, Dandy went on to be raped aged just 15. Now 21, Dandy, from London, is speaking out about her ordeal following the launch of Everyone’s Invited, a website which asked pupils across the UK to anonymously report claims of sexual harassment in schools.
The website, founded by university student Soma Sara, was created in June 2020, but gained momentum after the shocking death of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and killed while walking home last month.
As Closer went to press, almost 15,000 stories of sexual violence and harassment had been added to the site.
“I have been told I would probably like to be raped,” wrote one victim, while others talk of sexually explicit images of female pupils being shared online.
Worryingly statistics suggest schools aren’t taking the issue seriously – despite the flood of allegations, suspensions from school for sexual misconduct have actually fallen by 44 per cent over the past 10 years.
Soma, 22, says, “I started Everyone’s Invited after having conversations with my female friends – we’d all experienced some kind of sexual violence that we’d hidden from each other and adults. I hated the idea that my little sister would have to go through this too, so I wanted to do something.
“I’m not surprised by how many have shared their stories – but it is so sad to read them all. Rape culture shouldn’t be considered a normal part of life.”
SAFEGUARDING
The volume of testimonies led to the Government ordering Ofsted to launch a review into safeguarding policies and practices at schools, while the Education Secretary,
Gavin Williamson, called the allegations “shocking and abhorrent”. The NSPCC have also launched a dedicated helpline for people to report abuse in educational settings. The charity’s CEO, Sir Peter Wanless, said, “At least a third of sexual offences against children are committed by other young people and that must be addressed. All children should be able to grow up in a safe community that is free from sexual violence where their rights are respected.
“Creating a culture that fosters healthy relationships and challenges harassment and abuse is integral to this. With the right support for teachers, compulsory relationships and sex education has a pivotal role to play in achieving this.”
Dandy, now a university student, says she suffered sexual abuse and violence at the hands of her classmates throughout her time at secondary school.
She explains, “At a classmate’s birthday party, when I was 11, I was pressured into kissing a boy. I was too embarrassed to say no, and when we kissed, everyone took photos. The next day at school, everyone seemed to have seen the photo. I was called ‘easy’, and ‘up for it’.
“And every day for the next year, the same three boys would grope my breasts, to see if they were getting bigger than they appeared in the photo. It taught me that my body wasn’t my own – it belonged to those boys, not me.
ACCEPTANCE
“I never told a teacher, but these boys were doing this to me in the playground in broad daylight. It was just accepted. I didn’t tell my parents either
because I didn’t realise how wrong it was.”
Dandy says incidents like this – which, shockingly, her friends endured too – plagued her school years.
She says, “There was a bathroom where boys would graffiti ‘reviews’ of their female classmates, saying how good they were in bed, and one boy took an intimate video of his girlfriend and shared it around like a trophy.”
Sharing nude photos is a common allegation made on the website, and campaign group NotYourPorn – which lobbies for the regulation of the porn industry – says that almost 30 girls have come forward to them, revealing they found videos of themselves on free porn websites.
The abuse continued to escalate for Dandy and, aged 15, she was raped.
TERRIFIED
She says, “I’d met a boy from another school at a party a few weeks earlier and invited him to come to my house. It was only when we were having sex that I realised I didn’t want it, and I asked him to stop. I remember him smirking and saying, ‘It’s not rape if we’re both underage.’ I was terrified, but there was nothing I could do.”
It took Dandy three months to tell her best friend about her ordeal.
She says, “I thought I was complicit because I’d invited him to my house. My early experiences set the precedent that these things just happen sometimes.”
But Dandy says she hopes the Everyone’s Invited movement will make a difference.
She says, “It’s empowering to see so many people come forward. I hope we’ll see a real difference in the way we’re educating young people. This can’t go on, something has to change.”