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The recent findings and examples listed in a national survey of Australian teachers have revealed the entrenched harmful sexual harassment across schools, including rape threats.
A report, Sexual Harassment of Teachers, has revealed some extremely alarming behaviours occurring across Australian schools. Published by Collective Shout in partnership with parenting author and educator Maggie Dent, the report shows that teachers – almost all female – reported being subjected to routine sexual harassment by male students.
Among the more shocking examples listed included teachers being propositioned, threatened with rape, subjected to sexist slurs and mimicking of sex acts seen in pornography.
A number of female teachers reported that they did not feel safe at work, and the response from executives and principals was inadequate when they reported sexual harassment.
“I had a student tell his girlfriend about his rape fantasies involving me. He also threatened to rape his girlfriend if she told anyone,” one respondent said.
A total of 58.9 per cent directly reported feeling unsafe in the classroom/school grounds following incidents of sexual harassment.
“The safety of very large portions of the school community is at risk, not just physical safety but mental and emotional wellbeing,” another respondent said.
“[As a teacher, I have] never felt so drained, mentally and emotionally, in the past two years dealing with the increase of this behaviour with no school support in place.”
This appalling widespread behaviour is affecting teachers who are merely trying to perform their duties as educators, which is a stressful endeavour on its own. The report stated that teachers are being 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.
Teachers reported dealing with multiple disclosures from adolescent victims of harmful sexual behaviours.
Survey respondents also reported 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.
This behaviour is also detrimentally affecting female students, as it’s reported that girls in years 5 and 6 were coerced into sending sexual images.
Overall, the teachers surveyed expressed immense despair about the rapid rise of harmful sexual behaviours being exerted by male students that align with popular social media influences and broader sexist attitudes.
The run-on effect of these behaviours on teachers across Australia is horrendous, as a number reported significant mental health decline. Some took long-term leave, changed schools, or left the profession entirely.
Survey respondents emphasised the crucial role of parental involvement and proactive educational measures to address the behaviour and counter influences such as pornography and social media.
“Parents need to acknowledge their child’s behaviour as it is by the law – sexual harassment. But they often ignore or excuse,” one respondent said.
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Harassment is defined as persistent behaviour or acts that intimidate, threaten, or uncomfortably affect other employees at work. Because of anti-discrimination laws and the Fair Work Act of 2009, harassment in Australia is prohibited on the basis of protected characteristics.
