Schools must stamp out sex harassment

THE extent of sexual harassment and related bullying involving school pupils is extremely worrying and the school inspection body Estyn is right to highlight it.

Among all the other pressures that pupils face, harassment and bullying of this kind is a wholly unacceptable additional burden.

What’s especially insidious about it is that, unless challenged robustly, behaviour that should never be tolerated will be normalised and continue into adulthood.

We are already aware of the degree of sexual harassment faced by women in our society.

There continue to be far too many men who consider it all right to engage in behaviour that is, at the lowest end of the scale, disrespectful but very often much more serious. Such unacceptable conduct doesn’t come from nowhere and can take hold in childhood.

Based on the concerns expressed by Estyn, there is clearly a need to tackle the issue head on.

The evidence points to the fact that few pupils who are the victims of sexual harassment report the matter either to their school or their parents. This is doubtless partly based on embarrassment and potentially on manipulation by – or misplaced loyalty to – the perpetrators. But bad behaviour thrives if it is not called out.

Perhaps inevitably because of the lack of a national plan, some schools are better at dealing with this issue than others.

To ensure that all schools adhere in future to best practice, it is important a Wales-wide strategy is devised which makes it clear to all pupils that sexual harassment and related forms of bullying like homophobia will not be tolerated.

Such a strategy can only succeed in an environment where pupils will not feel inhibited in discussing subjects that may in the past have been skirted around.

Sexual harassment and homophobic bullying, whether they occur face to face or online, are corrosive and cause considerable suffering. It can impact on a lifetime. And in the most extreme cases, it can drive people to take their own lives.

All of Wales’ schools must examine their current ways of protecting pupils who may be the targets of such abuse.

If they identify shortcomings, improvements must be implemented as a matter of urgency and hardwired into the schools’ culture.

Pupils deserve a learning experience that is untainted by sexual harassment, and where those who transgress are made to understand that their behaviour must change.