Pupils tackle hate crime against women
Pupils at an East Kilbride high school are tackling hate crime against women head on, after a peer was harassed on her way home.
Students Taylor Fulton, Noorulain Mughal and Leah Howie are spearheading the new campaign and formed the East Kilbride Women’s Safety Committee.
The three senior pupils at Calderglen High have launched the hate crime awareness raising initiative and are being supported by the town’s MP, Dr Lisa Cameron.
During a meeting with her they highlighted that further clarification is needed from Police Scotland on hate crime laws as they apply to women.
The pupils are also looking to secure funding to roll out the campaign across the town and are hoping other schools will get on board to spread the message that hate crime and misogyny are not acceptable in any shape or form.
The pupils plan to run assemblies in the school after the Easter break and also speak to Primary 7 pupils to drive the message home at a young age.
Leah explained: “The campaign came about after a peer spoke to us about being harassed on her way home by a man and she said ‘it happens a lot of the time, what can you do’?
“It was almost like this type of behaviour has become normalised, which is totally wrong. We will throw everything at the campaign as something needs to be done. And we are delighted at the support we have had in just a few weeks and the number of people who have got on board.”
Talking about how the campaign came about, Leah added: “A few of us got together and made contact with local politicians, including MP Lisa Cameron who was delighted to help.
“We want to support women and educate men and raise awareness that misogynistic attitudes are still out there.
“We are also looking to work with our community police officer, and work with the local council and start leafleting throughout East Kilbride.
“There are micro-grants available through the local community council which we hope could help with this.
“A lot of women also don’t know what support is out there so we want to link in with other organisations such as Rape Crisis.
“By speaking to Primary 7s, we want to educate younger boys and girls and target every age group, preventing the next generation of men fostering misogynistic attitudes.”
Noorulain said: “I am very concerned about young women being harassed and the impact that can have on their mental health and not knowing when to report it.
“Just speaking to our peers, many of them have had something happen to them, but often it is brushed under the carpet. I think that it’s so important to educate everyone on the consequences of this type of behaviour – whether it be the woman who endures cat-calling or is chased on her way home – or for the men who do this.”
Taylor added: “Women have lost confidence in their safety and our plan is to educate the community and support women.
“We need to regain confidence lost in the community.”
The trio are now making sure that there are others in the school who will continue to get the message across once they leave and want the wider community to join them.
Dr Cameron said: “It was a pleasure to meet with young activists from Calderglen High School to highlight issues of misogyny and why it is crucial to highlight an awareness campaign to promote women’s safety in the community.”