Action not words: Experts urge swift response to tackle crisis of consent
Mounting calls for urgent nationwide rollout of lessons on respectful relationships after survey exposed sexual harassment of girls
Emergency action is needed in class and online to combat the crisis of consent in Scotland’s schools, experts warn.
A range of specialists said a practical response of urgency and impact was crucial after a survey exposed the appalling scale of sexual harassment and assault facing teenage girls in Scotland where one in five said they had been sexually assaulted.
They backed the Respect campaign launched by The Sunday Post today calling for effective classroom initiatives to help teens understand healthy relationships along with tighter restrictions on online pornography, blamed for warping children’s attitudes to sex.
Our poll last week revealed three out of five girls under 18 had endured some sort of harassment, three out of five do not believe the extent of the crisis is understood, and four out of five do not believe enough is being done to curb verbal, physical and online harassment.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said fundamental change was needed to change the corrosive attitudes underpinning the abuse and harassment. She said she would consider any effective measures, adding: “While attitudes have changed, and changed for the better, no one should be under any illusions about the extent to which this is still a very real and current issue.
“Fundamentally, we need to tackle and challenge the attitudes that underpin violence against women and girls and ultimately prevent it from taking place. And I am open to anything that might help us to make a more significant, fundamental step change.”
However, while campaigners and politicians welcomed the first minister’s recognition that change was needed, they said far more than words and promises was demanded.
They said a classroom programme capable of teaching girls and boys about healthy, respectful relationships must be built and rolled out across Scotland’s schools as a matter of urgency while pressure must be put on the UK Government to restart moves to restrict access to online pornography, blamed for warping children’s attitudes to sex.
Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Commissioner, Bruce Adamson, was among those calling for action.
Writing in The Sunday Post today, he said: “The ongoing prevalence of sexual harassment and bullying must be addressed. Children have the right to be protected both online and offline.”
Lib Dem education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart, who raised the crisis of consent at Holyrood last week, called for a special commission to investigate violence against girls and young women and draft an action plan. She said: “We have been having these conversations for decades and we always end up at square one with women looking over their shoulder.
“We need better solutions than women being endlessly told to change their behaviour or their wardrobe. An important strand, however, has to be how we raise the next generation.”
She said pilot lessons on relationships and sex being trialled in some schools should be examined and tested to help draft the most effective lesson for introduction to the curriculum for all Scots pupils.
She said: “We need to see new training for those working in education and frontline in public authorities. It’s shocking that the present Equally Safe at School toolkit is only in place in a tiny number of
schools. Scotland is generally a good place to live, yet we are seeing domestic abuse rising, rape convictions woefully low and two-thirds of women not feeling safe on our streets, with three in five experiencing street harassment. That needs to change.”
Children’s charity Barnardo’s Scotland has recently been working with schools in two council areas to educate pupils about appropriate relationships.
Director Martin Crewe said: “Age-appropriate lessons on health, relationships and sex are vital to support children to stay safe and healthy, and to be able to prepare for challenges
both on and offline. From our specialist child sexual abuse services, we know how important it is to teach children and young people about consent, healthy relationships, respect and how to ask for help. Lessons about online safety are also vital – while the internet offers incredible opportunities to learn and play, it also carries risks from cyber bullying to online grooming.
“In recent months, we have been working with schools in Glasgow and Renfrewshire to discuss peer-on-peer relationships and raise pupils’ awareness about healthy, consensual and respectful relationships. We also work as part of an expert group with the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, Stop It Now! Scotland and other partners, to progress and support delivery of the group’s proposals around preventing sexual offending involving children and young people.”
Sandra Brown, of the Moira Anderson Foundation, whose work includes counselling for girls affected by sexual abuse, said: “I wholeheartedly back The Sunday Post’s Respect campaign and urge the government to act.
“We cannot simply ignore what is happening. This crisis of sexualised violence towards girls and young women will not go away on its own. The only way we can tackle it is by teaching children respect, for themselves and for each other.”
Brown, who was made OBE in 2006 for services to child protection, added: “We need to educate our children so they know how to reach out and tell trusted adults when something is happening to them which makes them feel uncomfortable or vulnerable.”
Campaigner Ann Moulds, of Action Against Stalking, also backed our Respect campaign and said: “Respect has to be at the heart of everything we do to teach and support our children to keep them safe.
“We need to see much improved education in schools, and better training and resources for teachers so they feel confident teaching the dangers of easily accessible online adult material which so many children are copying.
“And we need far more robust ways of teaching those who abuse that their behaviour is wrong and won’t be tolerated. It’s the only way to prevent them becoming adult abusers. If we don’t teach them right from wrong, how will they ever learn the difference?”
Our poll showed that children themselves want more to be done, with almost 70% of girls and young women interviewed saying they do not believe the scale of the crisis is understood. Nearly 80% say more must be done to curb harassment.
Labour’s Shadow Minister for Children and Education, Martin Whitfield, a former teacher, said: “It is clear the time for talking about the growing incidents of sexualised violence against girls and young women is long gone. This is now so serious, we need action and it needs to be now, not in a year or two years’ time.
“We need to see programmes like Equally Safe At School rolled out across Scotland as a matter of urgency. After all the years of talking that have gone on about this issue, it is baffling why Scotland only has 31 schools using this programme.
“Health and wellbeing is already part of the curriculum for excellence. But what the Sunday Post research proves is that we need to go much, much further and ensure our young people are taught properly about issues such as consent and respect.
“We need robust programmes of education and support being made available and taught in every single school if we are ever going to stand a chance of ending the cycle of abuse and violence that blights our communities and affects the lives of so many families.
“We have a responsibility to teach our children to recognise healthy, loving relationships, and support them to be able to speak up and recognise when certain behaviour is unacceptable.
“That must also mean teachers are given the time and resources to teach them that. We need to up the ante on this.”