A recent report has uncovered what we all feared for a long time: teachers and school staff have been advising pupils across the UK to hide cases of sexual abuses in their schools.
According to Everyone’s Invited, an anonymous internet forum for victims of sexual abuse, pupils have reported various degrees of abuse in some 3,000 schools so far.
Since the beginning of its campaign, the website has received over 16,000 messages that detail cases of sexual abuse against the pupils.
Some of those messages point to a much darker reality: pupils are being encouraged to remain tight-lipped.
The website in a statement noted that while it welcomes students to come forward and share their stories, it is more concerned about the schools that are not included on the list.
“Some school heads have told their pupils not to share their testimonies with Everyone’s invited,” the statement noted.
“Why are some head teachers silencing survivors?
“Why is the reputation of institutions being prioritised over victims of rape and sexual abuse?”
The report confirms findings by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED), which said in a recent repeat that sexual abuse has become “normalized” in the UK.
Accprding to the government body, around nine in 10 girls have reported incidents of sexist name calling and receiving unwanted explicit content via messaging applications.
#OFSTED warns that children most of the times do not report harassment because it happens so frequently. Teachers are also to blame for the trend because they more often than not underestimate the scale of these problems.
OFSTED inspectors found during interviews that boys have special WhatsApp and Snapchat groups where they share “nudes” as if it is a “collection game.” This is while some girls have experienced “unwanted touching in school corridors.”
The fact that teachers and school staff are doing the exact opposite of what they are required to do with regards to such sensitive subjects begs the inevitable question that whether the abuse has a much darker side involving the school authorities themselves.
