Teacher Sexual Harassment in Schools Widespread

Classrooms are beginning to reflect the hyper sexualised, hook up culture of social media.  Moaning, sexual gestures, requests for nudes, teachers are routinely being sexually harassed by students and are not finding a sympathetic ear when they raise concerns.

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

Teachers report seeing more victims of Image Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA) and instances of children as young as Year 2 accessing and sharing pornographic content through personal devices or social media. Girls in Years 5 and 6 were coerced into sending sexual images.

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.

A number reported significant mental health decline. Some took long-term leave, changed schools or left the profession entirely.

Teachers, usually female, are being propositioned, threatened with rape, subjected to sexist slurs and mimicking of sex acts seen in pornography by male students.

Some of the harmful sexual behaviours were exhibited by children from as young as Kindergarten to Year 3. And students are sexually harassing each other, teachers report dealing with multiple disclosures from adolescent victims of harmful sexual behaviours.

The findings of a national survey of sexual harassment in Australian school analysed in the report ‘Sexual Harassment of Teachers’ (SHoT). 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 reported major gaps in policies, procedures and codes of conduct. As a result, their safety, and the safety of mostly female students, is significantly compromised. 

The SHoT report contains six recommendations for addressing the issue in schools.

SHoT Key Findings
Prevalence of sexual harassment
According to the Sexual Harassment of Teachers Survey (SHoT survey), 46.9% of respondents have experienced sexual harassment within a school environment. 47.9% of women (93.9% of respondents) indicated that they had personally been sexually harassed. Overall, 80.6% of teachers who personally experienced sexual harassment at school, were harassed by a student.

“I had a student tell his girlfriend about his rape fantasies involving me. He also threatened to rape his girlfriend if she told anyone.”

In addition to personal experience of sexual harassment, 49.1% of respondents witnessed the sexual harassment of a colleague within the school environment. In 62.9% of these incidents, respondents reported that it was students who had engaged in the sexually harassing conduct.

Sexually harassing behaviours appear to be perpetrated most frequently by male students, with sexual groaning, sexually suggestive gestures and sexual name calling being the most frequent forms of sexual harassment. Male students in Years 9-10 were identified by respondents as the primary aggressors in over half of all incidents reported against teachers.

A total of 58.9% of survey respondents 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.”
“[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 supports in place.”

Almost 8% of survey respondents have changed schools as a result of being sexually harassed, and close to 2% of respondents have left the teaching profession.'

Peer-to-peer Sexual Harassment
A total of 66.6% of survey respondents reported witnessing the sexual harassment of a student by another student. In addition, 57.4% reported receiving at least one disclosure from a student about being sexually harassed. Notably, 39.1% of teachers reported receiving between one and five disclosures from a student that they had been sexually harassed.

Increasing Reports of Sexualised Behaviours
A total of 79.9% of respondents reported an increase in sexualised behaviours in schools. Survey data indicates that sexual moaning has become a widespread and deeply concerning issue in schools. Respondents reported sexual noises being made at them by children as young as kindergarten to Year 3.

“Moaning is a big problem. Even ‘good’ kids are doing it to win favour with others...The moaning I've heard was from boys.”

Teachers also reported an increase in image based sexual abuse (non-consensual creation, sharing or threatened sharing of nude or sexual images).

"Students in grade 7 are coercing girls into sending child exploitation material."

Younger Students Engaging in Sexual Harassment  
Survey responses indicate that 12.7% of reported sexual harassment incidents were perpetrated by students in Years 4-6, and 3.2% of incidents were perpetrated by students in kindergarten to Year 3.

"Year 5 and 6 students sending nudes after being continually asked to do so - photos then being passed around to other boys."

Survey respondents reported instances of children as young as Year 2 accessing and sharing pornographic content through personal devices or social media.
Ignored, dismissed, excused: Inadequate responses.

Many teachers reported that students often frame sexual harassment as "jokes" or "banter," failing to recognise that making sexual jokes is a form of sexual harassment.

“Too many times I've seen male students get away with a warning for really inappropriate sexual behaviour towards female students because ‘they're too young, just boys being boys…’”

Survey respondents emphasise 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."