I met with the pupils from years eight to 11 at Stroud High and I was presented with the results of a survey they had undertaken among 80 Year 9 students. The pupils felt moved to investigate the issue of public sexual harassment after the tragic death of Sarah Everard in London.
The survey found that 44% of girls confirmed they had experienced some form of public sexual harassment while in their school uniforms but only 13% reported it.
The pupils also relayed their own experiences of inappropriate comments and behaviour. They talked about their concerns and fears that public sexual harassment is so normalised in society. The pupils are clear that this needs to change.
Sadly it was common ground that girls believe they are sexualised by what they are wearing and when public sexual harassment is reported by women or girls it is thought that the first question asked is “what were you wearing?”
The girls also felt that boys and society are not educated to be respectful and there needs to be a clear understanding of what sexual harassment is. The pupils also raised the impact of social media platforms and pornography, which is so accessible to anyone.
I was really concerned to be told the results of this survey and to hear some of the experiences these young girls have had, particularly in their school uniform just walking around town.
But I was also really heartened to hear these articulate pupils tell me how they felt, what they would like to happen and how much they care about this important issue.
The Government has made a lot of changes to protect women including the landmark Domestic violence act, outlawing upskirting, removing the rough sex defence for murder, creating the offence for coercive control and criminalising sending revenge porn images or threatening to do so, amongst much more. There is always more do though.
The pupils and I have agreed to speak again and to work together. It is completely wrong that men sexually harass women but it is even worse if it is a young girl in a school uniform. This makes me incredibly angry and, if I saw it happening, I would not hesitate to intervene.
I would hope others in Stroud would do the same. There is a big debate right now about whether the law needs tightening up in this area and we need all the evidence to can find to highlight the issue.
I would also urge any schoolgirls who suffer any harassment to go straight to their parents, a teacher or the police and report it. This is the message from our local police too.
Thank you to these impressive pupils and the headteacher Mark McShane for inviting me to the school.
Since that meeting, I have met with the police to discuss the issue. They are really committed to seeing changes and were pleased that the school have provided information to back up concerns. You may have seen that Ofsted have reported about similar issues in schools recently following a social media campaign called Everyone's Invited and a government request to do so. There is a lot going on to tackle this issue so Stroud High are ahead of many in raising the flag to seek change.
Permission was given for the photograph and has been used on the school’s social media too.