Rape Culture & Consent Education (Pt. 3)
Written By Dahli Pestinger
edited by pat bui
I asked University High’s Literature teacher, Bridget Costelloe, this very question. “I believe it happens, I really do, but I don’t see it...not in the literature writings I grade... or the classes I teach but I think it does happen…” Students surveyed also agreed with Miss Costelloe’s statement; 40% wrote that they aren’t sure or they ‘haven’t seen it first hand’ when asked if there is a sexual assault culture at University High School. At first glance, this may look like a relatively positive outcome, but there was also the option of choosing ‘No’ on the survey... only 2 out of 24 surveyed picked ‘No’ and thought there was no sexual assault culture at Uni High. As a school with a strict Sexual Harassment Policy, teachers who proudly wear purple ribbons in support of this, students who protest to change their current consent education and no mention in articles listing schools (including many of our neighbouring ones) with a sexual assault problem, I wondered why only 8% of students believe Uni high is a safe place, away from the sexual assault culture that is so very prevalent in the rest of society.
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Bridget Costelloe described example after example of progressive ideals within Uni High. “I am continually impressed with the feminist literature analysis I receive from the boys in my classes”. However, she stood by the fact that she merely has a distorted view on youth, and expressed that she “sees them as bright and verbal students of great intelligence... yet I have no true clue on what happens behind the scenes, on social media that I never had when I was your age.” She informed me on a scene in recent years that challenged her assumptions about teenage boys. It was outside one of her classes, a ‘scuffle’ of sorts between a group of boys about the sharing of private pictures of a girl in their year. “This was the only whiff I have ever had of any sexual behaviour in my time teaching.” The boys seemed angry and the teachers were concerned that they were somehow involved in the incident of exploitation and humiliation. The teachers talked, pieced it together and discovered that in fact, the boys were standing up for the girl; contrary to their assumptions.
So why then do we have this ingrained sense of doom, of misogynistic men and the expectation that our school has a culture of sexual assault?
Here’s what I think.
Stories of male high school students displaying sexist and misogynistic behaviour have always been around, enforcing a sense of fear and expectation of these actions into other students, most importantly, other female students. Examples include a story of a Year 9 girl who got groped on the train by two Year 11 boys, and an even more disturbing story of some private male students who sang this on a tram headed to their school carnival: "I wish that all the ladies were holes in the road. If I was a dump truck I'd fill them with my load”. They sang this while women, some seven and some seventy, sat listening.
It’s the statistics that scare us, the looming danger of becoming one of the 1 in 6 that are sexually assaulted before the age of 15, or preparing for the expected as the highest sexual assault rate for women is between the ages of 15 to 19.
However, our survey of Uni High students does not reflect the statistics widely researched. 58% of students had never received sexually inappropriate comments or actions from other students and 87% had never experienced anything sexually inappropriate from teachers. One of my peers expressed that “the worst I've ever gotten was creepy stares from older men... I haven’t ever been catcalled or anything like that. I don’t expect it to be honest, I think if anything worse were to ever happen to me I’d be caught off guard.” She then asked me if I expected it to happen before I’m 19. I told her yes, absolutely as “it’s better to be prepared for the worst than to be surprised by it.”
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After that conversation, I thought back to the horror stories I had been told by the women in my life as well as the 41% of students surveyed that have faced inappropriate comments from supposed ‘peers’ while at school, an institution advertised as a safe space. I reflected on the 12% that endured it from teachers. 12%. While it may seem small, that’s 3 people out of 24 who have gone to school, expected to learn and grow and “develop into the person we want to be” as all the adults say, but instead were faced with sexual comments from their teachers, the ones expected to teach us about the world and prepare us for our future. Is that the person those three people want to be? One who is subjected to sexually inappropriate comments from teachers before even starting VCE?
So, what do you think? Do we deserve congratulations, a pat on the back even, for the majority of students not experiencing sexually inappropriate behaviour or comments while at school? I believe that’s the bare minimum of acceptability. As an inner city school surrounded by other schools with alleged sexual assaulters, we need to keep talking and protesting for its victims. It’s not enough to simply sit here and say oh no, that doesn’t happen here. We’re not like that here. It’s a safe place for students. Instead, we need to listen, seek to understand and take action for those without a voice or those scared to use theirs.
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Editor’s Note: Turns out this article has spread far and wide, right to our very own principal’s, Ms Foster, ears. Aside from thoroughly enjoying this series, she hopes that students of Uni High know they are being listened to, and that the school is making a conscious effort into improving our community. Here’s what she said.
The UHS leadership team is very keen to have students involved in improving our Consent Education. The team has been working directly with students to design a whole-school survey to understand students’ experiences, concerns and priorities. This will be implemented at the same time as the annual Student Attitudes to School Survey later in Term 3. I strongly encourage all students to participate in both surveys.
The Student Attitudes to School Survey is an evidence-based, statewide survey of all public school students each year. This is an important process: we use the results of these surveys to inform planning, programs and strategic priorities. In this survey in 2019-20, 71-75% of UHS students responded positively (‘Agree’ or ‘Strongly Agree’) to the statement “I feel safe at this school”, with the majority of remaining responses in the neutral (‘Neither Agree nor Disagree’) category. UHS performance in the overall ‘Safety at School’ category in the Attitudes to School survey is equivalent to similar schools, network and state measures. This does not mean that there is not room for improvement: this is a complex area with many factors and we are deeply committed to working with staff and students on continuing to improve these outcomes.
- Ciar Foster, Principal.
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