Schools Safe 4 Girls
Rochdale and disturbing allegations about Jimmy Savile show how widespread abuse and harassment of women and girls is - it happens in every town, city and community in the country and there are deeply held prejudicial attitudes that tolerate and foster abuse.
Schools have a vital role to play in helping young people develop healthy attitudes and behaviours, as well as supporting young people experiencing abuse.
We are delighted that Labour has responded to our new Schools Safe 4 Girls campaign by pledging the make Sex and Relationships Education statutory to deal with this problem.
The facts are stark:
- Sexual bullying and harassment is routine in schools and one in three 16-18 year old girls say they have been 'groped' or experienced other unwanted sexual touching at school
- One in three teenage girls has experienced sexual violence from their boyfriend
- Over 20,000 girls under 15 are at risk of female genital mutilation in England and Wales each year
- Last year there were 1468 forced marriage cases dealt with by the Forced Marriage Unit
We are calling for schools, parents, students and the government to work together to ensure that girls are safe and that work is done to tackle harmful attitudes.
- We are asking parents, students and women's groups to write to their school to ask them what they are doing to address these issues
- We want the Government to make it compulsory for schools to address these issues by making Sex and Relationships Education statutory.
Download our Schools Safe 4 Girls campaign pack here:
Introduction to the campaign:
Template letters:
Template letter to schools asking them to take action
Template letter to local authorities
Template letter to local newspaper
Factsheets and more background information:
Findings of a YouGov poll on sexual harassment in UK schools
Factsheet about VAWG prevention
Factsheet about the Public Sector Equality Duty
Factsheet about the Human Rights Act
Or email us for a hard copy of the campaign pack and we will post it to you: admin@evaw.org.uk
Blog, write, tweet, facebook about issues of concern. Join the debate!
Read Holly Dustin's article on Comment is Free about the importance of Sex and Relationships Education. Hear Holly discuss these issues on Woman's Hour with Yvette Cooper, Shadow Women's Minister.
