Women in the United Kingdom’s Schools Are Condemning ‘Rape Culture’
Thousands of anonymous online profiles have brought sexual harassment against young women and girls into the spotlight.
The harrowing anonymous testimonies have been coming in for weeks.
Sexual harassment allegations against children as young as nine years old. Girls are humiliated by classmates after their private images are shared without their permission. After reporting being assaulted at a dance, one girl was blamed by classmates.
Thousands of young women and girls in the United Kingdom have recently shared candid accounts of sexual abuse, discrimination, and bigotry during their tenure as students on a website called Everyone’s Invited — allegations ranging from criminal sexual assaults to abusive experiences to physical harassment to inappropriate contact — providing raw and unfiltered discussions of their personal trauma.
However, when taken together, the allegations paint a disturbing image of systematic sexual harassment perpetrated by students both inside and outside of school, most notably at parties. Along with evidence of abuse, the accounts included allegations of sexism and misogyny.
“This is a genuine issue,” Soma Sara, the 22-year-old Londoner who created Everyone’s Invited, explained. “Rape culture exists.”
Although the powerful testimonies are tragic and often infuriating, they remain unfiltered and unconfirmed. However, they have erupted into a nationwide investigation of school-based sexual harassment, exposing what accusers see as a toxic culture of stigma, silencing, and victim blaming that school administrators have done little or nothing to address. And it comes amid a wider reckoning in the United Kingdom in the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s abduction from a London street in early March, which sparked a national dialogue about women’s abuse.
Schools, as well as state and federal authorities, have launched investigations. The government directed an education body to perform an urgent review of safeguarding policies in public and private schools on Wednesday.
“We have a serious problem here,” Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s child protection chairman, told the BBC on Monday.
The Department of Education announced Thursday the establishment of a helpline and the investigation of criminal allegations. The Metropolitan Police in London advised victims to notify authorities.
Although the accounts omit the victims’ and suspects’ names, they do mention the schools where the students attended and if the alleged attacks occurred on or off school grounds. Several were eminent private schools that quickly made headlines.
Students at renowned schools — like Dulwich College, King’s College School, Highgate School, and Latymer Upper School — have now written open letters to school officials, describing a culture of secrecy and victim blaming. In one instance, a former student said that she was prevented from filing a sexual harassment lawsuit. Girls reported being groped in a school hallway in another.
King’s College School and Highgate School released statements stating that they have initiated independent investigations of the allegations and school policies, while Latymer Upper School stated that it has allowed students to speak directly to school officials. Although some of the schools did not respond explicitly to requests for comment, local news reports suggested that they were taking the matter seriously and, in some cases, investigating.
Sexual harassment allegations are not exclusive to prestigious prep schools. Numerous colleges, universities, and state-run schools have been identified, though subsequent testimony obtained after March 23 does not name the institutions. Ms. Sara expressed hope that the focus on such famous schools would not divert attention away from the larger issues.
“By pointing the finger at a person, a place, or a demographic, we may create the illusion that these cases are unusual or simply anomalous, when they are not,” she explained.
While the accounts are distressing, experts believe that they lead to a long overdue dialogue about cultural attitudes and practices toward gender and sexuality that have the effect of normalizing and trivializing sexual abuse, or rape culture.
Aisha K. Gill, a criminology professor at the University of Roehampton in London and an authority on violence against women and girls, said the “tsunami of leaks” underscored the need for reform and transparency, and that it was “irrational to claim that it only occurs in private schools.”
However, she emphasized that schools would investigate each allegation to decide whether a criminal act occurred and whether it was resolved.
Schools “have a duty of care in terms of their work, and that duty includes a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils,” she explained. “Clearly, something is going horribly wrong.”
Ms. Everard’s assassination became a metaphor for all the women who have been assaulted but whose cases have largely gone unnoticed. Most of the debate centered on moving the emphasis away from women’s duty to defend themselves and toward the police, organizations, and men collectively bearing the burden of ensuring protection.
Ms. Sara asked a question this month on her Everyone’s Invited Instagram account and website, which she created last year as she dealt with her own experiences of sexual harassment as a student.
She inquired as to whether others had been a victim of sexual assault during their school years or knew someone who had been. Almost every respondent indicated yes.
Although the accounts differ in nature and are anonymous and unverified, the sheer volume — over 11,500 and counting — cannot be overlooked. Ms. Sara omitted the names of the victims and the suspects when she posted the accounts, but not their classes.
“We thought that a critical area where rape culture is prevalent is in schools, and that all schools have a duty to protect their students,” Ms. Sara explained. “These years are incredibly formative.”
Many of the allegations “might not rise to the level of crime,” but were distressing nevertheless, Jess Phillips, a Labour Party legislator, told the BBC this week. She claimed that the government was responsible for gathering data on sexual harassment in schools, arguing that it had failed to act on a 2016 inquiry’s recommendation to do so.
“We need a stronger inspection regime, a rigorous investigation, and for the government to actually collect data — which they are not doing at the moment,” Ms. Phillips said.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said in a statement that the claims were “shocking and abhorrent” and must be handled accordingly.
“While the majority of schools take their safeguarding duties extremely seriously, I am committed to ensuring that the necessary services and procedures are in place throughout the education system to assist any victims of violence in coming forward,” he said.
Everybody’s Invited is in touch with government departments and the police to offer assistance to those alleging violence.
Sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults often go unreported internationally, so crime reports can only offer a partial image of the problem’s reach. However, other figures indicate that sexual harassment against school-aged girls and young women is widespread in the United Kingdom.
The Office of National Statistics in the United Kingdom published data this month showing that women and girls aged 16 to 19 were the most frequent victims of sexual harassment in England and Wales, followed by women aged 20 to 24. Additionally, the figures suggest that Black people and people of mixed racial origin were more likely to be sexually abused in England and Wales.
According to a recent study conducted by Plan International UK, a children’s charity, 58% of girls aged 14 to 21 in the United Kingdom have been subjected to public sexual harassment in their educational settings.
Ms. Sara and other feminists in the United Kingdom are not alone in their use of social media to draw attention to sexual harassment in schools. In Australia, amid a larger national debate about violence against women, Chanel Contos, 23, launched an online petition in February with thousands of student testimonies of sexual harassment.
The petition, which is currently being debated in the Australian Parliament, called for a comprehensive, early, and consent-based approach to sex education.
“The fact that two girls on opposite sides of the planet, who had never met, had the very same experience,” Ms. Contos explained in an interview.
Dr. Gill, a criminology professor in London, acknowledged that debates about rape culture in institutions — or settings where perceptions or practices about gender and sexuality normalize and trivialize sexual harassment such as abuse or rape — are not new. The feminist movement’s successive waves have drawn attention to it, she explained.
However, she noted that schools have an obligation to safeguard students, from providing safe spaces for victims of sexual assault to informing other students about their actions.
“How do they instill a sense of choice?” As Dr. Gill said. “How do they instill confidence in children? How do they help children and adolescents to form healthy relationships?”
She stressed the importance of intersectionality and consent in sex education curricula. “I assume there is now a window of opportunity for fundamental change.”
