{"id":7233,"date":"2021-06-15T14:29:30","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=7233"},"modified":"2021-08-18T14:02:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T13:02:08","slug":"why-so-surprised-a-very-brief-history-of-sexual-harassment-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/why-so-surprised-a-very-brief-history-of-sexual-harassment-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Why so surprised? A very brief history of sexual harassment in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Chris Beighton explains why the recent Ofsted report into sexual harassment in schools is not a surprise. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Chief Ofsted inspector Amanda Spielman is openly \u201cshocked\u201d by the \u201calarming\u201d results of a recent report into sexual harassment in schools<\/a>. Such abuse, Ofsted announces, has become so prevalent in schools<\/a> that children, especially girls, no longer see the point of reporting activities that they have come to accept as just \u201cpart of growing up\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fatalism is depressing, but is it surprising? What does this sudden alarm tell us? A brief internet search quickly provides a litany of official reports and surveys on the topic of sexist behaviour in schools. It also provides a plethora of commentators who will be thoroughly unsurprised by Ofsted\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These will doubtless include Jon Brown of the NSPCC<\/a>, who, in 2015, was \u201cnot surprised\u201d that a \u201cwarped view\u201d of what is acceptable behaviour in schools already existed.  The scale of misogynistic abuse committed by young people was already well known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Matheson of Scottish teaching union EIS would be equally unsurprised. In 2016 she was raising the alarm about \u201cmisogyny [as] a thriving form of communication\u201d. This was also the year the House of Commons Women\u2019s and Equalities Commission published their report \u201cSexual harassment and sexual violence in schools<\/a>\u201d, pinpointing \u201chigh levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence in school\u201d. In the same year Ofsted was criticised by ministers<\/a> for failing to discuss the issue in their inspection handbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association (BHA) would be just as unsurprised. In 2017, a BHA study of Ofsted reports into PSHE said it was \u201cfatally neglecting\u201d<\/a> to monitor sex and relationship education in schools. In particular, the BHA study criticised Ofsted\u2019s failure to recognise the high levels of abuse already known to exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DFE has not always been up to date on this issue, but the authors of its 2018 report  \u201cSexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges\u201d<\/a> would also be justified in asking \u201cwhy so surprised?\u201d. They quote existing data from the Girl Guides\u2019 charity that 64% of girls aged 13-21 had experienced such violence in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recent candidates for most unsurprised would include members of Feminista UK<\/a> <\/strong>or theNational Education Union (NEU).<\/a> The former has long campaigned on the topic, and the latter\u2019s 2019 conference highlighted a pervasive culture where sexism \u201cstalks the corridors and classrooms\u201d. Their joint report \u201cIt\u2019s just everywhere \u2013 sexism in Schools\u201d<\/a> reiterated not just the seriousness of the problem, but that \u201call too often the institutional response to sexism in schools is silence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why demand change now<\/em>? Why are those responsible for this \u201ctoxic laddish culture\u201d<\/a> surprised by a phenomenon that surely goes much further back than 2015? As a reaction to the latest hashtag this new-found enthusiasm may ring hollow for some. We might even impute such surprise to a failure to pay due attention to events and thus learn to avoid the ridicule that, for Stoic thinker Marcus Aurelius, this implies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Chris Beighton is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Chris Beighton explains why the recent Ofsted report into sexual harassment in schools is not a surprise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":7237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,3902,1357],"tags":[2809,558,2165],"class_list":["post-7233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-research","category-society","tag-ofsted","tag-schools","tag-sexual-harassment"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t