Bethany Hiatt: Sexual harassment by students adds to the problems faced by our teachers

Teachers — and the problems they face — are frequently in the news, from nationwide staff shortages to violence in schools.

As if they didn’t already have enough to deal with, now we learn that sexual harassment of teachers by their pupils is an increasing concern.

As The West Australian revealed on Wednesday, teachers from Bunbury Senior High School feel so strongly about the issue they put it on the agenda for their union’s State Council next week.

Their motion urges the State School Teachers’ Union to highlight the “shocking amount of sexual harassment experienced by teachers on a day-to-day basis”, and calls on the Education Department to provide an early intervention strategy.

It may not be so surprising, in an era where pornographic material can be accessed on phones with the tap of a finger, that kids sometimes make inappropriate sexual comments. But what this plea has unmasked is just how widespread the problem has become.

Appalling remarks that might once have been quietly sniggered behind a student’s hand are now uttered out loud, directly to a teacher’s face.

In some instances, teens may simply lack understanding of how inappropriate their comments might be. But in many cases, students are looking for a reaction, deliberately trying to make teachers feel vulnerable.

And it’s not just adolescent boys targeting female teachers — the union says girls also make similar comments.

Union president Pat Byrne says the issue is not confined to Bunbury SHS, or even to any particular region. And it is mostly younger, newer teachers in the firing line.

“It can be offensive comments, and in some instances, it can be threatening comments, like: ‘I’m going to rape you, Miss,” she said.

Similar issues were highlighted in Britain a year ago. The Guardian news site reported that teachers who submitted testimonies to a website that shared stories from survivors of sexual violence also complained of the “sexualised and aggressive way” students treated staff. The debate inspired by that website, Everyone’s Invited, sparked a review of British schools’ policies on sexual abuse.

“People think: ‘Oh, it’s just a bit of banter, it’s just a comment — ignore it’,” a female teacher said. “But when it’s day after day, it really begins to affect you.”

She said few women wore a skirt to work because if they leaned over a desk, a pupil would be behind them making sexual gestures.

The State Government has put millions of dollars of funding into expanding respectful relationships education in WA schools. But teaching basic respect for others is not something that should be left only to schools.

The plea for clearer strategies on sexual harassment by students is likely to be resoundingly endorsed by union delegates. And then the real work starts.