Report out now!

Our new report on the Sexual Harassment of Teachers (SHot) has attracted national media attention. We've rounded up the highlights here:

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.

It’s been a big month for us here at Collective Shout! Our message has attracted a lot of mainstream media attention. From the harms of porn and porn-themed ads, the exploitation of girls on Instagram, and the campaign to raise the age for social media access, our voice is being heard.

Our fifth victory for 2024!

NSW supporter Pat sent our Movement Director MTR this image late Sunday afternoon, posted to the Insta account of Boveda, which describes itself as a ‘Modern Mexican Tequila Bar’ in Thirroul, NSW.

"Increasing prominence and accessibility of these services will very likely lead to further instances of online harm, such as the creation and dissemination of non-consensual nude images, targeted harassment campaigns, sextortion, and the generation of child sexual abuse material."

New research has found Deepnude apps are exploding in popularity, with undressing websites attracting 24 million unique visitors in September 2023.   

Deepnude apps allow users to virtually undress a woman, using AI to manipulate an image or video of a woman to remove her clothing. Many apps only work on women.

*WIN: 'Miners Get Vaginas' cap pulled!*

We asked Caterpillar - a construction and mining equipment manufacturer - if they were aware their logo was on the cap. They replied:

"These items were not created, manufactured, or authorised for sale by CAT Australia. We strongly disapprove of the offensive themes depicted and are grateful for your notification. We are committed to taking immediate action to halt the distribution of these unauthorised products."

We are pleased to see this sexist cap has been now removed from the website. But it is not a one off. There are a range of other degrading caps available for sale. We call on Country Trucker Caps to remove all their sexist and objectifying products and stop contributing to real harm to women and girls.

"At the same time the Australian Government is investing significant money and resources to address widespread sexual harassment and sexual violence in the mining industry, Country Trucker Caps is encouraging men in the mining industry to see women as vaginas for their use"

Have you seen Honey Birdette's latest ads?

These porn inspired, BDSM themed ads were spotted at family friendly shopping centres across Perth:

Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist featured on MelbourneCatholic.org