The findings of a national survey of Australian school teachers exposes widespread, entrenched and normalised harmful sexual behaviours in Australian schools.

Teachers – almost all female – report being subjected to routine sexual harassment. They are propositioned, threatened with rape, subjected to sexist slurs, mimicking of sex acts, sexually moaned, groaned, and grunted at, asked for nudes and intimated.

While adolescent males in Yrs 9 and 10 were responsible for the majority of harmful sexual behaviours, children as young as Kindergarten to Grade 3 were also exhibiting these behaviours.

The survey results are analysed in the report ‘Sexual Harassment of Teachers’ [SHoT] report, released today. The report is published by Collective Shout in partnership with parenting author and educator Maggie Dent.

The aim of the survey was to gain understanding of the prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian schools. More than 1000 teachers responded. Almost 80% reported a rise of harmful sexual behaviours in their schools.

Many female teachers said they did not feel safe at work. They were also having to deal with multiple disclosures from adolescent victims of harmful sexual behaviours, including girls in Yrs 5 and 6 coerced into sending sexual images.

Survey respondents are seeing more victims of Image Based Sexual Abuse [IBSA]. They report instances of children as young as Year 2 accessing and sharing pornographic content through personal devices or social media.

Teachers expressed despair about the rapid rise of harmful sexual behaviours which they attributed to early exposure to pornography, the malign influence of social media influencers, and broader societal sexist attitudes.

Many respondents reported major gaps in policies, procedures and codes of conduct. One teacher commented: “The safety of very large portions of the school community is at risk, not just physical safety but mental and emotional wellbeing.”  

The report contains six recommendations for dealing with the issue. It can be found here.

Maggie Dent:

"I have been very concerned for a while now about some of the things I'm hearing from teachers and parents in my community and the team at Collective Shout and I thought it was important to get a sense of the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools.

This report demonstrates a strong need for educational authorities to provide teachers and schools with clear steps they can follow to prevent and deal with sexual harassment.

This is something staff, parents and students need to be educated about. Some of what we are hearing about in this report is technically criminal behaviour and it simply cannot be dismissed as 'boys will be boys' – which was a phrase we heard multiple times in the survey.

I would also urge parents and other caring adults in our kids' lives, to have awkward conversations with their kids, and not just expect schools to be responsible for addressing this behaviour from some boys. This needs to be a whole community response."

Melinda Tankard Reist:

“This is a crisis. Schools have become sites of abuse.

The safety of teachers and female students is significantly compromised.

I speak in large numbers of public and private schools and the stories I’ve been told by female teachers and students this year are the worst I’ve heard in more than a decade of engagement with public and private schools.

The situation is unacceptable. There needs to be strong, national, uniform response to address it.”

Monday October 28, 2024

Contact:

Melinda Tankard Reist, Collective Shout Movement Director and report editor: email [email protected]

Tahlia Perry, report co-author: email [email protected]

It’s out of control…it’s insidious…it’s not okay!” Teacher sexual harassment in schools report

A couple of years ago, we found ourselves comparing notes on the increasing accounts of sexual harassment of female teachers and students with parenting author and educator Maggie Dent. Maggie suggested we partner in a national survey, run through our networks, to get a better idea of the extent of the problem in our schools.

The results are now in and collated in our just-released ‘Teacher Sexual Harassment in Schools’ [SHoT] report. And they are deeply troubling. More than 1000 teachers responded. Almost 80% reported a rise of harmful sexual behaviours in their schools. It is our hope that these findings will act as a wake-up call to State and Federal Governments, Education Ministers and Departments, educational bodies, school leaders, parents & carers and anyone who cares about creating a safe educational environment. Teachers, and vulnerable young people, deserve nothing less.

Click here to read the full report

The findings of a national survey of Australian school teachers reveal widespread, entrenched and normalised harmful sexual behaviours in Australian schools.

The survey results are analysed in the report ‘Sexual Harassment of Teachers’ (SHoT) to be released Monday. The report is published by Collective Shout in partnership with parenting author and educator Maggie Dent.

The aim of the survey was to gain understanding of the prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian schools. More than 1000 teachers responded.

Teachers – almost all female – reported being subjected to routine sexual harassment by male students. They were propositioned, threatened with rape, subjected to sexist slurs and mimicking of sex acts seen in pornography.

While trying to perform their duties as educators, they were sexually moaned, groaned, and grunted at, asked for nudes and intimidated. Some of the harmful sexual behaviours were exhibited by children from as young as Kindergarten to Year 3.

Many female teachers reported they did not feel safe at work and the response from executives and principals was inadequate when they did report sexual harassment.

Teachers reported dealing with multiple disclosures from adolescent victims of harmful sexual behaviours.

During the last 8-week tour across 5 states before the break, more girls told me that they were subjected to boys barking at them.

There are differing interpretations of this (anti) social behaviour – boys may be conveying they think the girl is hot by acting like an animal or the opposite - they are intimating she is ugly – a dog. Alternatively, the boys think it’s just a funny thing to do with their mates – “just a joke”.

Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist featured on MelbourneCatholic.org

Help us gather data on the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools – so we can work together to address it!

As published on news.com.au

Melinda Tankard Reist writes for Eureka Street on the phenomenon of boys sexual moaning in class. 

Schools must act urgently to address routine sexual harassment of female students and teachers